Awards Season 2021: Producers' Guild Awards (PGA) Winners and Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) Winners

It's Oscars week! 

Yep, the annual parade of self-congratulatory flim-flam ends on Sunday (who said "hooray!"?) with the 94th Academy Awards. There are a few more awards bodies to still give out their trophies, and two of the major guilds did just that this past weekend. 

PRODUCERS' GUILD AWARDS

The Producers Guild Awards (PGA) were handed out on Saturday (19th March). The film winners are:

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures: CODA

Documentary Film: Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: Encanto

This makes things interesting. CODA's win has taken a lot of people by surprise, and it's potentially a sign that Academy voters are perhaps not as enamoured with The Power Of The Dog as they once were. Crucially, final voting for the Oscars is still open (it closes on March 22nd) so this might make a difference. 

As previous years have shown, a PGA win doesn't automatically equate to a Best Picture Oscar win, but there's a great deal of overlap between the two. The Documentary and Animated Feature winners were not surprises.

WRITERS' GUILD AWARDS

The Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) were given out yesterday (Sunday 20th March). The film winners were:

Original Screenplay: Don't Look Up

Adapted Screenplay: CODA

Documentary Screenplay: Exposing Muybridge

Both Don't Look Up and CODA are nominated in their respective categories for the Oscars, so they may well repeat this success this weekend. However, CODA may face competition from The Lost Daughter and The Power Of The Dog (both of which weren't eligible for WGA consideration but were for the Oscars). Likewise, Don't Look Up could potentially lose out to Belfast.  

And, for anyone who's interested, Exposing Muybridge (written and directed by Marc Shaffer) is about trailblazing 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge (crazy spelling, crazy guy), who was the first photographer to capture something moving faster than the human eye can see: Leland Stanford's galloping horses. 

Congratulations to all winners!

So it's the Razzies that are next to be announced; that'll be on Saturday 26th March (back to their traditional "Oscar Eve" date). 

Awards Season 2022: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier this afternoon, here are some of the official nominations for the 94th Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

Belfast

CODA

Don't Look Up

Drive My Car

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power Of The Dog

West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)

Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)

Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog)

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) 

Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

BEST ACTOR

Javier Bardem (Being The Ricardos)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power Of The Dog)

Andrew Garfield (tick, tick... Boom!)

Will Smith (King Richard)

Denzel Washington (The Tragedy Of Macbeth)

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye)

Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)

Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)

Nicole Kidman (Being The Ricardos)

Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)

Troy Kotsur (CODA)

Jesse Plemons (The Power Of The Dog)

J.K. Simmons (Being The Ricardos)

Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power Of The Dog)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)

Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)

Judi Dench (Belfast)

Kirsten Dunst (The Power Of The Dog)

Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

A full list of nominees can be found here. 

So, if I've done my maths right, I make that 26/35 (74%). I've had better years, but it's still a decent showing. 

A couple of big surprises- notably the absence of Lady Gaga in Best Actress (with House Of Gucci only receiving one nod in total [in the Make-up and Hairstyling category, and thankfully ignoring Jared Leto's atrocious supporting turn]). I also wonder if now Kristen Stewart will be giving a shit about Oscar nominations- now she actually has one! I was holding off on watching Spencer because, based on the trailers, it felt like it was going to be a  case of a very good performance in a not-very-good film. I will report back. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see both Jesse Plemons and J.K. Simmons named in Best Supporting Actor, and am also chuffed to see Jessie Buckley get her nod for The Lost Daughter. I'm surprised that it's Judi Dench who's been nominated for Best Supporting Actress, as it's been Caitriona Balfe's name in contention right up til now. 

For those stat nerds amongst you, the 2021 version of West Side Story received fewer overall Oscar nods than the 1961 original (with seven v. 11), but the 2021 version of Dune has considerably more than its 1984 predecessor (10 v. a solitary Best Sound nod). 

The Power Of The Dog leads the pack with 12 nominations, with Dune in second place with 10. 

Congratulations to all nominees!

The 94th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 27th March 2022, at the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. 

For the first time since 2018, the Oscars will have a host, who has yet to be announced. I've heard a rumour that Steve Martin might be back with his Only Murders In The Building co-stars Martin Short and Selena Gomez. That would be an interesting take.  

You'll be pleased to know there's a good fortnight before there's any more awards nonsense; our next stop will be the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards which will be given out on Tuesday February 22nd.

Awards Season 2022: BAFTA Film Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 75th British Academy (BAFTA) Film Awards were announced this afternoon, by Tom Allen (Bake Off: The Professionals, Live At The Apollo) and A.J. Odudu (Big Brother's Bit On The Side, Strictly Come Dancing) at the organisation's newly redeveloped London headquarters, BAFTA195 Piccadilly.

Like last year's announcement, this year's took place at a much more agreeable time of 12:10pm. After a couple of technical issues, and a lot of cringy "banter", nominees in several major categories were announced. 

Here's a selection of the nominees:

BEST FILM

Belfast

Don't Look Up

Dune

Licorice Pizza

The Power of the Dog

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

After Love

Ali & Ava

Belfast

Boiling Point

Cyrano

Everybody's Talking About Jamie

House of Gucci

Last Night in Soho

No Time To Die

Passing

LEADING ACTOR

Adeel Akhtar (Ali & Ava)

Mahershala Ali (Swan Song)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Don't Look Up)

Stephen Graham (Boiling Point)

Will Smith (King Richard)

LEADING ACTRESS 

Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)

Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)

Emilia Jones (CODA)

Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)

Joanna Scanlan (After Love)

Tessa Thompson (Passing)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mike Faist (West Side Story)

Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)

Troy Kotsur (CODA)

Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon)

Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)

Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Caitríona Balfe (Belfast)

Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)

Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)

Ann Dowd (Mass)

Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

Ruth Negga (Passing)

DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)

Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)

Audrey Diwan (Happening)

Julia Ducournau (Titane)

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)

Aleem Khan (After Love)

A full list of nominees in all categories can be found here.

As they did last year, BAFTA had previously announced longlists for all categories, so you can see what was in contention for nominations here. 

Dune leads the field with 11 nominations across all categories, with The Power Of The Dog in second with 8.

Some interesting omissions- notably Olivia Colman, Andrew Garfield and Kirsten Dunst in the acting categories, and Kenneth Branagh in Best Director- although I don't think this will affect their Oscar chances too greatly. I was happy to see Aaron Sorkin's script for Being The Ricardos recognised in the Best Original Screenplay category, and Everybody's Talking About Jamie in Outstanding British Film. 

The nominees for the 2022 Rising Star award - the only BAFTA awarded by public vote- have also been announced: this year's nominees are Ariana DeBose, Harris Dickinson, Lashana Lynch, Millicent Simmonds, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Find out more about them, and cast your vote here.

The 75th BAFTA Film Awards will be handed out on Sunday 13th March 2022 in an in-person ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, with Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids) taking hosting duties. 

[Somewhat awkwardly, this is also the date that the rescheduled Critics Choice Awards will also take place.]

Congratulations to all nominees!

We are getting to the sharp end of the awards nominations now, with the Razzies due to announce theirs on Monday (7th February) and the Oscars on Tuesday (8th February).

I'll be making my Oscar nomination predictions as usual; expect them at some point on Monday.