The Producers Guild of America announced the nominees for the 37th Annual Producers Guild Awards, setting the stage for the Oscar race for Best Picture.
The guild’s flagship award, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of a Feature Film, is widely regarded as one of the strongest predictors of Oscar success. Seventeen of the past 22 Zanuck Award winners have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, highlighting the PGA’s influence as the race enters its final stages.
This year’s PGA top category lineup represents a competitive and dynamic field of prestigious filmmakers and commercial success, with Warner Bros. dominating the lineup with three entries and sharing a fourth with a co-distributor. The candidates are:
“Bugonia” (featured feature)
Ed Guiney, pga, Andrew Lowe, pga, Yorgos Lanthimos, pga, Emma Stone, pga, Lars Knudsen, pga “F1” (Apple Original Films/Warner Bros.)
Nominated “Frankenstein” (Netflix)
Guillermo del Toro, PGA, J. Miles Dale, PGA, Scott Stuber, PGA “Hamnet” (Featured Feature)
Liza Marshall, PGA, Pippa Harris, PGA, Sam Mendes, PGA, Steven Spielberg, PGA, Nicholas Gonda, PGA “Marty Supreme” (A24)
Nominated yet “One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros.)
Adam Somner, Sarah Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson “Sentimental Value” (Neon)
Maria Ekelhofd, Andrea Berentzen Ottmar, “Sinners” (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Coogler, PGA, Zinzi Coogler, PGA, Seb Ohanian, PGA “Train Dreams” (Netflix)
Marissa McMahon, pga, teddy schwartzman, pga, william janowitz, pga, ashley shleifer, pga, michael heimler, pga “Weapons” (Warner Bros.)
Zach Creger, PGA, Miri Yoon, PGA
Warner Bros. had the expected nominations for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” both of which have increased their nomination numbers over the course of the season. The studio also scored acclaim for director Zack Creger’s genre-defying “Weapons” and was nominated for Joseph Kosinski’s “F1,” produced and financed by Apple Original Films.
Clint Bentley’s indie drama “Train Dreams” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark comedy “Bugonia” also received notable boosts in this area. Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” which lost out on the Best Actor Oscar, remains in contention, along with Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” and Chloé Zhao’s literary adaptation “Hamnet.”
Among the notable omissions was Universal Pictures’ box office blockbuster “Wicked: For Good,” which was nominated for the first film last year. “Sentimental Value” is the only non-English language film to be nominated, other than Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident.” Also missing were James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ashes, Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon and Craig Brewer’s Song San Bleu.
In animation, the PGA field saw a mix of studio sequels and bold originals, including The Bad Guys 2, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters, Zootopia 2, and anime blockbuster Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.
On the television side, prestige dramas continued to dominate. Nominations for the Norman Felton Award in the episodic drama category include “Andor,” “The Diplomat,” “The Pit,” “Pluribus,” “Severance,” and “The White Lotus.” Comedy nominees for the Danny Thomas Award include such favorites as “The Bear,” “The Hux” and “Only Murders in the Building,” along with the long-running film “South Park.”
Limited series and anthology series nominations include “Adolescent,” “Black Mirror,” “Black Rabbit,” “Dying for Sex” and “The Beast in Me,” highlighting the format’s continued strength across streaming platforms.
The guild also recognized producers of televised and streaming movies, nonfiction programming, live and variety shows, and competition series. Nominees in these categories include “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” “Mr. Scorsese,” “SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night,” “The Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and “The Traitors.”
Oscar nomination voting begins Monday, with the PGA Awards once again emerging as a key bellwether in an increasingly crowded and unpredictable awards season. The ceremony will be held on February 28th at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
