‘Anora,’ a film about a marriage between a sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn, left, and Mikey Madison, won the top prize last weekend from both the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America. The wins put ‘Anora’ among the favorites to win best picture at the upcoming Academy Awards show.
Courtesy photo
Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — “Anora” was the winner of the coveted Producers Guild of America Award for best motion picture Feb. 8, a night after winning a similar award from the Directors Guild of America.
The two wins often foretell success on Oscar night.
The Producers Guild honor is traditionally a strong indicator of which film will win the best picture Oscar. Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded from five to 10 nominees in 2010, only four films have won the best picture Oscar without first winning the PGA Award. Last year, both honors went to “Oppenheimer,” which also won the Oscar for best picture.
Since 1948, there have only been eight times that the winner of the Directors Guild Award for feature film directing has not gone on to win the Oscar for best director. The most recent time was in 2020, when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for “1917,” but the Oscar went to Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite.”
The 36th annual Producers Guild Awards was presented at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City. The guild previously partnered with the Entertainment Community Fund to establish a relief fund for producers of film, television and emerging media impacted by the Los Angeles-area wildfires. A portion of proceeds from the PGA Awards will also be donated to the fund.
The PGA’s animated film winner was “The Wild Robot.” It also won at the Critics Choice Awards.
On the small screen, “Shogun” took home the hardware for the drama series prize. The comedy winner was “Hacks.” Both also won at the Critics Choice Awards.
Other Producer Guild winners were: Baby Reindeer” for the David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television; “The Greatest Night in Pop,” for the award for Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures; “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” for the award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television; “Saturday Night Live” for the award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television; and “The Traitors” for the award for Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television.
At the Directors Guild Awards, FX’s Emmy winner and awards-season favorite “Shogun” won in the television drama series category. In the comedy series category, Lucia Aniello won for “Hacks.”
In the category of movies for television and limited series, Steven Zaillian took home the prize for “Ripley.”
Ang Lee, best known for helming films including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi,” received the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Other winners included: First Time Theatrical Film — Ramell Ross for “Nickel Boys;” Regularly Scheduled Programming Variety, Talk, News or Sports — — Liz Patrick for “Saturday Night Live” and John Mulaney for “Chappell Roan”; Variety/Talk/News/Sports Specials — “Beth McCarthy-Miller for “The Roast of Tom Brady;” Reality Programs — Neil DeGroot and Gordon Ramsay for “Uncharted, The Cliffs of Ireland;” Children’s Programs — Amber Sealey for “Out of My Mind;” Commercials — Andreas Nilsson, Biscuit Filmworks for “Board Game Hennessy;” and Documentary — Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev for “Porcelain War.”
