I was of the opinion it would either be Lincoln or Silver Linings Playbook winning at the 2013 Producers Guild Awards, making it that much easier to pick one as the front-runner for Best Picture at the Oscars. Well, the producers made it even easier than that… they chose “Option C”.
Ben Affleck may have been snubbed a nomination for Best Director by the Academy, but ever since, Argo has won big at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes and now the PGA awards as it was awarded the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, giving it a clear path to winning Best Picture at the Oscars at the end of March.
Tomorrow night the Screen Actors Guild will hold the 2013 SAG Awards and while I predicted Silver Linings Playbook would take the award when I posted my thoughts on Wednesday, at this point I would change that vote to Argo in a heartbeat.
Argo is the “hip” choice this awards season. It’s both safe and easily justified. It’s the film most Academy members will be placing on either lines one, two or three on their ballots and it’s the film, it would seem, we can best expect will win Best Picture.
Certainly this poses for interesting races elsewhere as the fact Affleck is not nominated for Best Director and Argo boasts only one acting nomination for Alan Arkin (the least likely to win at that). So the Oscars will continue to be interesting, but it would see for the first time in 23 years we will have a Best Picture winner that was not nominated for Best Director. The last was Driving Miss Daisy in 1990 and before that, Grand Hotel in ’32.
It’s a strange year film fans, but it was also a great year. So let’s be happy there are a few surprises in store and plenty of good films left to discuss.
I have included the complete list of winners directly below including wins for Wreck-It Ralph for Best Animated Feature and Searching for Sugar Man in the Documentary category.
I have also updated the Oscar Overture with the win for Argo as well as my predictions for Best Picture at the Oscars. Click on the links for those updates.
The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Argo (Warner Bros.)
Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Wreck-It Ralph (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Clark Spencer
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television
“Game Change” (HBO)
Producers: Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Amy Sayres, Steven Shareshian, Danny Strong
The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
“Homeland” (Showtime)
Producers: Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Michael Cuesta, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Michael Klick, Meredith Stiehm
The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy
“Modern Family” (ABC)
Producers: Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Chris Smirnoff, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
“American Masters” (PBS)
Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television
“The Colbert Report” (Comedy Central)
Producers: Meredith Bennett, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Barry Julien, Matt Lappin, Emily Lazar, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Tom Purcell, Jon Stewart
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television
“The Amazing Race” (CBS)
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Elise Doganieri, Jonathan Littman, Bertram van Munster, Mark Vertullo
