By Paul Sheehan
The Producers Guild of America named “The King’s Speech” as the Best Picture of 2010, ending the sweep of precursor awards by “The Social Network.” A dozen of our pundits expected that film about Facebook to win this kudo as well. Like the Academy Awards, the PGA champ is decided using a preferential system of ballot counting.
The next test for both these films will be the SAG Awards where they vie for Best Ensemble against three of their PGA rivals — “Black Swan,” “The Fighter” and “The Kids Are All Right.” Those awards from and for actors were where eventual Oscar champs “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) and “Crash” (2005) first trumped the frontrunning “Saving Private Ryan” and “Brokeback Mountain” respectively.
And like “Shakespeare in Love,” “The King’s Speech” could well lead with the most Oscar nominations this year which has been a proven bellwether for predicting the Best Picture champ more often than not over the past four decades.
Among the other 10 nominees for Best Picture at the PGAs were “127 Hours” and “True Grit” which had been snubbed by the Golden Globes. Notable PGA omissions include “Another Year,” “Winter’s Bone” and “The Way Back.”
Among the other 10 nominees for Best Picture at the PGAs were “127 Hours” and “True Grit” which had been snubbed by the Golden Globes. Notable PGA omissions include “Another Year,” “Winter’s Bone” and “The Way Back.”
Last year’s PGA winners of the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producers — the quartet behind “The Hurt Locker” — made it to the stage of the Kodak Theater to collect the Oscar for Best Picture. The PGA and Oscars had agreed upon 8 of 10 contenders. The PGA nominated “Invictus” and “Star Trek” over eventual Oscar choices “The Blind Side” and “A Serious Man.” During the past 20 years, the guild and Oscars agreed on 13 of 20 Best Picture champs.
Another of this year’s PGA nominees for Best Picture — “Toy Story 3″ — was named Best Animated Picture. And “Waiting for Superman” prevailed as Best Documentary.
Reigning Emmy champ “Modern Family” won Best Comedy Series on its first nomination. “The Colbert Report” won Best Live Entertainment/Competition for the third year running while “Mad Men” also three-peated for top TV Drama Series. “Deadliest Catch” finally took the Non-Fiction TV prize with its third consecutive bid. And Emmy winner “The Pacific” took the combined TV Movie/Mini award.
