‘Nomadland’ cements Oscar front-runner status

Speculation for the Academy Awards has never gotten closer as the Producers Guild of America Awards held its virtual ceremony Wednesday.

During the event, “Nomadland” took the top honors with Netflix’s “The Crown.” The ceremony also saw “Hamilton,” “Soul,” and “Schitt’s Creek” take-home wins as well.

“Nomandland,” one of the contenders nominated for the Academy Award’s Best Picture, won the Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures award as its theme and narrative correlate with the plight of many affected by the ongoing pandemic and other events that occurred within the past year. The win attracted speculation of “Nomadland”‘s possible big Oscar win in April.

Since the PGAs inception, a film that won Best Picture at the Oscars also won the PGA equivalent. The PGAs also provides insight on other awards in the past, such as the Emmy awards.

However, last year saw a different outcome as “1917” was beaten by “Parasite,” only earned a nominated for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, as it took the Oscar win.

As “Nomadland” is not nominated in the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards’ top category this year, it is fair game for any film to take the shot and gain some momentum in the upcoming final weeks of award season.

Pixar’s “Soul” won the animated feature category, beating out Disney’s other animated film, “Onward,” and gave it a further push towards frontrunner status for the Oscars.

Netflix’s documentary, “My Octopus Teacher” won the award for Oustanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures over “Time,” giving it a better chance of winning Best Documentary Feature. The race in this category is unclear as other Oscar nominations: “Collective,” “Crip Camp,” and “The Mole Agent” were not nominated in the PGAs; however, it’s still anyone’s game.

Over on the television section, Netflix’s “The Crown” won the drama series category as Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” ended it’s final season with winning the comedy category.

As the Academy Awards are less than a month away, the season seems to lean favorably towards “Nomadland” for Best Picture. Even so, as what 2020 has taught us, also be prepared for the unexpected.

The full list of winners and nominees is down below.

 

Editor’s Note: Frances McDormand in the film NOMADLAND. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

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

• “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” (Amazon Studios)
  Producers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Monica Levinson, Anthony Hines
• “Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros)
  Producers: Charles D. King, Ryan Coogler, Shaka King
• “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Netflix)
  Producers: Denzel Washington, Todd Black
• “Mank” (Netflix)
  Producers: Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth, Douglas Urbanski
• “Minari” (A24)
  Producer: Christina Oh
• “Nomadland” (Searchlight Pictures) – WINNER
  Producers: Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao
• “One Night in Miami” (Amazon Studios)
  Producers: Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Jody Klein
• “Promising Young Woman” (Focus Features)
  Producers: Josey McNamara, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell
• “Sound of Metal” (Amazon Studios)
  Producers: Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche
• “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Netflix)
  Producers: Marc Platt, Stuart Besser

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

• “The Croods: A New Age” (DreamWorks Animation)
  Producer: Mark Swift
• “Onward” (Pixar)
  Producer: Kori Rae
• “Over the Moon” (Netflix)
  Producers: Gennie Rim, Peilin Chou
• “Soul” (Pixar) – WINNER
  Producer: Dana Murray
• “Wolfwalkers” (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS)
  Producers: Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, Stéphan Roelants

Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television

• “Better Call Saul” (AMC) – Season 5
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Bridgerton” – (Netflix) – Season 1
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “The Crown” (Netflix) – Season 4 – WINNER
  Producers: Peter Morgan, Suzanne Mackie, Stephen Daldry, Andy Harries, Benjamin Caron, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert Fox, Michael Casey, Andy Stebbing, Martin Harrison, Oona O’Beirn 
• “The Mandalorian” (Disney Plus) – Season 2
  Producers: Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson, Karen Gilchrist, John Bartnicki, Carrie Beck
• “Ozark” (Netflix) – Season 3
  Producers: Jason Bateman, Chris Mundy, Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams, Patrick Markey, John Shiban, Miki Johnson, Matthew Spiegel, Erin Mitchell, Martin Zimmerman, Peter Thorell

Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy

• “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO) – Season 10
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “The Flight Attendant” (HBO Max) – Season 1
  Producers: Greg Berlanti, Kaley Cuoco, Steve Yockey, Meredith Lavender, Marcie Ullin, Sarah Schechter, Suzanne McCormack, Jess Meyer, Raymond Quinlan, Jennifer Lence, Erika Kennair
• “Schitt’s Creek” (Pop TV) – Season 6
  Producers: Eugene Levy, Daniel Levy, Andrew Barnsley, Fred Levy, David West Read, Ben Feigin, Michael Short, Kurt Smeaton, Kosta Orfanidis – WINNER
• “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV Plus) – Season 1
  Producers: Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Jeff Ingold, Bill Wrubel, Liza Katzer, Jane Becker, Jamie Lee, Kip Kroeger, Brendan Hunt, Tina Pawlik, Joe Kelly
• “What We Do in the Shadows” (FX) – Season 2
  Producers: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Paul Simms, Scott Rudin, Garrett Basch, Eli Bush, Stefani Robinson, Sam Johnson, Marika Sawyer, Derek S. Rappaport

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

• “I May Destroy You” (HBO)
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Normal People” (Hulu)
  Producers: Lenny Abrahamson, Sally Rooney, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Emma Norton, Anna Ferguson, Catherine Magee
• “The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix) – WINNER
  Producers: William Horberg, Allan Scott, Scott Frank, Marcus Loges, Mick Aniceto
• “The Undoing” (HBO)
  Producers: Susanne Bier, David E. Kelley, Per Saari, Nicole Kidman, Bruna Papandrea, Stephen Garrett, Celia Costas, Deb Dyer
• “Unorthodox” (Netflix)
  Producers: Anna Winger, Henning Kamm, Alexa Karolinksi

Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures

• “Bad Education” (HBO)
  Producers: Fred Berger, Eddie Vaisman
• “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square“
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Hamilton” (Disney Plus) – WINNER
  Producers: Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeffrey Seller
• “Jane Goodall: The Hope“
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “What the Constitution Means To Me“
  Producers: eligibility determination pending

Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television

• “60 Minutes” (CBS) – Season 53
  Producer: Bill Owens
• “The Last Dance” (ESPN) – Season 1 – WINNER
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Laurel Canyon” (EPIX)
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “McMillion$” (HBO) – Season 1
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” (Netflix)
  Producers: eligibility determination pending

Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television

• “8:46 – Dave Chappelle (Special)” (Netflix)
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” (Comedy Central) – Season 26
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (HBO) – Season 7 – WINNER
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS) – Season 6
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Saturday Night Live” (NBC) – Season 46
  Producers: eligibility determination pending

Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television

• “The Amazing Race” (CBS) – Season 32
  Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Elise Doganieri, Mark Vertullo, Phil Keoghan
• “The Masked Singer” (FOX) – Season 3, Season 4
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “Nailed It!” (Netflix) – Season 4
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (VH1) – Season 12 – WINNER
  Producers: eligibility determination pending
• “The Voice” (NBC) – Season 18, Season 19
  Producers: eligibility determination pending

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures

• “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”
• “Dick Johnson Is Dead”
• “My Octopus Teacher” (Netflix) – WINNER
• “Softie”
• “A Thousand Cuts”
• “Time”
• “The Truffle Hunters”

Outstanding Sports Program

• “Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women’s Gymnastics” (S1) (YouTube) – WINNER
• “Hard Knocks: Los Angeles” (HBO)
• “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” (S26) (HBO)
• “Seeing America with Megan Rapinoe” (HBO)
• “The Shop: Uninterrupted Featuring President Barack Obama” (HBO)

Outstanding Children’s Program

• “Animaniacs” (S1) (Hulu)
• “Carmen Sandiego” (S3) (Netflix)
• “Looney Tunes Cartoons” (S1) (HBO Max)
• “The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special” (HBO Max) – WINNER
• “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (S7) (Disney Plus)

Outstanding Short Form Program

• “Better Call Saul Employee Training: Legal Ethics with Kim Wexler” (S3) (AMC)
• “Between The Scenes – The Daily Show” (S5) (Comedy Central)
• “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” (S3) (Apple TV) – WINNER
• “Inside Pixar: Inspired” (S1) (Disney Plus)
• “SNL Presents: Stories from the Show” (S1) (NBC)