35th Producers Guild Awards (PGA): ‘Oppenheimer’ Wins Top Film Honor

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The 35th Producers Guild of America Awards have awarded Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures to Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Nolan.

With the BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics Choice and SAG Award in hand (as well as a DGA win for Nolan), Oppenheimer is the overwhelming favorite for Oscar’s Best Picture in two weeks. Since the expanded Best Picture lineup only 2012’s Argo had accomplished that level of a precursor sweep.

The ceremony was held tonight at the Fairmount Century Plaza in Los Angeles, honoring the best produced film and television of 2023.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was the winner for animated film, after securing the Annie Award and Critics Choice.

For the first time in the history of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards, two international titles have been nominated for the top PGA prize – Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Also for the first time ever since the expansion of the Oscar Best Picture lineup, both the PGA and the Academy matched up exactly.

In television winner for episodic drama was the fourth and final season of Succession and The Bear‘s second season was the winner for episodic comedy. Beef took the award for limited or anthology series.

Earlier this week, the team for Body of Mine won the PGA Innovation Award, and the team for Succession: Controlling the Narrative won for outstanding shortform program. The guild also awarded the team behind Beckham (season one) with the outstanding sports program award and the Sesame Street (season five, episode three) team with outstanding children’s program.

PGA and Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro presented the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures to Martin Scorsese, a nominee tonight for Killers of the Flower Moon, and recalls an early meeting he had with Scorsese not long after his first film Cronos had come out. “I’m sure Marty does not remember,” del Toro said. Scorsese recalled attending the Screen Producers Guild Milestone Award Dinner from March 7, 1965 where Alfred Hitchcock was receiving the Milestone Award from a dais led by James Stewart and Cary Grant. “One wants to pinch himself to be sure it isn’t being awarded posthumously,” said Hitchcock.

The David O. Selznick award highlights a producer’s outstanding body of work in motion pictures and has gone to directors like Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, and George Lucas, as well as producers like Barbara Broccoli, Mary Parent, Brian Grazer, and Kathleen Kennedy.

The Norman Lear Award went to iconic producer Gail Berman, former FOX president of entertainment under the era of American Idol and Malcolm in the Middle and behind CW hits like Roswell and Angel. Berman was introduced by Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of one of Berman’s key productions, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “When I tell you that not a single person on this Earth wanted to buy this television show I mean not a single person on this Earth wanted to buy this television show,” she said in her speech, regarding Buffy.

Ryan Coogler presented MACRO CEO Charles D. King with the Milestone Award. King has produced such films as Sorry to Bother You, Mudbound, Fences and received a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Judas and the Black Messiah. His documentary series Dear Mama won the Spirit Award earlier today for Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards.

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

• American Fiction (Amazon MGM) – Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, Producers
• Anatomy of a Fall (NEON) – Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, Producers
• Barbie (Warner Bros.) – David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, Producers
• The Holdovers (Focus Features) – Mark Johnson, Producer
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films) – Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, Producers
• Maestro (Netflix) – Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
• Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures) – Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, Producers – WINNER
• Past Lives (A24) – David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, Producers
• Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures) – Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, Producers
• The Zone of Interest (A24) – James Wilson, Producer

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

• The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS)
• Elemental (Pixar)
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures) – WINNER
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Illumination/Universal Pictures)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount Pictures)

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

• 20 Days in Mariupol
• American Symphony – WINNER
• Beyond Utopia
• The Disappearance of Shere Hite
• The Mother of All Lies
• Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
• Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama

• The Crown (Netflix)
• The Diplomat (Netflix)
• The Last of Us (HBO)
• The Morning Show (AppleTV+)
• Succession (HBO) – WINNER

Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy

• Barry (HBO)
• The Bear (FX) – WINNER
• Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)
• Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
• Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)

David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television

• All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix)
• Beef (Netflix) – WINNER
• Daisy Jones and the Six (Prime Video)
• Fargo (FX)
• Lessons in Chemistry (AppleTV+)

Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures

• Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (Netflix) – WINNER
• Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie (Paramount+)
• Quiz Lady (Hulu)
• Reality (Max)
• Red, White & Royal Blue (Prime Video)

Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
• The 1619 Project (Hulu)
• Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (Max)
• Being Mary Tyler Moore (Max)
• Welcome to Wrexham (FX) – WINNER

Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television

• Carol Burnett: 90 Years Of Laughter + Love (NBC)
• Chris Rock: Selective Outrage (Netflix)
• Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer (Netflix)
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – WINNER
• Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television

• The Amazing Race (CBS)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV) – WINNER
• Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix)
• Top Chef (Bravo)
• The Voice (NBC)

Previously announced winners:

The PGA Innovation Award

• Body of Mine (Kost) – WINNER
• The Eye and I (EDDA)
• JFK Memento (TARGO)
• Letters From Drancy (East City Films)
• MLK: Now Is the Time (TIME Studios)
• Ocean of Light: Dolphins VR (Meta Quest)
• Our Ocean Our Future (Hidden Worlds Entertainment)
• Out of Scale (A Kurzgesagt Adventure)
• Reimagined (Very Cavaliere Productions)
• Space Explorers: Blue Marble Trilogy (Felix & Paul Studios)
• Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway (Aardman)
• The World’s Largest Tailgate (Kansas City Chiefs)

Outstanding Sports Program

• 100 Foot Wave
• Beckham – WINNER
• Formula 1: Drive to Survive
• Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets
• Shaun White: The Last Run

Outstanding Children’s Program

• Goosebumps
• Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai
• Sesame Street – WINNER
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch
• The Velveteen Rabbit

Outstanding Short-Form Program

• Carpool Karaoke: The Series
• I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
• The Last of Us: Inside the Episode
• Only Murders in the Building: One Killer Question
• Succession: Controlling the Narrative – WINNER