2023 PGA Awards Nominations: Four Go-Ahead — and Two Egregious Misses

January 12, 2023

And two films directed by women did not make it: all ten nominees are directed by men.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced the nominations in both the motion picture and television categories for the 34th annual Producers Guild Awards, which will take place on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

As previously announced, the Producers Guild will also use the February ceremony to present special awards to high-powered producers and executives who have left an undeniable mark on the industry. This year’s honorees include Tom Cruise (David O. Selznick Award), Mindy Kaling (Norman Lear Award), Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy (Milestone Award). “Till” receives the Stanley Kramer Award sponsored by Delta Air Lines.

After strong showings at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominations, the PGA Awards film nominations show that three films will continue to drive Oscar voting on Jan. 12: Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once ” and Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” as expected, made the Producers Guild of America’s list of ten films vying for the night’s top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of a Theatrical Motion Picture.

After a weaker showing at the Golden Globe and SAG Awards nominations, three motion pictures, all sequels: James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” (Disney), Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Disney), and the DGA -nominated Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount). Assuming all three make it into the Best Picture Oscar nominations on the morning of January 24th, there will be plenty of mainstream films to cheer for until Oscar night on March 12th.

Likewise, Netflix is happy that Rian Johnson’s popular sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” not only played well in theaters during the Thanksgiving holiday week, but also did well on the platform (which didn’t win a Globe or SAG nod), surpassed the original performance with a PGA nod. Although it was once thought to be the streaming service’s prime chance for a best picture nomination, due to its glowing reception at last fall’s AFI Fest.“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” was the other front-runner in the PGA Awards’ animation category with “Turning Red,” dark horse “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” and latecomer “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” from Dreamworks. The primary contender for animation. Netflix is probably currently putting “Glass Onion” in its tenth BP slot with “Wakanda Forever.”

And on goes the top-grossing original film of the year: Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” (Warner Bros., $282 million worldwide), starring Globe winner and SAG nominee Austin Butler, which received neither a SAG Ensemble spot nor DGA nomination in the film. Luhrmann. But with the support of the craftsman, producer and actor, it can easily earn a place in the Best Picture competition.

On the feature film side, it was no surprise that the heady “TÁR” (Focus Features), featuring high-profile Globe Award winner and SAG nominee Cate Blanchett, was among the PGA voters. But Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” (A24, $8.6 million domestic) may get more than expected support outside of the hair and makeup and acting categories, where Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau are strong contenders.

PGA voters tend to be more male, white and majority than the Academy. This could be due to the shocking omission of two films in organizing women: Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” which starred the SAG Ensemble but did not receive an acting nomination at SAG, and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,” which received a SAG lead actress nomination only for Viola Davis. None of them received a DGA nomination.

It’s a sign of weakness for both films, even though Academy voters are younger, more international and diverse. Yet the statistics are still damning: After all the inclusiveness efforts since 2015, Oscar voters 66 percent are male and 81 percent are white.

Are these films being penalized because they are fervently feminist or because they are at the end of the alphabet? The Academy’s portal is surprisingly organized alphabetically. This favors “Banshees of Inisherin” over anything starting with W. “Women Talking” is in the Oscar-friendly drama category, while “The Woman King” is a period action epic about African warrior women, comparable to Oscar winners. Gladiator’ or ‘Braveheart’.

Also, no foreign language films made it into the PGA’s top ten. In 2019, ‘Parasite’, which eventually won the Academy Award for Best Picture, was nominated, while ‘1917’ won.

While the guild’s nominations are often seen as an important bellwether for which films are nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, as the guild has selected 23 of the last 33 Best Picture winners (including last year’s “CODA”), the 10 PGA candidates do. it does not always match the list of the best picture (there are guaranteed to be 10 candidates this year as well). In 2022, the Guild nominated “Tick Tick Boom” and “Being the Ricardos,” which did not make the final category at the Oscars, but beat out “Nightmare Alley” (fewer than 900 a vote is required to enter BP). Despite all this, the Oscar winner is almost always a PGA candidate.

Nominees for theatrical films:

Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

“Avatar: The Path of Water”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
“Elvis”
“Everything everywhere at once”
“The Fablemen”
“Garlic: The Mystery of the Knives”
“TAR”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
“The Whale”

Award for the outstanding producer of animated theatrical films

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
“Marcel the Shell with shoes”
“Minions: The Rise of Gru”
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”
“Turns Red”

The following documentary nominees were previously announced in December. Since then, all but “Nothing Compares” have been included in the 95th Academy Awards list. With Laura Poitras’ critically acclaimed “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” not making it to the awards show, the PGA Awards could set the stage for the alleged contender for best documentary feature, “All That Breathes,” to advance. Although the other contenders are well-positioned for Oscar nominations, and winning the PGA Awards could garner more attention from the overlapping Academy members before the final Oscar voting opens.

Award for the outstanding producer of a documentary film

“Everything That Breathes”
“Descendant”
“Fire of Love”
“Navalny”
“Nothing compares”
“Retrograde”
“The area”

When it comes to PGA Awards TV nominations, the Producers Guild is focusing mainly on last year’s Emmy-nominated titles, from the final season of “Ozark” to newcomer favorites like “Abbott Elementary” and “Severance” to a flood of limited numbers. . series that aired last spring, such as “The Dropout” and “Pam & Tommy.”

Still, a look at the list of nominees also gives good insight into what new TV shows might break into the Emmy race this fall, and what series have fallen out of favor. For example, “The White Lotus” here in the drama category and with the recently announced SAG awards could help push Paramount Network megahit “Yellowstone” back into the awards season shadows after a brief breakthrough with a guild nomination last year. , and then a total bummer at the 2022 Emmys.

Disney+’s series “Andor” has become the latest Star Wars project to receive numerous accolades. Drama-nominated “The Mandalorian” was nominated for Drama during its extended hiatus, and the Tony Gilroy-led project was also one of the leaders in the just-announced 2023 WGA Awards nominations. Meanwhile, blockbuster fantasy series like HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power” don’t seem to be getting the same overwhelming embrace from awards shows that the groundbreaking ” Game of Thrones”. got

Most anticipated are newcomers to the Comedy and Limited Series, which shows that “The Bear” is the hottest new comedy, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is the most notable new limited series and “Only Murders in the Building” will have staying power despite a less hectic Season 2. The PGA Awards contrasted with “Obi-Wan Kenobi” being nominated in the Limited Series category, while the other awards were more often given to Apple TV+’s “Black Bird” or Hulu’s “Fleishman is Trouble.”

Although often overlooked, this year’s PGA Awards TV Movie nominees are of particular interest. Last year’s nominees had zero crossover with last fall’s Emmys, and the show’s nominees who were eligible for this year’s PGA Awards also didn’t make it, but Roku Channel’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” entry is another indicator that it is an Emmy favorite. While it’s unclear whether they’ll be submitted given the gray area they occupy as streaming movies, Hulu’s “Fire Island” and Disney+’s “Hocus Pocus 2,” which is nominated for a PGA Award, are the two celebrated 2022 entries. put the film on even more tracks. 2023 awards.

Voting for theatrical motion pictures, animated films, documentaries, televised series/specials, or televised films closes on February 17, 2023; Final voting for children’s, short-form and sports programs closes on February 10, 2023. Winners in these categories will be announced at the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards on February 25, 2023.

Candidates for television:

Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama