The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the winners in 13 categories for its 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards on Feb. 25, 2024 at Ovation Hollywood’s Ray Dolby Ballroom, and sure enough, Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer was the big winner by being presented the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, completing a guild trifecta that puts it well ahead of the pack to win Best Picture at the Oscars in two weeks.
For many years, the PGA Award was more of a tell about what movie might win Best Picture at the Oscars than the other guilds, and it’s rare for a movie to win PGA, as well as the Directors Guild Award and SAG Award for Ensemble Cast, and NOT win Best Picture. Everything Everywhere All at Once pulled the trifecta last year, awhile Alejandro Iñarritu‘s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) did the same in 2015. When La La Land wasn’t even nominated for SAG Ensemble in 2016, the writing was on the wall for it to lose Best Picture to Moonlight, though other movies, like Guillermo del Toro‘s The Shape of Water, have won Best Picture without getting support from SAG.
Of course, with the Writers Guild Award delayed until April, that will be no help in terms of predicting the Oscar screenplay races, where Oppenheimer does have some strong competition, including Cord Jefferson‘s screenplay for American Fiction, which won the BAFTA Award in that category.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse got a big boost by winning the Producers Guild Award’s animated category, after BAFTA put into question whether it was indeed the frontrunner for the Animated Feature Oscar. On the other hand, Jon Batiste‘s American Symphony won the PGA’s Award for Documentary, and that wasn’t even nominated for the Oscar.
At this point, television awards have been so repetitive from one awards group to another that seeing the PGA honor Succession, The Bear, and BEEF probably surprised no one, since they’ve been sweeping all the awards for the last two months. Welcome to Wrexham won for non-fiction after winning five Emmys in January, while both Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Rupaul’s Drag Race continued its industry love in their respective categories. Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea won for Televised or Streaming movie.
The Producers Guild also honored Martin Scorsese with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award, presented in a moving speech by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, while Charles D. King received the PGA Milestone Award, presented by director Ryan Coogler. The Norman Lear Achievement Award for producing achievement in television was presented to Gail Berman by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
You can read the full list of winners below:
Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Oppenheimer
Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama
Succession
Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy
The Bear
David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television
BEEF
Award for Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea
Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
Welcome to Wrexham
Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Award for Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television
RuPaul’s Drag Race
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Picture
American Symphony
The Award for Outstanding Sports Program
Beckham
The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program
Sesame Street
The Award for Outstanding Short-Form Program
Succession: Controlling the Narrative
