'La La Land' wins PGA 2017 award

Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt performed what looked very much like a rehearsal for another awards show at Saturday’s 28th annual Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills.

The La La Land producers beat out a strong field that included Arrival, Moonlight, Fences, Manchester By The Sea and Lion to claim the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures.

Given the track record of the PGA Awards as a bellwether of Academy Awards success, Berg, Horowitz and Platt have three hands on the biggest prize of them all heading into Oscar night on February 26.

While the best picture Oscar winner and the PGA’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award winner are often one and the same, last year’s PGA champion The Big Short lost to Spotlight on Oscar night.

In other key theatrical awards, the Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures award went to Clark Spencer for Zootopia, and Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow earned the Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures prize for O.J.: Made In America.

There was joy for Stranger Things as winner of the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama. Atlanta (Season 1) took the Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy.

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (Season 1) won the David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television and there was a victory for Making Of A Murderer (Season 1) as Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television.

As previously announced, James L. Brooks received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television and Tom Rothman collected the Milestone Award.

The David O. Selznick Achievement Award went to Irwin Winkler and Megan Ellison received the Visionary Award. The film Loving earned the Stanley Kramer Award.

PGA 2017 WINNERS

(Producers listed below title)

Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
La La Land
Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Zootopia
Clark Spencer

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
O.J.: Made In America
Ezra Edelman, Caroline Waterlow

Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
Stranger Things
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Iain Paterson

Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy
Atlanta (Season 1)
Donald Glover, Dianne McGunigle, Paul Simms, Hiro Murai, Alex Orr

David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (Season 1)
Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, D.V. DeVincentis, Anthony Hemingway, Alexis Martin Woodall, John Travolta, Chip Vucelich

Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
Making A Murderer (Season 1)
Laura Ricciardi, Moira Demos

Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Season 3)
Tim Carvell, John Oliver, Liz Stanton

Outstanding Producer of Competition Television
The Voice (Season 9-11)
Audrey Morrissey, Jay Bienstock, Mark Burnett, John de Mol, Chad Hines, Lee Metzger, Kyra Thompson, Mike Yurchuk, Amanda Zucker, Carson Daly

Outstanding Sports Program
= Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (Season 22)
= VICE World Of Sports (Season 1)

Outstanding Children’s Program
Sesame Street (Season 46)

Outstanding Digital Series
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee (Season 7, Season 8)