The Writers Guild of America announced its awards giving "The Big Short" and "Spotlight" the writing awards.

The WGA is an important award for the Academy Awards because many WGA winners walk home with the Oscar. This year the winners are looking to repeat at the Oscars as they are the two big front-runners for Best Picture.

"The Big Short" walked home with the Best Adapted screenplay award beating out Oscar nominees "Carol" and "The Martian." It also beat out "Steve Jobs" and "Trumbo," which are not nominated for the writing Oscar. Best Picture nominees "Room" and "Brooklyn" are nominated at the Oscars instead but don't seem to carry the same weight to win the category.

With the WGA win "The Big Short" is one step closer to winning the Best Picture Oscar as it already won the Producers Guild of America and also won the EDDIE award for editing. While it did not win the SAG or the directors Guild of America, the PGA uses the same voting system as the Academy making the PGA more precedence.

Meanwhile "Spotlight" won the Best Original Screenplay award taking out Oscar nominees "Straight Outta Compton" and "Bridge of Spies." It also beat out WGA nominees "Sicario" and "Trainwreck." The later films were replaced by "Ex Machina" and "Inside Out" at the Academy Awards. However, like in the Adapted Screenplay race "Spotlight" is likely to repeat at the Oscars.

Like "The Big Short," "Spotlight" won its second guild of the year. The film has already won the SAG award for Best Ensemble. That award is always important because it defined the 2005 race." Even though "Brokeback Mountain" won the PGA, WGA, and the DGA, "Crash" won the SAG, predictingits eventual Oscar win.

However, "Spotlight" has not been particularly endorsed by the Guilds. The film was not nominated for the EDDIE, which has become one of the most important guilds. No Best Picture has ever won the Oscar without an EDDIE nomination. Even last year "Birdman" was nominated for the EDDIE award. "Birdman" did not get nominated for Best Editing at the Oscars but the EDDIE was a defining award.

What the WGA made clear was that this race is now between "Spotlight" and "The Big Short." Which film will win will now be the Academy's choice.

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