McDonagh wins Writers Guild award for 'In Bruges'

OSCAR WINNING director Martin McDonagh has won the top prize in the second Annual Writers Guild Awards.

He was awarded the best film script for In Bruges , which he wrote and directed and which was released to critical and commercial success earlier this year. The dark comedy stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hitmen exiled to the Belgian city of Bruges to await instructions from their boss, played by Ralph Fiennes.

The other nominees in the category were Mark O'Halloran for Garage and Mark O'Rowe for Boy A .

The awards, known as ZeBBies after actor and writer OZ Whitehead (aka Zebby), are staged by the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (IPSG) and were presented in The Sugar Club, Dublin yesterday by Senator David Norris.

O'Halloran won best television script for Georgie's Story , the third episode of the Prosperity drama four-part series shown on RTÉ1 last year. The other nominees were Marcus Fleming for The Running Mate (Episode 1) on TG4 and Graham Linehan for The IT Crowd (Series 2: Episode 1, The Work Outing ) which is shown on Channel 4.

The award for best theatre script went to Christian O'Reilly for Is This About Sex? and the best radio script was by Belfast woman Lucy Caldwell for Girl from Mars which was broadcast on BBC Radio Four earlier this year.