Producers Guild Nominations

BEST PICTURE

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Boyhood
• Foxcatcher
• Gone Girl
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Nightcrawler
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• Big Hero 6
• The Book of Life
• The Boxtrolls
• How to Train Your Dragon 2
• The LEGO Movie

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• The Green Prince
• Life Itself
• Merchants of Doubt
• Particle Fever
• Virunga     

PGA: Docs and Televison Nominations

The Producers Guild of America announced a partial list of nominations.  The big one for Best Picture will be announced on January 5, 2015.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• The Green Prince
• Life Itself
• Merchants of Doubt
• Particle Fever
• Virunga 

NORMAN FELTON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF EPISODIC DRAMA

• Breaking Bad
• Downton Abbey
• Game of Thrones
• House of Cards
• True Detective

DANNY THOMAS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF EPISODIC COMEDY

• The Big Bang Theory
• Louie
• Modern Family
• Orange is the New Black
• Veep

PRODUCER OF NON-FICTION TELEVISION

• 30 For 30
• American Masters
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
• Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey
• Shark Tank

PRODUCER OF LIVE ENTERTAINMENT/TALK

• The Colbert Report
• Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
• Real Time with Bill Mahar
• The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

PRODUCER OF SPORTS PROGRAM

• 24/7
• Hard Knocks: Training Camp with The Atlanta Falcons
• Hard Knocks: Training Camp with The Cincinnati Bengals
• Inside: U.S. Soccer's March to Brazil
• Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

PRODUCER OF CHILDREN'S PROGRAM

• Dora the Explorer
• Sesame Street
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Toy Story of Terror
• Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts Masterclass

PRODUCER OF DIGITAL SERIES

• 30 For 30 Shorts
• Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
• Cosmos: A National Geographic Deeper Dive
• Epic Rap Battles of History
• Video Game High School Season 3              

PGA Awards

FILM
MOTION PICTURE (tie): 12 Years a Slave; Gravity 
DOCUMENTARY: We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wiki-Leaks
ANIMATED FEATURE: Frozen
STANLEY KRAMER AWARD: Fruitvale Station

For the first time in its history, the Producers Guild Association came to a tie.  Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave and Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity shared the top prize in a move that will not only surely make this years Oscar race sled into hyper-drive but also drive the pundits and obsessives into an utter state of panic.  In recent history, the PGA (which began handing out prizes in 1990) has been an accurate bellwether for the eventual Best Picture victor; the last time the group disagreed with the Academy was in 2007 when the Producers went for Little Miss Sunshine, while the Academy selected The Departed.  Since the Academy adjusted the rules and squeezed in more titles, the voting procedures for the Oscar and the PGA are nearly identical and thus a consensus merged between the two groups.  This tie thing is the kind of bat-shit wrench that will likely thrust this into being one of the most competitive and eagerly (but hopefully not bitterly) fought races in recent memory.

What does it all mean?  
Well the DGA may serve as tiebreaker and Cuarón and his technical wizardry may prevail in the end tipping the scale to Gravity, which co-lead the Oscar nominations tally shared with American Hustle.  Or perhaps McQueen, with a nod to history on its side will take the DGA and 12 Years a Slave will hold true to the all frontrunner fuss since premiering at Telluride last September.  Or, an even crazier notion, is that two will split themselves and the SAG victor American Hustle will win on consensus because all its hairstyling and actorly bravado is just so pleasant to watch.  Or, I and perhaps a few of you out there will have a incessant headache until March 2nd, over-thinking this damn thing to death.  At the very least, the 2013 awards season is legitimately interesting and there's no Argo-train effect of any kind.  And for that, we should be happy, even if its torture.

And Now Things Get Serious (PGA Nominations)

Happy New Year.  Musings and Stuff took an unexpected break for the holidays, and all the exhaustion that comes with this time of year, but it's time to start fresh as the 2013 Oscar Race is ever solidified (for better or worse) by today's announcement of the nominees of the best of the year from the Producers Guild Association of America.

The nominees are:

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• Her
• Nebraska
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Wolf of Wall Street

The PGA have been a streak with the Best Picture Oscar since No Country For Old Men's victory in 2007, so the outcome here will more than likely be our eventual king of 2013.  Some the usual suspects (Captain Phillips, American Hustle, Gravity, Nebraska, 12 Years a Slave) arrive and are safe, but the remaining line-up is a bit harder to read, prompting confusion and more questions.

Is Blue Jasmine, long ago abandoned as the Cate Blanchett-only show, now a possible Best Picture nominee?

Can Dallas Buyers Club, fresh from its inexplicable SAG Ensemble nomination, join the fray?

Are Wolf of Wall Street and Her, passionately loved (and some corners hated) auteur projects, safe?

Just how telling is that lazy nomination for Saving Mr. Banks?

And of the snubs-- neither Inside Llewyn Davis, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Fruitvale Station, August: Osage County, Prisoners or All is Lost made the cut.  Are they DOA?  Interestingly, the Weinstein Company and their typically plentiful crop of prestige films didn't make the cut this year.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE (Almost didn't feel the need to include because it's just so depressing)

• The Croods
• Despicable Me 2
• Epic
• Frozen
• Monster's University

PGA Awards--- Argo F!@# Yourself!

The Producers Guild Association of America has chosen their field for the best of 2012.  The first guild honor of the season and a potential unlocking to the Oscar race, as the PGA, awarding prizes since 1990, has a fairly strong correspondence.  In the past five years, they've matched perfectly with the eventual Best Picture winner, while sometimes choosing left honorees like Little Miss Sunshine and Moulin Rouge!.  Here are the 2012 results:

MOTION PICTURE: Argo
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Searching for Sugar Man
ANIMATED FEATURE: Wreck-It-Ralph

And the surging momentum for Argo, fresh from its Golden Globe and Critics Choice victories after that strange and mysterious Best Director snub for Ben Affleck, continues...soars perhaps.  No film has famously won the Best Picture Oscar without a matching Director nomination since Driving Miss Daisy, but statistically, with the Golden Globe, and now the PGA in the bag, Argo is taking great shape in this weird and exciting awards season.  It's worth noting that the PGA uses the same preferential balloting that the Academy uses, and a film like Argo, a great lop down the middle, is surging.  Had the PGA gone with Lincoln, a strong frontrunner despite its empty nest of Best Picture prizes, or Silver Linings Playbook, a safely presumed third, it may have added a greater degree of mystery to this years award season, however Argo seems, at least for now-- or till tomorrow evening when the Screen Actors Guild announce their winners-- the top despite its supposed weaknesses.

PGA Awards

The Producers Guild Association of America has chosen their field for the best of 2012.  The first guild honor of the season and a potential unlocking to the Oscar race, as the PGA, awarding prizes since 1990, has a fairly strong correspondence.  In the past five years, they've matched perfectly with the eventual Best Picture winner, while sometimes choosing left honorees like Little Miss Sunshine and Moulin Rouge!.  Here are the 2012 results:

MOTION PICTURE: Argo
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Searching for Sugar Man
ANIMATED FEATURE: Wreck-It-Ralph

And the surging momentum for Argo, fresh from its Golden Globe and Critics Choice victories after that strange and mysterious Best Director snub for Ben Affleck, continues...soars perhaps.  No film has famously won the Best Picture Oscar without a matching Director nomination since Driving Miss Daisy, but statistically, with the Golden Globe, and now the PGA in the bag, Argo is taking great shape in this weird and exciting awards season.  It's worth noting that the PGA uses the same preferential balloting that the Academy uses, and a film like Argo, a great lop down the middle, is surging.  Had the PGA gone with Lincoln, a strong frontrunner despite its empty nest of Best Picture prizes, or Silver Linings Playbook, a safely presumed third, it may have added a greater degree of mystery to this years award season, however Argo seems, at least for now-- or till tomorrow evening when the Screen Actors Guild announce their winners-- the top despite its supposed weaknesses.