PGA Nominations: No Winter's Bone

And for best Pro Golfer the nomin--- er, oh yes yes.
The Producers Guild of America. Righty-o.

Best Picture
127 Hours Danny Boyle, Christian Colson
Black Swan Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver
Inception Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
The Fighter David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg
The Kids Are All Right Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray
The King's Speech Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
The Social Network Dana Brunetti, Cean Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin
The Town Basil Iwanyk, Graham King
Toy Story 3 Darla K. Anderson
True Grit Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

The snubbee here in terms of Oscar buzz is Winter's Bone. But it's a tiny indie and maybe that's not what the PGA wanted to value? Still it's absence reminds us that the Best Picture race, is really down to those 11 films. Last year, there were only about 12 films standing before Oscar nominations were announced. Is it always going to be this simple to predict with the new widened Best Picture field. If so, sadness. Predicting should be tougher. But at least it's tough to say which of the 11 is getting the Oscar boot.

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Congratulations to The Sexy Locker !

Wow. The Hurt Locker actually pulled off the Producer's Guild Award win. Take that Avatar, biggest hit of all time (when not adjusted for inflation or inflated 3D ticket prices... let's keep perspective, media. I know that's a lot to ask). This is a bigger deal for Kathryn Bigelow's war drama than those multiple critics awards, at least where the Oscar race is concerned.


Soooo... do you think it means anything for Hollywood's big night? Or do you think Avatar will steamroll given its worldwide dominance? Or maybe those long weeks before the final votes come in (geez, we haven't reached nominations yet!) will shake things up yet further. Which film could gain a second third wind?
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From Guild to Oscar: "The Best of ... Everything?"

Oops. Forgot to point you to my weekly Oscar column at Tribeca Film. This one is on the guilds that precede Oscar. If you need a distraction from Golden Globe talk for a minute. Check it out...

"If you’re an inveterate Oscarologist and film enthusiast like me, you may have found yourself following not just the Oscar nominations themselves, but the precursor awards too. Each decade more and more organizations try to muscle in on Oscar’s territory, with varying degrees of success. None of these organizations can quite claim Oscar’s 82 years’ worth of longevity, but subsets of them are actual movie industry institutions in their own right. I’m speaking of movie guilds, the trade organizations and labor unions that account for the people that every movie requires: directors, producers, writers, actors, cinematographers, editors, etc. Most of these organizations cropped up out of necessity and opportunity in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, coinciding with the breakdown of the Golden Age studio system, which used to keep creative personnel under long-term contracts..."

Read the rest @ Tribeca Film

The Alien-Loving Producers Guild

The Producers Guild of America announced their motion picture nominations today and there’s something for everyone whether you like war films, science fiction, unimaginative triumph-of-the-spirit exercizes, comedies, contemporary dramas or toons. The award is named after Darryl F. Zanuck who himself could claim to have brought a little something for everyone to the screens over his seemingly everlasting career (all the way from the silent era to the early 70s)

the nominees
AVATAR James Cameron & Jon Landau
DISTRICT 9 Carolynne Cunningham & Peter Jackson
AN EDUCATION Finola Dwyer & Amanda Posey
THE HURT LOCKER tba
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS Lawrence Bender
INVICTUS Clint Eastwood, Rob Lorenz, Lori McCreary & Mace Neufeld
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE Lee Daniels, Gary Magness & Sarah Siegel-Magness
STAR TREK J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof
UP Jonas Rivera
UP IN THE AIR tba

The PGA has always swung more populist in their nominations than Oscar so, despite what you'll read elsewhere, don’t expect all three of their science fiction nominees to transfer to Oscar’s top ten. People are so excitable. You know they'll start saying it.

Though this guild may be making a devout effort to supress the Academy’s science fiction allergies history doesn't suggest that Oscar will budge much. Unless I've made an accounting error (possible) only 3 sci-fi films have ever been nominated for Best Picture: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial(1982) and Star Wars (1977) and A Clockwork Orange (1971). Nope... Close Encounters, Blade Runner, and 2001: A Space Odyssey (among other sci-fi classics) were passed over. Look it up! It's arguably the Academy's least favorite genre -- fantasy and even horror seem easier to find in their archives.

Even with their animated nominees the PGA tilted sci-fi embracing the otherwise shunned "9" (which hasn't been racking up the raves or the pre-season honors) in their field of five. The other nominees are expected Oscar favorites: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog and Up.
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PGA Honors Precious.

Jose here with some award news.



Continuing to establish itself as a front runner in the awards race, Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire, has been chosen by the Producers Guild of America to receive its prestigious Stanley Kramer Award for illuminating provocative social issues in an accessible and elevating fashion.

This award not only confirms the movie will be one of the ten chosen by the PGA for its Producer of the Year award, but bodes well for its chances of getting even more Oscar attention.
The Academy simply loves social issues (remember 2005?) and Kramer (who directed and produced Inherit the Wind and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner among others) was an icon in this aspect, even if the quality of the films he made didn't amount to much artistically.

Stanley's films always talked about things we wanted to ignore. He taught us so much about ourselves and made us think about our values and purpose [and] 'Precious' is truly a film that embraces this philosophy

said Kramer's widow Karen.

This statement might also help appease those who fear old, conservative Academy members will refuse to watch the movie. If their colleague Stanley would've endorsed this, they might as well give it a chance.

Previous winners of the Stanley Kramer Award include:
2008-Milk (Won 2 Oscars, nominated for Best Picture)
2007-The Great Debaters (Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture)
2006-An Inconvenient Truth (Won 2 Oscars including Best Documentary)
2005-Good Night and Good Luck (Nominated for Best Picture Oscar)
2004-Hotel Rwanda (Nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Actor)
2003-In America (Nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Actress)
2002-Antwone Fisher
2001-I Am Sam (Nominated for Best Actor Oscar)

So besides having a thing for Sean Penn and Denzel Washington, the Stanley Kramer award seems to be quite in tune with Oscar's taste huh?