Producers Guild of America (PGA) Preview and Predictions: Can Anything Beat Boyhood?

The Producers Guild of American decides its best in feature films, documentaries, animation and television producing tonight and The Gold Rush Gang across the board predicts that Boyhood will win the main prize quite easily. Although most of us have The Imitation Game as the only possible spoiler, we’re keeping our eye on American Sniper and it’s meteoric rise in the last month. Between scoring a PGA nod here it also snagged a nomination for director Clint Eastwood with the Directors Guild as well as tech mentions galore. Although its star, Bradley Cooper, missed out on a Screen Actors Guild nomination he did manage to score an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. With the voting period being from January 5th – January 23rd, the film could capitalize on the the surge at right time and could prove to be an upset tonight. Or, we could see something crazy like last year when there was a statistical tie between Gravity and 12 Years a Slave (the latter ended up winning the Oscar). With the preferential ballot used by the PGA it could ostensibly happen again but it seems unlikely.

In the Animated category, the Oscar snubbed The LEGO Movie faces off against Big Hero 6 and Golden Globe winner How to Train Your Dragon 2 and I’m thinking The LEGO Movie takes it. In the Documentary Feature category, the perceived Oscar frontrunner, Citizenfour, isn’t nominated so I’m looking to Life Itself (Oscar snubbed) or Virunga (Oscar nominated) to win here.

Over in Television side, Fargo should take the Longform category since True Detective isn’t competing there. That could make Drama Series a real fight. The final season of Breaking Bad seems like a surefire winner if the buzz and hype over True Detective are gone, and it seems as if that’s the case. But, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Game of Thrones triumph here either. In Comedy, Modern Family has won this award three years running and after its strong showing at the Emmys last year there doesn’t seem to be any reason why it won’t four-peat here.

FILM NOMINEES:

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

American Sniper (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Producers: Bradley Cooper, p.g.a., Clint Eastwood, p.g.a., Andrew Lazar, p.g.a., Robert Lorenz, p.g.a., Peter Morgan, p.g.a.

Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole

Boyhood (IFC Films)
Producers: Richard Linklater, p.g.a., Cathleen Sutherland, p.g.a.

Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Megan Ellison, p.g.a., Jon Kilik, p.g.a., Bennett Miller, p.g.a.

Gone Girl (20th Century Fox)
Producer: Ceán Chaffin, p.g.a.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales

The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Nora Grossman, p.g.a., Ido Ostrowsky, p.g.a., Teddy Schwarzman, p.g.a.

Nightcrawler (Open Road Films)
Producers: Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy

The Theory of Everything (Focus Features)
Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook, David Lancaster

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Big Hero 6 (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Producer: Roy Conli, p.g.a.

The Book of Life (20th Century Fox)
Producers: Brad Booker, p.g.a., Guillermo del Toro, p.g.a.

The Boxtrolls (Focus Features)
Producers: David Bleiman Ichioka, p.g.a., Travis Knight, p.g.a.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (20th Century Fox)
Producer: Bonnie Arnold, p.g.a.

The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Producer: Dan Lin

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures 

The Green Prince (Music Box Films)
Producers: John Battsek, Simon Chinn, Nadav Schirman

Life Itself (Magnolia Pictures)
Producers: Garrett Basch, Steve James, Zak Piper

Merchants of Doubt (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Robert Kenner, Melissa Robledo

Particle Fever (Abramorama/BOND 360)
Producers: David E. Kaplan, Mark A. Levinson, Andrea Miller, Carla Solomon

Virunga (Netflix)
Producers: Joanna Natasegara, Orlando von Einsiedel

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TELEVISION NOMINEES:

Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television

American Horror Story: Freak Show (FX)
Producers: Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Joseph Incaprera, Alexis Martin Woodall, Tim Minear, Ryan Murphy, Jennifer Salt, James Wong

Fargo (FX)
Producers: Adam Bernstein, John Cameron, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Michael Frislev, Noah Hawley, Warren Littlefield, Chad Oakes, Kim Todd

The Normal Heart (HBO)
Producers: Jason Blum, Dante Di Loreto, Scott Ferguson, Dede Gardner, Alexis Martin Woodall, Ryan Murphy, Brad Pitt, Mark Ruffalo

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (PBS)
Producers:  To Be Determined

Sherlock (PBS)
Producers: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Beryl Vertue, Sue Vertue

Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama

Breaking Bad (AMC)
Producers: Melissa Bernstein, Sam Catlin, Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Mark Johnson, Stewart Lyons, Michelle MacLaren, George Mastras, Diane Mercer, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett

Downton Abbey (PBS)
Producers: Julian Fellowes, Nigel Marchant, Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge

Game Of Thrones (HBO)
Producers: David Benioff, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, Chris Newman, Greg Spence, Carolyn Strauss, D.B. Weiss

House Of Cards (Netflix)
Producers: Dana Brunetti, Joshua Donen, David Fincher, David Manson, Iain Paterson, Eric Roth, Kevin Spacey, Beau Willimon

True Detective (HBO)
Producers: Richard Brown, Carol Cuddy, Steve Golin, Woody Harrelson, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Matthew McConaughey, Nic Pizzolatto, Scott Stephens

Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy

The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Producers: Faye Oshima Belyeu, Chuck Lorre, Steve Molaro, Bill Prady

Louie (FX)
Producers: Pamela Adlon, Dave Becky, M. Blair Breard, Louis C.K., Vernon Chatman, Adam Escott, Steven Wright

Modern Family (ABC)
Producers: Paul Corrigan, Megan Ganz, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Chris Smirnoff, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Sally Young, Danny Zuker

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix)
Producers: Mark A. Burley, Sara Hess, Jenji Kohan, Gary Lennon, Neri Tannenbaum, Michael Trim, Lisa I. Vinnecour

Veep (HBO)
Producers: Chris Addison, Simon Blackwell, Christopher Godsick, Armando Iannucci, Stephanie Laing, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Frank Rich, Tony Roche

Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television

The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
Producers: Meredith Bennett, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Barry Julien, Matt Lappin, Emily Lazar, Tom Purcell, Jon Stewart

Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)
Producers: David Craig, Ken Crosby, Doug DeLuca, Gary Greenberg, Erin Irwin, Jimmy Kimmel, Jill Leiderman, Molly McNearney, Tony Romero, Jason Schrift, Jennifer Sharron, Seth Weidner, Josh Weintraub

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)
Producers: Tim Carvell, John Oliver, Liz Stanton

Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO)
Producers: Scott Carter, Sheila Griffiths, Marc Gurvitz, Dean Johnsen, Bill Maher, Billy Martin, Matt Wood

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC)
Producers: Rob Crabbe, Jamie Granet Bederman, Katie Hockmeyer, Jim Juvonen, Josh Lieb, Brian McDonald, Lorne Michaels, Gavin Purcell

Outstanding Sports Program

24/7 (HBO)
Hard Knocks: Training Camp With The Atlanta Falcons (HBO)
Hard Knocks: Training Camp With The Cincinnati Bengals (HBO)
Inside: U.S. Soccer’s March To Brazil (ESPN)
Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program

Dora The Explorer (Nickelodeon)
Sesame Street (PBS)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Nickelodeon)
Toy Story OF TERROR! (ABC)
Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts Masterclass (HBO)

Outstanding Digital Series

30 For 30 Shorts
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee
COSMOS: A National Geographic Deeper Dive
Epic Rap Battles Of History
Video Game High School Season 3

26th Annual Producers Guild Awards – January 24, 2015

One of the awards season’s marquee events, the Producers Guild Awards celebrates the finest producing work of the year, and gives the Guild an opportunity to honor some of the living legends who have shaped our profession.Considered a strong prognosticator for the Best Picture Oscar®, the announcement of the Guild’s Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures is one of the most eagerly-anticipated of the season. The list of recipients of honorary awards such as the Milestone Award, the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures and the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television and the Vanguard Award read like a roster of the industry’s biggest names, including icons such as Steven Spielberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Brian Grazer, J.J. Abrams, Steven Bochco, Clint Eastwood, Sherry Lansing, Robert Evans, Roger Corman and Lorne Michaels, extending back to such legends as Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney, Billy Wilder and Louis B. Mayer. Held in January, the Producers Guild Awards is a must-attend event for the industry, and represents a unique chance for PGA members to extend their network, support their Guild, and pay tribute to the best of their profession.  The 26th Annual Producers Guild Awards will be held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.