“Gravity,” “American Hustle” and “12 Years a Slave” are among the films nominated for the top feature-film award by the Producers Guild of America.
The other nominees: “Blue Jasmine,” “Captain Phillips,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Her,” “Nebraska,” “Saving Mr. Banks” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Although the nominees included most of the films considered prime contenders for the Oscars, the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” were both left off the list.
(The surprise omission of “Llewyn Davis” could put it in the same boat as the Coens’ “A Serious Man,” which was bypassed by the Producers Guild but nominated by the Academy three years ago.)
Megan Ellison is the only producer to have two films in the running, with nominations for both David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” and Spike Jonze‘s “Her.”
The animated-feature nominations were a roundup of contenders from the major U.S. animation studios: Disney’s “Frozen,” Pixar’s “Monsters University,” DreamWorks Animation’s “The Croods,” 20th Century Fox’s and Blue Sky’s “Epic” and Universal’s “Despicable Me 2.”
In the long-form television category, which included both miniseries and movies, two HBO movies (“Behind the Candelabra” and “Phil Spector”) were joined by the miniseries “American Horror Story: Asylum” on FX, “Top of the Lake” on the Sundance Channel and the National Geographic Channel movie “Killing Kennedy.”
In the feature-film category, the Producers Guild Award is one of the most reliable predictors of the Oscars.
PGA and Oscar Best Picture winners have coincided 17 times in the 24-year existence of the Producers Guild Awards, including the last six years in a row.
Since the Academy moved from five to 10 Best Picture nominees and the Producers Guild followed suit, 32 of the 40 PGA nominees have gone on to receive Oscar nominations.
In those four years, the only Oscar nominees not to receive PGA nominations were “The Blind Side,” “A Serious Man,” “Winter’s Bone,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” “The Tree of Life” and “Amour.”
The Producers Guild stuck with a full slate of 10 nominees when the Academy moved in 2011 to a variable system that produces anywhere between five and 10. In the past two years, the PGA has had 10 nominees to the Academy’s nine.
When it comes to final voting, the PGA is the one awards body that uses the same preferential system to count final ballots as the Academy. Its awards for “The Hurt Locker,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Artist” and “Argo” were crucial indicators that those films would triumph with the Academy as well.
Also read: Why Oscar May Never Give Us 10 Best Picture Nominees Again
One sidelight to the PGA/Oscars relationship: Though Academy rules specify that no more than three producers may receive nominations or Oscars in the Best Picture category, AMPAS typically makes exceptions if the PGA recommends that more than three producers were responsible for a film.
Among this year’s nominees, “American Hustle” has four credited producers who received PGA nominations, while “12 Years a Slave” has five.
The Producers Guild Awards will take place on Jan. 19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Lori McCreary and Michael DeLuca will serve as co-chairs for the non-televised show.
The nominees:
The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
American Hustle (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Megan Ellison, Jon Gordon, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle
Blue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum
Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin
Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features)
Producers: Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter
Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Producers: Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman
Her (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Producers: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay
Nebraska (Paramount Pictures)
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
Saving Mr. Banks (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producers: Ian Collie, Alison Owen, Philip Steuer
12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner
Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures)
Producers: Riza Aziz, Emma Koskoff, Joey McFarland
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
The Croods (DreamWorks Animation)
Producers: Kristine Belson, Jane Hartwell
Despicable Me 2 (Universal Pictures)
Producers: Janet Healy, Chris Meledandri
Epic (Twentieth Century Fox)
Producers: Jerry Davis, Lori Forte
Frozen (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Peter Del Vecho
Monsters University (Pixar Animation)
Producer: Kori Rae
The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:
American Horror Story: Asylum (FX)
Producers: Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Alexis Martin Woodall, Ryan Murphy, Chip Vucelich
Behind the Candelabra (HBO)
Producers: Susan Ekins, Gregory Jacobs, Michael Polaire, Jerry Weintraub
Killing Kennedy (National Geographic Channel)
Producers: Mary Lisio, Larry Rapaport, Ridley Scott, Teri Weinberg, David W. Zucker
Phil Spector (HBO)
Producers: Michael Hausman, Barry Levinson
Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel)
Producers: Philippa Campbell, Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman
The Long-Form Television category encompasses both movies of the week and mini-series.