It seems the Producers Guild and I have something in common as the 2015 Producers Guild Awards were announced this evening and it was Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s Birdman taking the the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures with producers Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole accepting.
Additionally, the Jerry Seinfeld-created web series, “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” won the Producers Guild Award for Outstanding Digital Series while “Breaking Bad” won the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama.
This definitely keeps the race for Oscar’s Best Picture open as Birdman was up against fellow Best Picture nominees American Sniper, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash and perceived front-runner Boyhood. Tomorrow evening, January 25, Birdman will have another chance to shine at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards as it’s up against Budapest, Boyhood, Imitation and Theory for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
As for the Producers Guild winner being a predictor for Oscar’s Best Picture, last year it was Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave tying with Gravity. In fact, since 2007 when No Country for Old Men won the PGA award, the PGA winner has gone in to win Best Picture, this includes No Country for Old Men (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), The Hurt Locker (2009), The King’s Speech (2010), The Artist (2011) and Argo (2012). Does this mean Birdman is now your front-runner? Eh, not quite yet, as the Oscar Overture shows, it’s not exactly dominating elsewhere (yet), but I have updated my Oscar predictions, which you can view right here.
