Awards season hopefuls Boyhood, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Theory of Everything have all been named as nominees for this year’s Producers Guild of America awards, a keys Oscars bellwether.
They are joined by Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Nightcrawler, American Sniper, Gone Girl and Whiplash on the list of nominees for the Darryl F Zanuck award for outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures. Last year, seven out of the nine nods from the PGA made the final list of nominees for the best film prize at the Oscars.
Both Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-the-making coming of age drama, and Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s black comedy about an ageing former star of superhero movies, are vying to head the Oscar race. Clint Eastwood biopic American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper as Navy Seal sharpshooter Chris Kyle, gets a welcome boost after being ignored by Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Golden Globes voters. Another surprise inclusion is Whiplash, Damien Chazelle’s drama about a talented young music student which has praised for JK Simmons’s rousing supporting actor turn as a vindictive conservatory tutor.
The biggest shock in terms of omissions is Selma, Ava DuVernay’s much-praised period civil rights drama starring Britain’s David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. However, Variety reports that the apparent snub may have its roots in studio Paramount’s failure to provide screeners to PGA voters. DuVernay’s film was also shut out at the SAG awards, potentially due to the same issue. Star-studded Rob Marshall musical fantasy Into the Woods, starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, James Corden and Johnny Depp, is another notable absentee.
Gone Girl, David Fincher’s controversial but hugely popular adaptation of the spiky Gillian Flynn novel, gets a boost after a middling awards season thus far, as does The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson’s whimsical tale of a legendary concierge at a famous hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka.
The PGA also named five nominees for best producer of an animated film, likely to augur well for movies hoping to challenge the best animated film Oscar next month. Frontrunners The Lego Movie, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6 all made the nominees list, along with The Book of Life.
Full list of Producers Guild awards film nominees
The Darryl F Zanuck award for outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures:
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
The award for outstanding producer of animated theatrical motion pictures:
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie
