Christopher Nolan's big biopic “Oppenheimer” won the Producers Guild of America's top honor Sunday night, a day after it took the ensemble award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Nolan won the Directors Guild of America's Feature Film Directing Award two weeks ago.
Producers James Wilson (“The Zone of Interest”), Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Daniel Lupi (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Mark Johnson (“The Holdovers”), all nominated for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award . Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture Producer Award, photographed at the Producers Guild of America Awards Breakfast on Saturday. “Oppenheimer” won the guild's top prize.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“Oppenheimer” thus became the eleventh film to sweep the Screen Actors, Directors and Producers Guild awards, consolidating it as the great favorite to win the Oscar for best picture on March 10. Of the previous 10 films that made it to that awards season, the trifecta: A list That includes “No Country for Old Men,” “Argo” and the last two best picture winners, “CODA” and “Everything Everywhere,” all at once”, only one, “Apollo 13”, failed to win the Oscar.
Emma Thomas, who has produced all of Nolan's films, accepted the honor on stage with fellow producer Charles Roven and Nolan, her husband, whom she called “the best producing partner I could ask for.”
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which won seven awards last weekend at the Annie Awards celebration for animation, took the PGA animated film honor.
“American Symphony,” Matthew Heineman’s look at musician Jon Batiste trying to make a professional dream come true while his wife, author Suleika Jaouad, battles leukemia, won the documentary award. The win was a bit surprising, but even less surprising than the film's omission from the Oscars' documentary feature category. The last PGA-winning documentary not nominated for an Oscar was 2019's “Apollo 11.”
On the television front, “The Bear” picked up another award, winning the Danny Thomas Award for Best Episodic Television Producer – Comedy, following Emmy and SAG Award honors. “Last Week Tonight,” another Emmy constant, took home the award for live entertainment, variety, sketches, monologues and talk. “Beef,” which has taken nearly every limited series award in recent weeks, did the same with the PGA. Same with “Succession” for television drama.
“RuPaul's Drag Race” won in games and competition television, and “Welcome to Wrexham” prevailed in nonfiction television. The award for televised or streaming movie went to “Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea.”
Darryl F Award-nominated producers Ben LeClair (“American Fiction”), Emma Stone (“Poor Things”), Christine Vachon (“Past Lives”), Margot Robbie (“Barbie”) and Charles Roven (“Oppenheimer”) Zanuck Award for Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture Producer, at the Producers Guild of America breakfast on Saturday. Roven, along with Emma Thomas and director Christopher Nolan, won the award for “Oppenheimer.”
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Martin Scorsese, whose last film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” earned a PGA nomination, received the David O. Selznick Achievement Award. After an introduction by Guillermo del Toro, Scorsese took the stage to a long applause and the Rolling Stones' “Gimme Shelter,” the song he used in “Goodfellas,” “Casino” and “The Departed.”
Scorsese delighted the audience with memories of attending the Producers Guild Awards in 1965, when he won best student film for “It's Not Just You, Murray,” which he made while attending New York University. Alfred Hitchcock accepted a career award from him that night and Scorsese remembered some of the advice he gave him.
“He said, 'First, when you get an award like that, you have to pinch yourself to make sure it's not given posthumously,'” Scorsese recalled.
Gail Berman received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television following a warm introduction by Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” of which Berman executive produced.
“Not a single person in this world was interested in buying that TV show, but I couldn't ignore my instinct that there was something unique there,” Berman said onstage, recalling “Buffy.”
Charles D. King, former partner at WME and founder of the multi-platform media company MACRO, received the Milestone Award, becoming the first Black person to receive the honor. Filmmaker Ryan Coogler said of King: “To know him is to know that he is a rock. Whatever you have in mind, you will wish it existed.”
PGA Board Chairs Stephanie Allain and Donald DeLine.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“I stand on the shoulders of all the incredible producers, executives, my parents and our ancestors who broke down doors, made sacrifices and paved a path for me to do what I am blessed to do,” said King, accepting the honor.
King's MACRO, along with Blumhouse, Legendary and Berlanti Productions, were announced as the first companies to join a PGA initiative, launched during the ceremony, to guarantee health benefits for qualified producers working full-time in film and television. Producers are the only union members on film sets without guaranteed healthcare. “So far,” PGA President Stephanie Allain said.
