Welcome to the awards race, Mr. Bond.
Sony-MGM’s “Skyfall” crashed the kudos season Wednesday, becoming the first Bondpic to garner a nod from the Producers Guild of America, whose 10 nominees included an otherwise unsurprising mix of studio and specialty titles including Warner Bros.’ “Argo”; DreamWorks’ “Lincoln”; Focus’ “Moonrise Kingdom”; Universal’s “Les Miserables”; the Weinstein Co.’s “Django Unchained” and “Silver Linings Playbook”; Fox’s “Life of Pi” and Fox Searchlight’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; and “Zero Dark Thirty,” also from Sony.
The PGA, which announced the noms for its Darryl F. Zanuck award Wednesday, will reveal the winner Jan. 26 at its awards gala at the Beverly Hilton. The guild decided in July 2011 to stick to 10 nominees for its top feature award rather than follow the revised voting procedures of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Of the 10 nominees, “Skyfall” is by far the biggest box office grosser, with more than $1 billion worldwide. It’s also the first notable overall nomination for the Sam Mendes-directed pic, which so far has picked up bids from the Screen Actors Guild (Javier Bardem for supporting actor), the Golden Globes (original song) and the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. (several categories), among others.
The PGA award has become a strong indicator of Oscar sentiment in recent years, matching the Oscar for best picture in 16 of the last 23 — including the last five, with “The Artist,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “No Country for Old Men.” The PGA winner last diverged from the Oscar best picture for the 2006 award when “Little Miss Sunshine” won while the Academy opted for “The Departed.”
The match between the PGA’s nominations and the Oscar best picture noms is generally about 80%. Last year, seven films were nominated for both; “Bridesmaids,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Ides of March” scored only PGA mentions, while “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and “Tree of Life” received Academy noms but were spurned by the PGA.
Notable omissions from the PGA nominations included “Amour,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Master” and “Rust and Bone.”
Eight PGA films have scored Golden Globe nominations and been listed in the AFI’s Top Ten: “Argo,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” And SAG ensemble nominations went to “Argo,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Les Miserables,” “Lincoln” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”
The Zanuck award noms listed a total of 30 producers including notables such as Ben Affleck and George Clooney for “Argo,” Stacey Sher for “Django,” Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln,” longtime Bond movie producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson for “Skyfall” and Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal and Megan Ellison for “Zero Dark Thirty.”
The PGA’s animated nominations went to a trio of Disney titles — “Brave,” “Frankenweenie” and “Wreck-It Ralph” along with Focus’ “ParaNorman” and Paramount’s “Rise of the Guardians.”
The PGA has already announced the documentary nominations and most of its TV categories. Noms were announced Wednesday for the David L. Wolper trophy for longform TV: FX’s “American Horror Story,” PBS’ “The Dust Bowl,” HBO’s “Game Change,” History’s “Hatfields & McCoys” and PBS’ “Sherlock.” “Downton Abbey” won the Wolper trophy last year.
The next key nominations announcement comes Friday when the Writers Guild of America unveils its screenplay bids. The Directors Guild of America will announce its feature noms Tuesday.
The producers branch of AMPAS has about 8% of the voting membership with 494 members out of 6,378. Deadline for voting on Oscar noms is 5 p.m. Friday, and the Oscar noms will be announced Jan. 10.
COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES:
The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
“Argo” (Warner Bros.)
Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn
“Django Unchained” (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, Stacey Sher
“Les Misérables” (Universal Pictures)
Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
“Life of Pi” (Fox 2000 Pictures)
Producers: Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark
“Lincoln” (Touchstone Pictures)
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg
“Moonrise Kingdom” (Focus Features)
Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales
“Silver Linings Playbook” (The Weinstein Company)
Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon
“Skyfall” (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson
“Zero Dark Thirty” (Columbia Pictures)
Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
“Brave” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Katherine Sarafian
“Frankenweenie” (Walt Disney Pictures)
Producers: Allison Abbate, Tim Burton
“ParaNorman” (Focus Features)
Producers: Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner
“Rise of the Guardians” (Paramount Pictures)
Producers: Nancy Bernstein, Christina Steinberg
“Wreck-It Ralph” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Clark Spencer
The television nominees are:
The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:
“American Horror Story” (FX)
Producers: Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Chip Vucelich, Alexis Martin Woodall
“The Dust Bowl” (PBS)
Producers: Producer Eligibility Pending
“Game Change” (HBO)
Producers: Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Amy Sayres, Steven Shareshian, Danny Strong
“Hatfields & McCoys” (History)
Producers: Barry Berg, Kevin Costner, Darrell Fetty, Leslie Greif, Herb Nanas
“Sherlock” (PBS)
Producers: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Beryl Vertue, Sue Vertue