30th Annual Producing Guild Awards Winners

Yesterday the first guild to announce winners had their awards ceremony and officially there is a new Oscar frontrunner as top PGA winner is seen as an Oscar bellwether as has matched AMPAS top award 20 times in the 29 years the award has been giving out awards.

The PGA has about 8,200 members and most are AMPAS members too so unless 2019 becomes an edition when winners do not match, like what happened when guild honored La La Land and The Big Short, Green Book could win Oscars' top award.  This is another year where film critics/journalists and industry tend to not agree but particularly this year I wish the could as yes, I root for Roma as I'm rooting for the industry to accept how much has already changed as power has been transferred from movie distributors (i.e. theaters) to audiences.  Now we choose where do we want to watch a movie and gee, we have many options, isn't?

I know the industry recognizing a film that was screened to world audiences in one day (NO awful windows system) is still a concept that do not want to accept and winning cinema top award will not change anything overnight but we know that will mark the beginning of a new era, something like what happened when TV was born when many were against the medium and not many actors wanted to work in it until a few years ago when TV programs changed radically.  Now there are even some hour-long TV shows that look/feel like very-long movies and most mini-series besides having top production values, top actors and top director are without doubt long-movies. Sigh.  Let's hope industry changes faster.

So, Green Book wins top award as well as industry and film critics favorite doc, Won't You Be My Neighbor which makes doc the top Oscar contender by far. Another Oscar top contender that has been honored by film critics and now by the producers guild is the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.  Have very little doubt that the last two movies will win AMPAS award in their respective categories.

To check winners in all categories go official site here.  Winners are in *BLUE.

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1/5/2019
Yesterday the guild announced the TV series, theatrical movies and theatrical animated movies categories nominations for the 2019 edition of their annual awards; the documentary nominations were announced last November.

The second industry group to announce their nominations show not much difference from the first (SAG) nor from what film critics have been honoring including the so-called "popular" movies that most likely could be included for AMPAS best film.  The biggest snub for me is the omission of If Beale Street Could Talk but also consider a couple of indies, Leave No Trace and Eighth Grade as snubs even when not sure if films qualify.

During the awards ceremony special honors will be given to Kevin Feige (David O Selznick Award), Amy Sherman-Palladino (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Kenya Barris (Visionary Award), Toby Emmerich (Milestone Award), and Jane Fonda (Stanley Kramer Award).

The following are the 2019 nominees

The Darryl F. Zannuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Black Panther, Producer: Kevin Feige
BlacKkKlansman, Producers: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele, and Spike Lee
Bohemian Rhapsody, Producer: Graham King
Crazy Rich Asians, Producers: Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and John Penotti
The Favourite, Producers: Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, and Yorgos Lanthimos
*Green Book, Producers: Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, and Nick Vallelonga
A Quiet Place, Producers: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller
Roma, Producers: Gabriela Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuaron
A Star is Born, Producers: Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper, and Lynette Howell Taylor
Vice, Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Kevin Messick, and Adam McKay

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Thetrical Motion Pictures
Dr. Seuss' The Grinch, Producers: Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy
Incredibles 2, Producers: John Walker and Nicole Grindle
Isle of Dogs, Producers: TBA
Ralph Breaks the Internet, Producer: Clark Spencer
*Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Producers: Avi Arad, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, and Christina Steinberg

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
The Dawn Wall
Free Solo
Hal
Into the Okavango
RBG
Three Identical Strangers
*Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Check TV categories at official site here. To check official announcement for documentary go here.  The awards ceremony will be on Saturday, January 19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.