Completing one of the most remarkable two-day stretches in awards-season history, “Anora” won the top feature film prize at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday night. The victory came about an hour after its director, Sean Baker, won at the Directors Guild Awards two blocks away, and a little more than 24 hours after the film scored a surprise win for Best Picture at the Critics Choice Awards.
The Critics Choice/DGA/PGA trifecta took the Palme d’Or-winning tragicomedic indie from a film that didn’t seem to have much Oscar momentum to the closest thing to a frontrunner in this weird, unsettled season.
TheWrap ran into a dazed Baker in a corner of the lobby after his PGA win and commented, “Hell of a two days.” Baker smiled, shook his head and agreed. “Hell of a two days,” he said.
If “Anora” can win with the Producers Guild and Directors Guild over contenders like “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Wicked” and “Conclave,” it seemingly has what it takes to prevail with Oscar voters as well, even if it’s a freewheeling, profane and both comic and explicit look at a Brooklyn sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch.
Two weeks ago, “Emilia Perez” seemed to be the Oscar leader — but it took a hit with the revelation of star Karla Sofia Gascon’s racist and anti-Muslim tweets, and “Anora” came on strong and seized momentum less than a week before the start of Oscar voting.
It’s worth noting that the Producers Guild, Directors Guild and Critics Choice voting took place almost entirely before the “Emilia Perez” controversy — but the fact that “Anora” could win before “Emilia” became tainted puts it in a strong position.
In less momentous news coming out of the PGA, the big TV winners were all shows that have been winning awards since the Emmys last September. “Shōgun” won the award for drama series, “Hacks” won for comedy series and “Baby Reindeer” won the award for limited series.
“The Wild Robot” won the award for animated feature, at the same time that it was winning nine awards about three miles away at the Annie Awards.
“Saturday Night Live” won the award for Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television, while “The Traitors” won the game-show award.
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” took the documentary-film award, while “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” won for nonfiction television. Another documentary, the “We Are the World” chronicle “The Greatest Night in Pop” won in the Television or Streamed Motion Pictures category.
In a year of almost unprecedented uncertainty in the best picture race, the Producers Guild looms large as the only other awards body to use the ranked-choice voting system instituted by the Academy in the Best Picture category. The guild has been one of the most reliable predictors of the Oscar, with the PGA champion going on to win the Oscar 25 times in the guild awards’ first 35 years.
This year’s PGA lineup included eight of the 10 Oscar nominees, with the guild’s choices of “A Real Pain” and “September 5” replaced by Oscar nominees “I’m Still Here” and “Nickel Boys.”
The ceremony could have made a real point if a more mainstream film like “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave” or “Wicked” was able to assemble the kind of consensus necessary to win in the ranked-choice system, and a voting body made up of producers seemed to favor those films. For “Anora” to win with those voters suggests it may also have broad enough appeal to forge an Oscar consensus as well.
The ceremony took place at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Honorary awards were presented to Taika Waititi (the Norman Lear Achievement Award), Dana Walden (the Milestone Award), Chris Meladandri (the David O. Selznick Achievement Award) and, posthumously, to Lynda Obst and Paula Weinstein (the Trailblazer Award).
At previous events in New York and Los Angeles earlier in the week, four additional categories were announced: “Simone Biles Rising” won as the outstanding sports program, “Sesame Street” as children’s program and “Shōgun – The Making of Shōgun” as short-form program, while “Obital” received the PGA Innovation Award for VR, AR, experiential or emerging media.
Here is the full list of nominees. Winners are indicated by *WINNER.
Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Anora” *WINNER
“The Brutalist”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“A Real Pain”
“September 5”
“The Substance”
“Wicked”
Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Flow”
“Inside Out 2”
“Moana 2”
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
“The Wild Robot” *WINNER
Episodic Television – Drama
“Bad Sisters”
“The Diplomat”
“Fallout”
“Shōgun” *WINNER
“Slow Horses”
Episodic Television – Comedy
“Abbott Elementary”
“The Bear”
“Curb Your Enthusiasm”
“Hacks” *WINNER
“Only Murders in the Building”
Limited or Anthology Series Television
“Baby Reindeer” *WINNER
“FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans”
“The Penguin”
“Ripley”
“True Detective: Night Country”
Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
“Carry On”
“The Greatest Night in Pop” *WINNER
“The Killer”
“Rebel Ridge”
“Unfrosted”
Non-Fiction Television
“30 for 30”
“Conan O’Brien Must Go”
“The Jinx – Part Two”
“STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” *WINNER
“Welcome to Wrexham”
Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television
“Ali Wong: Single Lady”
“The Daily Show”
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”
“Saturday Night Live” *WINNER
Game & Competition Television
“The Amazing Race”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
“Top Chef”
“The Traitors” *WINNER
“The Voice”
Documentary Motion Picture
“Gaucho Gaucho”
“Mediha”
“Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa”
“Porcelain War”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” *WINNER
“We Will Dance Again”
Children’s Program
“Avatar: The Last Airbender”
“Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock”
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians”
“Sesame Street” *WINNER
“SpongeBob SquarePants”
Outstanding Short-Form Program
“The Crown: Farewell To A Royal Epic”
“Hacks: Bit By Bit”
“The Penguin: Inside Gotham”
“Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime”
“Shōgun – The Making of Shōgun” *WINNER
Outstanding Sports Program
“Formula 1: Drive to Survive”
“Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants”
“Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend”
“Simone Biles Rising” *WINNER
“Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics”
The PGA Innovation Award
“Critterz”
“Emperor”
“Impulse: Playing with Reality”
“Orbital” *WINNER
“The Pirate Queen with Lucy Liu”
“What If…? – An Immersive Story”
