Moonlight and Arrival emerged triumphant from the Writers Guild of America awards, with the former winning best original screenplay and the latter best adapted screenplay.
At the Academy awards Moonlight will be competing against the WGA’s other major film laureate, Arrival, which took best adapted screenplay for Eric Heisserer, whose script was based on Nebula award-winning short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang.
The WGA also gives out a number of TV writing awards, with Atlanta winning best comedy series and best new series, and The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story taking best long-form adapted programme.
A WGA award is considered a reliable predictor for Oscar results – but the fact that Moonlight will shift categories is likely to skew its bellwether potential.