The 2015 PGA Awards announced!

The 26th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards were held last night in Los Angeles and it's safe to say that the night's big winner has shaken up the Oscar race.  The PGA Awards are usually a good indicator of who goes on to win the Best Picture Oscar.  Yesterday, it was mostly a given that Boyhood was that frontrunner.  But instead, the award honorees last night in all three film categories proved that predicting the Oscars is going to be no easy task. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was awarded the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures and now goes in the favorite for the Screen Actors Guild Awards being held today. The animated feature, The LEGO Movie, and the documentary on beloved film critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself, both snubbed by the Academy Awards, were recognized in their respective categories. Both films, lauded all last year, are deserved winners.  But what does this now mean for the best film?  It's a race now as Birdman and Boyhood will battle it out for best picture on February 22, 2015 at the Oscars.


The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Producer: Dan Lin, p.g.a.

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:
 Life Itself (Magnolia Pictures)

Producers: Garrett Basch, Steve James, Zak Piper

2014 Producers Guild of America Award Winners!

(Photo: USA Today)

A day after the Screen Guild Awards and the big American Hustle win for best ensemble, it's the turn of the Producers Guild of America Awards to give out the big awards. Everyone's eyes were on the main award looking to see if American Hustle would repeat its win from the previous night. Instead, the PGAs threw up a doozy in the race for the Oscars.

For the first time in its history, there was a genuine, honest-to-God tie in a race already to close to call.  Say what? The lucky and relieved recipients of that tie happened to be Gravity and 12 Years a Slave.  The other big winners of the night included We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks for best documentary and Frozen for best animated feature.

Folks, as famed detective Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the BBC series Sherlock would say, "The game is on!" Have a look at the list of the feature film winners below:

Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures (TIE):
Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Producers: Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman
&
12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures:
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
Frozen (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Peter Del Vecho

25th Annual Producers Guild Awards Nominees Announced!

The 25th annual Producers Guild Awards were announced yesterday selecting their top ten films of 2013. As usual, there were surprises and shocks in the announcement as several shoo-ins were left out (Lee Daniels' The Butler, August: Osage County) and some little films that could made the list (Dallas Buyers Club, Blue Jasmine). Meanwhile, in the animated feature category, the wealth was spread out as all the major studios were represented.

Here's a look at the full list of nominees:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:


American Hustle (Columbia Pictures)

Producers: Megan Ellison, Jon Gordon, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle

Blue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum


Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures)

Producers: Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin


Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features)

Producers: Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter


Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Producers: Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman


Her (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Producers: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay


Nebraska (Paramount Pictures)

Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa


Saving Mr. Banks (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Producers: Ian Collie, Alison Owen, Philip Steuer


12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Producers: Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner


Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures)
Producers: Riza Aziz, Emma Koskoff, Joey McFarland



The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:


The Croods (DreamWorks Animation)

Producers: Kristine Belson, Jane Hartwell


Despicable Me 2 (Universal Pictures)

Producers: Janet Healy, Chris Meledandri


Epic (Twentieth Century Fox)

Producers: Jerry Davis, Lori Forte


Frozen (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Producer: Peter Del Vecho


Monsters University (Pixar Animation)

Producer: Kori Rae

Argo wins the PGA!

After the Toronto International Film Festival, Roger Ebert wrote Argo will be the winner of the Best Picture Oscar and now with four weeks to go until D-Day, it's suddenly coming up all roses for Argo.  Winner of the last three big awards, the Critics' Choice, the Golden Globes and now the Producers Guild, welcome to frontrunner status, Argo, you've officially galloped ahead of Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty.  Congratulations to Wreck-It Ralph for winning Best Animated Film, Walt Disney Studios is back to regaining its name as the leader in animation and to Searching for Sugar Man which is now a good favorite going into the Oscar race.

Here are the film winners from The Producers Guild of America:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

"Argo” (Warner Bros.)
Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

"Wreck-It Ralph” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Clark Spencer

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
"Searching For Sugar Man" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Producers Guild of America Nominations 2013!

The Producers Guild of America have announced their very awaited list of the outstanding films of the past year.  And that too one day earlier, just when the Oscar ballots have an extra day.  How very coincidental! 

The list does contains some surprises with the inclusion of Skyfall which very likely took The Dark Knight Rises' place.  Someday it will be remembered as one of the most underappreciated comic book trilogies.  It showed up on so many critics' lists and best of 2012 but yet again, no awards love.  I will stop being bitter about this soon, I promise.  The rest of the films are expected, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty and Les Miserables.  I'm so pleased to see the Little Film that Could, Beasts of the Southern Wild make the list.  It's too early to guess the winner now as the frontrunner status for most movies changes week to week.

Meanwhile, good on Walt Disney Studios with a huge comeback in animation with three producing credits.  It really has the lead and the buzz going into the Oscar race as well.  The awards will be announced on January 26, 2013 nearly a month before the Oscars with special awards to the Weinstein brothers, Harvey and Bob, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner from Working Title, JJ Abrams and Russell Simmons.

Here are the film nominees from The Producers Guild of America:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
"Argo” (Warner Bros.)
Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov

"Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn

"Django Unchained” (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, Stacey Sher

"Les Misérables” (Universal Pictures)
Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh

"Life of Pi” (Fox 2000 Pictures)
Producers: Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark

"Lincoln” (Touchstone Pictures)
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

"Moonrise Kingdom” (Focus Features)
Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales

"Silver Linings Playbook” (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon

"Skyfall” (MGM/Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson

"Zero Dark Thirty” (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

"Brave” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Katherine Sarafian

"Frankenweenie” (Walt Disney Pictures)
Producers: Allison Abbate, Tim Burton

"ParaNorman” (Focus Features)
Producers: Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner

"Rise of the Guardians” (Paramount Pictures)
Producers: Nancy Bernstein, Christina Steinberg

"Wreck-It Ralph” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Clark Spencer

2012 PGA Winners

The winners of the 2012 Producers Guild Awards have been announced and they are:

Best Feature Film

The Artist

Best Animated Film

The Adventures of Tintin

Best Documentary Film

Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

Looking like The Artist will most likely repeat for this success for the Oscars as well.  Steven Spielberg also gets a big win for The Adventures of Tintin although I do think Rango deserved it more.  Will it have a shot at the Oscars? We'll have to wait and see.  The nominations get announced this Tuesday.  

Producer's Guild Nominations for 2011

The Producer's Guild Awards nominations were announced yesterday and this could very likely be the preview of what's to come for the Oscars.  However, a few of the major films like The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close were left out and Bridesmaids and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I'm especially surprised to see the latter through given the dismal box-office run.  I'm still disappointed with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 not making it as well despite being leading the box-office this year and topping most critics' lists.  This doesn't bode well for the Oscars.  You can't win them all, can you?

Best Picture

The Artist

Bridesmaids

The Descendants

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Help

The Ides of March

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

War Horse

Best Animated Film

The Adventures of Tintin

Cars 2

Kung Fu Panda 2

Puss in Boots

Rango