“Nomadland” has been named the best produced film of 202o by the Producers Guild of America, giving it yet another boost in an Oscar race where it was already considered the favorite.
In a category where Chloé Zhao’s understated travelogue was facing off against seven other Oscar nominees, the Producers Guild provided a key indicator that the film has the kind of strength within the industry that it already showed with critics. In doing so, it took away the chance that rivals like “Promising Young Woman,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Minari had to seize momentum at a crucial moment in awards season.
The film has now picked up a formidable array of awards, including wins at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards and the Gotham Awards.
Still, the Producers Guild Award is not the infallible Oscar predictor it had once seemed to be. For many years, particularly after both groups expanded the number of nominees to 10 and instituted the ranked-choice system of counting votes, the two prizes went to the same film year after year — but over the last five years, the PGA winner has only gone on to win the Oscar twice, with “The Shape of Water” in 2018 and “Green Book” in 2019. The other three years, the Producers Guild winners were “The Big Short,” “La La Land” and “1917,” while the Oscars were won by “Spotlight,” “Moonlight” and “Parasite.”
Overall, the Producers Guild winner has also won the Best Picture Oscar 21 times in 31 years, including one year in which “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” tied at the PGA and the former film won at the Oscars.
In the television categories, the PGA award for drama series went to “The Crown,” while the comedy series award went to “Schitt’s Creek.” “Hamilton” won the award for televised or streamed motion picture, while “The Queen’s Gambit” won for limited-series television.
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” won the award for live entertainment/talk television, while “RuPaul’s Drag Race” won for game and competition TV. “The Last Dance” won for nonfiction television.
Winners in four categories — sports program, children’s program, short-form program and the PGA Innovation Award — were announced at a separate event on Saturday. Those awards went to “Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women’s Gymnastics,” “The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special,” “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” and “BRCvr.”
“My Octopus Teacher” won the award for documentary film in a category that included seven films, including its fellow Oscar nominee “Time.” The prize for animated feature went to Pixar’s “Soul.”
Like the Writers Guild Awards, the Producers Guild ceremony was pre-recorded, with all the nominees taping acceptance speeches — which, as with the WGA, led to a certain lack of passion and excitement in those speeches. At the same time, that format took what is normally a three-hour ceremony and cut it down to less than 90 minutes.
Here is the list of nominees. Winners are indicated by *WINNER.
Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Sacha Baron Cohen, Monica Levinson, Anthony Hines
“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Charles D. King, Ryan Coogler, Shaka King
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Denzel Washington, Todd Black
“Mank,” Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth, Douglas Urbanski
“Minari,” Christina Oh
“Nomadland,” Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloé Zhao *WINNER
“One Night in Miami …,” Jess Wu Calder & Keith Calder, Jody Klein
“Promising Young Woman,” Josey McNamara, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell
“Sound of Metal,” Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche
“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Marc Platt, Stuart Besser
Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
“The Croods: A New Age,” Mark Swift
“Onward,” Kori Rae
“Over the Moon,” Gennie Rim, Peilin Chou
“Soul,” Dana Murray *WINNER
“Wolfwalkers,” Paul Young, Nora Twomey, Tomm Moore, Stephan Roelants
Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet,” Jonnie Hughes
“Dick Johnson Is Dead,” Kirsten Johnson, Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness
“My Octopus Teacher,” Craig Foster *WINNER
“Softie,” Toni Kamau, Sam Soko
“A Thousand Cuts,” Ramona S. Diaz, Leah Marino, Julie Goldman & Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn
“Time,” Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley
“The Truffle Hunters,” Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama
“Better Call Saul”
“Bridgerton”
“The Crown” *WINNER
“The Mandalorian”
“Ozark”
Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy
“Curb Your Enthusiasm”
“The Flight Attendant”
“Schitt’s Creek” *WINNER
“Ted Lasso”
“What We Do in the Shadows”
David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited Series Television
“I May Destroy You”
“Normal People”
“The Queen’s Gambit” *WINNER
“The Undoing”
“Unorthodox”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
“Bad Education”
“Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square”
“Hamilton” *WINNER
“Jane Goodall: The Hope”
“What the Constitution Means to Me”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
“60 Minutes”
“The Last Dance” *WINNER
“Laurel Canyon”
“McMillions”
“Tiger King: Mayhem, Murder and Madness”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television
“8:46 – Dave Chappelle”
“The Daily Show With Trevor Noah”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” *WINNER
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”
“Saturday Night Live”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television
“The Amazing Race”
“The Masked Singer”
“Nailed It”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” *WINNER
“The Voice”
Award for Outstanding Sports Program
“Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women’s Gymnastics” (Season 1) *WINNER
“Hard Knocks: Los Angeles”
“Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” (Season 26)
“Seeing America with Megan Rapinoe”
“The Shop: UNINTERRUPTED Featuring President Barack Obama”
Award for Outstanding Children’s Program
“Animaniacs” (Season 1)
“Carmen Sandiego” (Season 3)
“Looney Tunes Cartoons” (Season 1)
“The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special” *WINNER
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (Season 7)
Award for Outstanding Short-Form Program
“Better Call Saul Employee Training: Legal Ethics with Kim Wexler” (Season 3)
“Between The Scenes – The Daily Show” (Season 5)
“Carpool Karaoke: The Series” (Season 3) *WINNER
“Inside Pixar: Inspired” (Season 1)
“SNL Presents: Stories from the Show” (Season 1)
PGA Innovation Award
“Adventure Lab and Dr. Crumb’s School for Disobedient Pets”
“Andrew Goes Outside”
“Artificial”
“Baba Yaga”
“BRCvr” * WINNER
“Create Together”
“Fragments”
“Jettison”
“Krampusnacht”
“Oceanides”
“The Line”
“The Under Presents”