Charlie Kaufman, writer of Writers Guild Award- and Oscar-winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is set to receive the Writers Guild of America West’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, the WGAW announced on 8 February.
The 64-year-old writer, producer, director, and author’s career began in the early 1990s with the sitcom Get a Life and worked on comedy and TV sketches before his transition to film projects. He garnered nominations from the Writers Guild Award, Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards for penning the screenplay of Being John Malkovich, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for best first screenplay.
For the Spike Jonze-directed film Adaptation, which starred Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper, Kaufman earned his second Writers Guild and Academy Award nominations.
Kaufman secured his Oscar win for best original screenplay with the 2004 Michel Gondry film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
Kaufman’s other film credits include Human Nature; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind; Synecdoche, New York; and Anomalisa. In 2020, he published his first novel, Antkind.
Being John Malkovich is listed 74th on the WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of All Time, while Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind both appear on the WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century.
According to Hollywood Reporter, this lifetime achievement award is presented to members who have “advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter.”
Previous recipients of the Laurel Award include Nancy Meyers, James L. Brooks, Elaine May, Oliver Stone, Harold Ramis, Lawrence Kasdan, Eric Roth and Robert Towne, among others.