New clarity on awards season
The nominations for the Producers Guild Awards tidy up the path to the Oscars.
An awards season that has been thrown into confusion by the COVID-19 pandemic inched toward resolution Monday with the announcement of the Producers Guild of America nominations. The Producers Guild Awards are considered a reliable bellwether for eventual Oscar nominations and wins; since its inception, the PGA has predicted 21 of the past 31 winners of the best picture Oscar.
Though the widespread shutdown of movie theaters last year took a number of potential awards contenders out of the running, the PGA’s 10 best picture nominees span a wide range in terms of genre, scale and subject matter, including the comedy sequel “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and more intimate fare like director Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which recently won the Golden Globe for best picture in the drama category, and Lee Isaac Chung’s portrait of a Korean immigrant family, “Minari.”
Among the best picture nominees, three were directed by women: “Nomadland,” Regina King’s “One Night in Miami ...” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman.” Coming in the wake of widespread criticism of the lack of Black-led films among the Globes nominees for best picture, the PGA nominations include four films featuring ensemble casts led by people of color, with “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” joining the aforementioned “One Night in Miami ...” and “Minari.”
The additional nominees in the theatrical motion picture category are “Mank,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
Among the prominent films in the mix this awards season that failed to make the cut were director Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” the Anthony Hopkins drama “The Father” and one of the few major studio films vying for contention this year: director Paul Greengrass’ western, “News of the World,” released by Universal.
Not surprisingly given the closure of movie theaters, streaming companies made a strong showing in the nominations, with six of the 10 nominations going to films released by Netflix (“Ma Rainey,” “Mank,” “Trial”) and Amazon Studios (“Borat,” “Miami,” “Metal”).
The five contenders for animated theatrical film are “The Croods: A New Age,” “Onward,” “Over the Moon,” “Soul” and “Wolfwalkers.”
On the television side, newcomers “The Flight Attendant” and “Ted Lasso” will vie for comedy series against “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “What We Do in the Shadows” and the Emmywinning final season of “Schitt’s Creek.” Among drama series, the first season of “Bridgerton” is up against veterans “Better Call Saul,” “The Crown,” “The Mandalorian” and “Ozark.”
Limited series contenders are “I May Destroy You,” “Normal People,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” “The Undoing” and “Unorthodox.”
The Producers Guild Awards will be handed out in a virtual ceremony on March 24, one month before the Academy Awards, which are set for April 25.