Nominations For The 27th Annual Producers Guild Of America Awards

The nominations for The 27th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards have just been announced, and while there aren’t that many surprises included, there’s plenty of disappointment to be found among the final ten nominees for their top prize, The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures (their equivalent of Best Picture).

Let’s start off with the positives. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s gorgeously-made and compelling epic The Revenant has been included, as most believed it would be. It’s a tough film for some to sit through, but is ultimately a very rewarding experience to those who appreciate everything that went into it. Also, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, a small sci-fi that many thought wouldn’t get much consideration, has made the cut, as has Sir Ridley Scott’s blockbuster The Martian.

Looking at the rest of the nominees, we have films that range from extremely disappointing (Brooklyn) to not terrible, but not particularly impressive (Spotlight, The Big Short, and Mad Max: Fury Road) to films that were good, but not great (Bridge of Spies, Sicario, and Straight Outta Compton). Additionally, as a kind of side note, there were many that were hoping that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would make an appearance here as well, but it too was excluded.

Meanwhile, a number of great films were left off the list that could have easily replaced many of these nominees, including Inside Out (nominated for Animated Film, but not for the top award), Steve Jobs, The Hateful Eight, and Trumbo.

As most of you know, the winner of the PGA’s top honor and the Academy’s Best Picture tend to match most of the time (19 out of 26, including the last eight years in a row), so it looks like we finally have the playing field narrowed down to the films we should be focusing in on, three of which also earned nominations for SAG’s Best Cast award (Spotlight, The Big Short, and Straight Outta Compton), but only one of which made the cutoff in the Editors’ Guild nominees yesterday (The Big Short).

Looking at the critics’ awards this season, you’d think that Spotlight seems to have this all wrapped up, but its snub for editing, and the fact that Tom McCarthy (the film’s director) has been losing most awards to Mad Max‘s George Miller, are certainly not helping it. We could have another split year (Picture/Director), but at the moment, it looks like Spotlight is only in the lead for Picture and Original Screenplay, meaning something else would have to swing its way come Oscar time.

Mad Max: Fury Road has been winning a few Best Picture awards as well, but it has not been popular at all when it comes to writing, meaning for it to go all the way, it would have to pull off a Braveheart (no Best Cast nod)/Titanic (no Screenplay nod) victory, which is a longshot at best. So perhaps from what we’ve seen from the major guilds so far, we should be looking at The Big Short to lead the way, which, despite not being that good of a film, has hit all the major nominations so far (PGA, SAG, and ACE).

We’ll just have to wait and see how things fall out on January 23rd, when we’ll be live-blogging the results of the PGA awards. Who knows, perhaps we’ll have another big shocker like we did last year when Birdman surprised everyone by defeating the juggernaut Boyhood. Coming up tomorrow are the Writers Guild of America nominations, so be sure to check back to see what makes the cut.

In the meantime, please see below for a complete list of the PGA nominees:

Theatrical Motion Picture nominees

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

The Big Short
Producers: Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner

Bridge of Spies
Producers: Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, Kristie Macosko Krieger

Brooklyn
Producers: Finola Dwyer & Amanda Posey

Ex Machina
This film is in the process of being vetted for producer eligibility

Mad Max: Fury Road
Producers: Doug Mitchell & George Miller

The Martian
Producers: Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Mark Huffam

The Revenant
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Keith Redmon

Sicario
Producers: Basil Iwanyk, Edward L. McDonnell, Molly Smith

Spotlight
Producers: Michael Sugar & Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Blye Pagon Faust

Straight Outta Compton
Producers: Ice Cube & Matt Alvarez, F. Gary Gray, Dr. Dre, Scott Bernstein

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:

Anomalisa
Producers: Rosa Tran, Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman

The Good Dinosaur
Producer: Denise Ream

Inside Out
Producer: Jonas Rivera

Minions
Producers: Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy

The Peanuts Movie
Producers: Craig Schulz, Michael J. Travers

The television nominees are:

The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:
*The Long-Form Television category encompasses both movies of the week and miniseries.

American Crime (Season 1)
This show is in the process of being vetted for producer eligibility

American Horror Story: Hotel (Season 5)
Producers: Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Brad Buecker, Tim Minear, Jennifer Salt, James Wong, Alexis Martin Woodall, Robert M. Williams Jr.

Fargo (Season 2)
Producers: Noah Hawley, John Cameron, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Warren Littlefield, Kim Todd

True Detective (Season 2)
Producers: Nic Pizzolatto, Scott Stephens, Steve Golin, Aida Rodgers

A Very Murray Christmas
This show is in the process of being vetted for producer eligibility

Outstanding Sports Program

Back on Board: Greg Louganis

E:60

Ø Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans

Ø Kareem: Minority of One

Ø Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

The Award for Outstanding Digital Series:
Ø 30 for 30 Shorts

Ø Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Ø Epic Rap Battles of History

Ø Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Double Agent

Ø This American Life Presents: Videos 4 U

The Producers Guild of America previously announced the Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture, Television Series and Non-Fiction Television Nominations.

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:

Ø Amy

Producer: James Gay-Rees

Ø The Hunting Ground

Producer: Amy Ziering

Ø The Look of Silence

Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen

Ø Meru

Producers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

Ø Something Better to Come

Producers: Sigrid Dyekjær, Hanna Polak

The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama:

Ø Better Call Saul (Season 1)

Producers: Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Melissa Bernstein, Mark Johnson, Stewart A. Lyons, Thomas Schnauz, Gennifer Hutchison, Nina Jack, Diane Mercer, Bob Odenkirk

Ø Game of Thrones (Season 5)

Producers: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, Carolyn Strauss, Bryan Cogman, Lisa McAtackney, Chris Newman, Greg Spence

Ø Homeland (Season 4)

Producers: Alex Gansa, Alexander Cary, Lesli Linka Glatter, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Meredith Stiehm, Patrick Harbinson, Michael Klick, Claire Danes, Lauren White

Ø House of Cards (Season 3)

Producers: Beau Willimon, Dana Brunetti, John David Coles, Josh Donen, David Fincher, Eric Roth, Kevin Spacey, John Mankiewicz, Robert Zotnowski, Karen Moore

Ø Mad Men (Season 7B)

Producers: Matthew Weiner, Scott Hornbacher, Janet Leahy, Semi Chellas, Erin Levy, Jon Hamm, Blake McCormick, Tom Smuts

The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy:

Ø Inside Amy Schumer (Season 3)

This show is in the process of being vetted for producer eligibility.

Ø Modern Family (Season 6)

Producers: Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Jeff Morton, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Danny Zuker, Vali Chandrasekaran, Megan Ganz, Elaine Ko, Kenny Schwartz, Chuck Tatham, Rick Wiener, Chris Smirnoff, Sally Young

Ø Silicon Valley (Season 2)

Producers: Mike Judge, Alec Berg, Jim Kleverweis, Clay Tarver, Dan O’Keefe, Michael Rotenberg, Tom Lassally

Ø Transparent (Season 1)

Producers: Jill Soloway, Andrea Sperling, Victor Hsu, Nisha Ganatra, Rick Rosenthal, Bridget Bedard

Ø Veep (Season 4)

Producers: Armando Iannucci, Chris Addison, Simon Blackwell, Christopher Godsick, Stephanie Laing, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Frank Rich, Tony Roche, Kevin Cecil, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Ian Martin, Georgia Pritchett, David Quantick, Andy Riley, Will Smith, Bill Hill

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television:

Ø 30 for 30 (Season 6)

Producers: Connor Schell, John Dahl, Bill Simmons, Erin Leyden, Andrew Billman, Marquis Daisy, Libby Geist

Ø Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (Season 3)

Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig

Ø The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Season 1)

Producers: Marc Smerling, Andrew Jarecki, Jason Blum

Ø Shark Tank (Season 6)

Producers: Mark Burnett, Clay Newbill, Yun Lingner, Max Swedlow, Jim Roush, Brandon Wallace, Becky Blitz, Laura Roush, Shaun Polakow, Phil Gurin

Ø Vice (Season 3)

Producers: BJ Levin, Bill Maher, Eddy Moretti, Shane Smith, Jonah Kaplan, Tim Clancy, Ben Anderson, Shawn Killebrew

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television:

Ø The Amazing Race (Seasons 25 and 26)

Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Elise Doganieri, Mark Vertullo

Ø Dancing with the Stars (Seasons 19 and 20)

Producers: Rob Wade, Ashley Edens-Shaffer, Joe Sungkur

Ø Project Runway (Season 13)

Producers: Jonathan Murray, Sara Rea, Desiree Gruber, Jane Cha, Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Teri Weideman

Ø Top Chef (Season 12)

Producers: Daniel Cutforth, Tom Colicchio, Chaz Gray, Casey Kriley, Padma Lakshmi, Jane Lipsitz, Doneen Arquines, Erica Ross

Ø The Voice (Seasons 7 and 8)

Producers: Audrey Morrissey, Mark Burnett, John de Mol, Marc Jansen, Lee Metzger, Chad Hines, Jim Roush, Kyra Thompson, Mike Yurchuk, Amanda Zucker, Carson Daly

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television:

Ø The Colbert Report (Season 11)

Producers: Stephen T. Colbert, Tom Purcell, Jon Stewart, Meredith Bennett, Barry Julien, Emily Lazar, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Paul Dinello, Matt Lappin

Ø Key & Peele (Season 4)

This show is in the process of being vetted for producer eligibility.

Ø Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Season 2)

Producers: Tim Carvell, John Oliver, Liz Stanton

Ø Real Time with Bill Maher (Season 13)

Producers: Bill Maher, Scott Carter, Sheila Griffiths, Marc Gurvitz, Billy Martin, Dean E. Johnsen, Matt Wood

Ø The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Season 2)

Producers: Lorne Michaels, Jamie Granet Bederman, Katie Hockmeyer, Jim Juvonen, Brian McDonald, Josh Lieb, Gavin Purcell

The following programs were previously announced. They were not vetted for producer eligibility this year, but winners in these categories will be announced at the official ceremony on January 23rd:

The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program:

Ø Doc McStuffins

Ø The Fairly OddParents

Ø Octonauts

Ø Sesame Street

Ø Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Ø Toy Story That Time Forgot