One major guild win down for “The Artist,” two more to go?
The Producer’s Guild of America announced the winners of their 2012 PGA Awards Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills and the big winner was “The Artist.” The critically acclaimed Weinstein Company favorite beat out competitors such as “The Descendants,” “Hugo,” “The Help” and “War Horse.” It was the first PGA win for Thomas Langmann who received sole credit for the honor. Langmann has worked exclusively in his native France for the past decade.
The win for “The Artist” wasn’t a surprise, but sets in motion a number of significant guild honors over the next few weeks. “The Descendants” or “The Help” are expected to win the SAG ensemble award, Sunday, Jan. 29. However, if “The Artist’s” Michiel Hazanavicius can win the Director’s Guild Award one week from tonight over more established competition such as Alexander Payne, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese it will demonstrate enough cross-guild support to make it the absolute front-runner for the best picture Oscar. If, however, Scorsese or Payne win? It’s going to be a very interesting race between “The Artist,” “Descendants” and “Hugo” for the top prize (assuming all three are nominated Tuesday morning as expected).
“The Adventures of Tintin” won for best producer of an animated film which went to Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg. There is still a chance “Tintin” won’t get nominated because of prejudices against motion capture in the Academy’s animation branch, but that’s looking less likely as Tuesday’s nomination announcement draw nears. With PGA and Globe wins, Paramount’s “Tintin” has surpassed their own “Rango” as the favorite in the best animated feature film race.
In something of an upset, producers Debra Koffler, Frank Mele, Edward Parks, Michael Rapaport won the documentary honor for “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest.” The doc, which didn’t make the Academy’s shortlist, triumphed over the more favored “Project Nim” or “Senna” teams.
In the PGA’s television categories, the episodic television award – comedy went to “Modern Family,” “Boardwork Empire” won the drama equivalent, “The Colbert Report” won for live entertainment & talk, competition television went to “The Amazing Race,” non-fiction went to “American Masters,” “60 Minutes” won the news program award, “30 for 30” won the sports program category, “Sesame Street” won yet again for children’s program producer and “Downton Abbey” took the long-form television category.
Look for complete coverage of this year’s Academy Award nominations this Tuesday beginning at 8:30 AM EST/5:30 AM PST on HitFix.
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