Mainstream studio and specialty titles define the 10 nominees for the top feature award of the PGA: Warner’s “Argo,” Fox Searchlight’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” The Weinstein Co.’s “Django Unchained,” Universal’s “Les Miserables,” Fox’s “Life of Pi,” Touchtone’s “Lincoln,” Foxus’ “Moonrise Kingdom,” TWC’s “Silver Linings Playbook” and Sony’s “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”
The PGA, which announced the nominatios for its Darryl F. Zanuck award Wednesday, will reveal the winner January 26, 2013 at its awards gala at the Beverly Hilton.
The PGA decided in July 2011 to stick to 10 nominees for its top feature award rather than following the revised voting procedures of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which had opted for a system that would result in between five and 10 best picture nominees each year.
Deadline for voting on Oscar nominations is 5 p.m. Friday and the Oscar nominations will be announced January 10, 2013.
Of the 10 PGA nominationss, “Skyfall” (above) is by far the biggest box office grosser — and probably the biggest surprise — with more than $1 billion in worldwide revenues.
The Zanuck award nominations listed a total of 30 producers including notables such as Ben Affleck and George Clooney for “Argo,” Stacey Sher for “Django,” Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln,” longtime Bond movie producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson for “Skyfall” and Kathleen Bigelow, Mark Boal and Megan Ellison for “Zero Dark Thirty.”
The PGA award has become a strong indicator of Oscar sentiment in recent years. It has matched the Oscar for best picture in 16 of the last 23 years, including the last five years, with “The Artist,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “No Country for Old Men.” The PGA winner last diverged from the Oscar Best Picture for the 2006 award when “Little Miss Sunshine” won while the AMPAS opted for “The Departed.”
The producers branch of AMPAS has about 8% of the voting membership with 494 members out of 6,378.
The 5,400-member PGA and the Academy use a preferential voting system. The PGA has selected 10 films as contenders for the fourth consecutive year.
The PGA nominations usually match the Oscar Best Picture nominations in about 80% of titles. Last year, seven films were nominated for both; “Bridesmaids,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Ides of March” only scored PGA nods, while “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and “Tree of Life” received Academy noms but were spurned by the PGA.
Eight films — “Argo,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Zero Dark Thirty” — have scored Golden Globe nominations and been listed in the AFI’s Top Ten. “Argo,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Les Miserables,” “Lincoln” and “Silver Linings Playbook” all took SAG ensemble nominations.
Notable omissions from the PGA nominations included “Amour,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Master” and “Rust and Bone.”
The PGA’s animated nomitions went to a trio of Disney titles — “Brave,” “Frankenweenie” and “Wreck-It Ralph” along with Focus’ “ParaNorman” and Paramount’s “Rise of the Guardians.”
The PGA has already announced the documentary nominations and most of its TV categories. Nominations were announced Wednesday for the David L. Wolper throphy for longform TV: FX’s “American Horror Story,” PBS’s “The Dust Bowl,” HBO’s “Game Change,” History’s “Hatfields & McCoys” and PBS’s “Sherlock.” “Downton Abbey” won the Wolper trophy last year.
The next key nominations announcement comes Friday when the Writers Guild of America unveils its screenplay nods. The Directors Guild of America will announce its feature nominations Tuesday.
COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES:
The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
“Argo” (Warner Bros.)
Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn
“Django Unchained” (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, Stacey Sher
“Les Misérables” (Universal Pictures)
Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
“Life of Pi” (Fox 2000 Pictures)
Producers: Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark
“Lincoln” (Touchstone Pictures)
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg
“Moonrise Kingdom” (Focus Features)
Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales
“Silver Linings Playbook” (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon
“Skyfall” (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson
“Zero Dark Thirty” (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
“Brave” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Katherine Sarafian
“Frankenweenie” (Walt Disney Pictures)
Producers: Allison Abbate, Tim Burton
“ParaNorman” (Focus Features)
Producers: Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner
“Rise of the Guardians” (Paramount Pictures)
Producers: Nancy Bernstein, Christina Steinberg
“Wreck-It Ralph” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Clark Spencer
The television nominees are:
The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:
“American Horror Story” (FX)
Producers: Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Chip Vucelich, Alexis Martin Woodall
“The Dust Bowl” (PBS)
Producers: Producer Eligibility Pending
“Game Change” (HBO)
Producers: Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Amy Sayres, Steven Shareshian, Danny Strong
“Hatfields & McCoys” (History)
Producers: Barry Berg, Kevin Costner, Darrell Fetty, Leslie Greif, Herb Nanas
“Sherlock” (PBS)
Producers: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Beryl Vertue, Sue Vertue
