(L-R): Daniel Durant, presenter Kristen Stewart and writer-director Sian Heder, producers Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger and Philippe Rousselet with Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur
Coda delivered a surprise win at the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards (PGA) on Saturday night (19) and made history as AppleTV+ became the first streamer to claim the guild’s top film prize heading into the final week of awards season.
Sian Heder’s family story upset favourite The Power Of The Dog at rival platform Netflix to win the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. The result follows on from Coda’s SAG ensemble award earlier in the season and boosts its best picture Oscar prospects to at least joint frontrunner alongside Jane Campion’s modern western and BAFTA and DGA winner.
Attention on the best picture Oscar race has in the last month or so coalesced around three films including Belfast from Kenneth Branagh, who along with cast member Ciaran Hinds missed the show after testing positive for Covid-19.
The timing appears to be even more propitious than usual for the winner of the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, a very strong Oscar bellwether whose top award winner, like last season’s champion Nomadland, has gone on to replicate its success at the Academy Awards on all but three occasions since 2009.
Because the show was postponed by the pandemic, this is the first time the guild handed out its awards while Academy members participate in final voting, which ends on Tuesday. In addition the PGA is the only other awards group that uses the preferential vote or ranked system to choose the recipient of its top film award.
The documentary prize went to Questlove’s Oscar frontrunner Summer Of Soul in the first film award of the night, while Encanto won the animation category and is viewed as the one to beat for the Oscar.
Heading into Saturday’s show at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles Netflix films led the way on three nods in the top category for The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up and tick, tick…Boom.
HBO’s Season 3 of Succession took the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama, while Apple scored another major win on the night as Ted Lasso took the Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy. Kate Winslet HBO crime drama Mare Of Easttown earned the David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television.
In the earlier part of the show Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, who had collected the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award with Lucasfilm founder George Lucas, expressed her support for the LGBT, female and diverse creative community.
Kennedy’s comments came after an intriguing week or two in Hollywood. Disney CEO Bob Chapek kept silent then finally spoke out over Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill which proposes to ban discussion of sexual orientation or sexual identity in lower public school grades, and it was reported late last week that a same-sex kiss had been reinstated in Pixar’s upcoming Lightyear after an extraordinary open letter from LGBTQIA+ Pixar staff took Disney to task for censoring same-sex affection in their work.
Rita Moreno, an EGOT winner with Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Grammy awards to her name, received the honourary Stanley Kramer Award from Jessica Chastain. Legendary Entertainment vice chairman of worldwide production and Dune producer Mary Parent received the David O. Selznick Award from Denis Villeneuve. Greg Berlanti received the Norman Lear Award frm Ryan Murphy, and Issa Rae collected the Visionary Award from HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys.
Film and select television winners appear below in bold:
Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Being The Ricardos
Belfast
Coda
Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Power Of The Dog
tick, tick…Boom
West Side Story
Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Encanto
Luca
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Raya And The Last Dragon
Sing 2
Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures
Ascension
The First Wave
Flee
In The Same Breath
The Rescue
Simple As Water
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Writing With Fire
TELEVISION
Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama
The Handmaid’s Tale (Season 4)
The Morning Show (Season 2)
Squid Game (Season 1)
Succession (Season 3)
Yellowstone (Season 4)
Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy
Ted Lasso (S2)
Cobra Kai (S3, S4)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (S11)
Hacks (S1)
Only Murders In The Building (S1)
David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television
Dopesick
Mare Of Easttown
The Underground Railroad
WandaVision
The White Lotus
Award for Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
8-Bit Christmas
Come From Away
Oslo
Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia
Single All The Way
Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making Of Wildflowers
Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
60 Minutes (S54)
Allen v. Farrow (S1)
The Beatles: Get Back (S1)
Queer Eye (S6)
Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy (S1).
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