Awards Season 2023: Producers Guild Awards (PGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards Winners

Another two-for-one offer on awards news today, as this most recent weekend has seen two of the major guilds give out their awards, both of which are seen as bellwethers for the Oscars (which is in a couple of weeks).

So, let's find out who needs to make some room on the shelf for some shiny new silverware (well, glass and bronzewear to be more precise)

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS (PGA)

The Producers Guild Awards (PGA) were handed out on Saturday (25th February). The film winners are:

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Documentary Film: Navalny

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

The final round of Oscar voting is still to come (it's happening between 2nd-7th March), but it's looking likely that we've found this year's Best Picture Oscar winner. The other guild awards that happened this weekend also point towards this.  

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD (SAG) AWARDS

The 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards were held last night (Sunday 26th February) in a ceremony which was not televised, but was streamed live via Netflix's YouTube channel (ahead of the streaming service broadcasting it from next year).

Here are the film winners:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Top Gun: Maverick

Everything Everywhere All At Once has become the most-awarded film in SAG history, with four awards. It's always been a bit of a two-horse race between Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett for Best Actress, and it's still wide open (especially as both of them are nominated for Best Lead Performance at the Independent Spirits).

I think Ke Huy Quan has pretty much tied on Best Supporting Actor, and it's now between Brendan Fraser and Austin Butler for Best Actor. 

The icon that is Sally Field received the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award, after Helen Mirren last year. 

Congratulations to all winners!

Next weekend (Saturday 4th March) sees the Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony, with everything coming to a head the following weekend (Sunday 12th March) with the 95th Academy Awards.

Awards Season 2023: Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) Winners and BAFTA Film Awards Winners

After a quiet couple of weeks, we are back on the awards trail with both the Directors Guild Awards and the BAFTA Film Awards being handed out this weekend. So who were the big winners? Let's find out together, shall we?

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS

On Saturday (18th February), the Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) were handed out. The film winners are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Films: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director: Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Sara Dosa (Fire Of Love)

The Daniels' win is a bit of a surprise, as I felt the high-concept what-the-everloving-fuck-is-going-on-now vibe of Everything Everywhere All At Once might have been too rich for the blood of the DGA voters, with Spielberg's thoughtful elegy to cinema The Fabelmans a much more likely candidate. Worth saying that- whilst the DGA is a fairly reliable precursor to the Best Director Oscar- it's not got a 100% conversion record, so Spielberg might still nab the Oscar, although this has put the Daniels very much in contention.  

BAFTA

This evening (19th February 2022), the 76th British Academy Film Awards were given out in a star-studded ceremony, hosted for the first time by Richard E. Grant. 

Jamie Lee Curtis, Julianne Moore, Florence Pugh, Eddie Redmayne, Ke Huy Quan. Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett. Bill Nighy, Sir Patrick Stewart, Emma Thompson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Viola Davis were among some of the stars in attendance to celebrate the best in film for 2022. 

Usually, the event is broadcast on the BBC with a time delay but for this year, there's a weird kind of hybrid thing going on where the final four awards of the evening (EE Rising Star, Leading Actor, Leading Actress, and Best Film) were broadcast live, whilst the rest of the ceremony was shown on a delay. 

Here's a full list of BAFTA winners.

Best Film: All Quiet On The Western Front

Outstanding British Film: The Banshees Of Inisherin

Leading Actor: Austin Butler (Elvis)

Leading Actress: Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Supporting Actor: Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Supporting Actress: Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Director: Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)

Original Screenplay: The Banshees Of Inisherin

Adapted Screenplay: All Quiet On The Western Front

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer: Charlotte Wells (writer/director) (Aftersun) 

Animated Film: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Documentary: Navalny

Film Not In The English Language: All Quiet On The Western Front

Cinematography: All Quiet On The Western Front

Costume Design: Elvis

Editing: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Make Up And Hair: Elvis

Original Music: All Quiet On The Western Front

Production Design: Babylon

Sound: All Quiet On The Western Front

Special Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way Of Water

Casting: Elvis

Short Animation: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse

Short Film: An Irish Goodbye

Rising Star: Emma Mackey

BAFTA Fellowship: Sandy Powell

The big winner of the night was All Quiet On The Western Front with seven awards (including, somewhat surprisingly, Best Picture), with The Banshees Of Inisherin and Elvis taking home four apiece. 

I'm happy to see The Banshees Of Inisherin doing well (especially with the two Supporting acting wins), although it's been reported that there was a bit of a La La Land moment with Best Supporting Actress. Last year's Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) presented the award using sign language... and his interpreter mistakenly said Carey Mulligan (who had been nominated in the same category for She Said) instead of Kerry Condon. This didn't make the TV broadcast, but a lot of news outlets picked it up nonetheless.

Congratulations to all winners!

There's more awards news coming up next weekend (25th/26th February 2023) with Producers Guild Awards (PGA) and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) being handed out. 

The Watchers Film Show Blog is 11 today!

Just a quick update today; get out the jelly and ice-cream, it's our 11th birthday! (or anniversary... I'm never sure which one it is)

Yep, 11 years ago on this very day, The Watchers Film Show Blog was founded. If this blog were a person, it'd be getting ready to go to secondary school in September. Man, they grow up so fast... *wipes away a tear*

As always, a massive THANK YOU to everyone who reads and supports us, especially as content has been a bit lacking of late. We are going to try our damndest to improve that this year. (Hope springs eternal...)

With lots of love and good wishes,

The Watchers

(Rhys, Matt & Tez)

Awards Season 2023: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier this afternoon, here are some of the official nominations for the 95th Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

All Quiet On The Western Front

Avatar: The Way Of Water

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

Tár

Top Gun: Maverick

Triangle Of Sadness

Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR

Todd Field (Tár)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Ruben Östlund (Triangle Of Sadness)

Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler (Elvis)

Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

Bill Nighy (Living)

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Ana de Armas (Blonde)

Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)

Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans)

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)

Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans)

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Hong Chau (The Whale)

Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

A full list of nominees can be found here. 

If I've done my maths right, we are looking at 29/35 (83%). Better than last year, so that's a plus. 

A couple of big surprises, namely the Best Picture/Director nods for Triangle Of Sadness, and British actress Andrea Riseborough's shock (in the best possible way) Best Actress nomination for To Leslie. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance, but the film has had increased awareness over the last few weeks, as it's being signal boosted by several high-profile actresses. 

A couple of interesting little facts: all five of the Best Actor nominees are first-time nominees. The German-language version of All Quiet On The Western Front has nine nods, as opposed to the four given to the 1930 English-language version (which won Best Picture and Best Director). Angela Bassett's nod is the first acting nomination for any Marvel film, and Judd Hirsch receives his second Oscar nomination after a whoppping 42 years (he was previously nominated for Ordinary People in 1981).

Everything Everywhere All At Once has 11 nominations to lead the field, with All Quiet On The Western Front and The Banshees Of Inisherin tying for second place with nine apiece. 

Congratulations to all nominees!

The 95th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 12th March 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to host for the third time, after his consecutive appearances MCing the 89th and 90th Oscars.

For those not interested in the awards season circus, you'll be glad to know there's going to be a brief hiatus in the proceedings; our next awards season stop on the road to the 95th Academy Awards will be the weekend of 18th/19th February. 

Awards Season 2023: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

 

Tomorrow morning (5:30AM PT/8:30AM ET/1:30PM GMT), the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced. This year, they will be announced by Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal, Rogue One, Four Lions) and Allison Williams (Get Out, M3gan, Girls).

Since 2003, I have tried to predict who will be nominated in several of the major categories (Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards). Below is my list of who I think will be named tomorrow.

BEST PICTURE

All Quiet On The Western Front

Avatar: The Way Of Water

Babylon

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

Tár

Top Gun: Maverick

Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR

Todd Field (Tár)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Sarah Polley (Women Talking)

Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler (Elvis)

Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

Bill Nighy (Living)

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Viola Davis (The Woman King)

Ana de Armas (Blonde)

Danielle Deadwyler (Till)

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Paul Dano (The Fabelmans)

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Hong Chau (The Whale)

Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

As we now have 10 Best Picture nominees (in addition to the 20 for acting and 5 for directing), I will be happy with any score over 20. Last year, it was 26/35 (74%)

I'm confident of seven (maybe eight) of the Best Picture nominees; Babylon and/or All Quiet On The Western Front may well be replaced by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and/or Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. 

With Best Director, there's been a core of four [well, technically five] consistent names (the Daniels, Field, McDonagh and Spielberg) so it's working out who would join them. I went for Sarah Polley in a rather optimistic mood that they'd continue the streak of female directors, but it's far from definite. We could easily see James Cameron (Avatar: The Way Of Water) or Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) get a nod, with Kosinski nominated at the DGAs.

Given the Academy's form over the previous couple of years, a nomination for a foreign-language film director- potentially S.S. Rajamouli (RRR), Park Chan-wook (Decision To Leave), or Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)- might not be out of the question. Hell, they may still nominate a female director: Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King). 

Best Actor seems fairly secure, although you might see Jeremy Pope (The Inspection) or even potentially Hugh Jackman (The Son) in place of Paul Mescal. Best Actress has been a wide field this year, with a lot of superb performances getting nominated across the various awards bodies. I went with the five SAG Awards nominees, although the Academy could seek to honour Olivia Colman (Empire Of Light), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), or Margot Robbie (Babylon) instead.

With Best Supporting Actor, I'm confident of three at the very least- Gleeson, Keoghan, and Quan. Dano seems fairly secure, but there's been a lot of good supporting performances which might sneak in, including Brad Pitt (Babylon), Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway), and Dano's co-star in The Fabelmans, Judd Hirsch. Ben Whishaw could get a nod for his turn in Women Talking.

As for Best Supporting Actress, Hsu is the only one I'm not very sure of. You could easily see Carey Mulligan (She Said), Janelle Monáe (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery), Dolly de Leon (Triangle Of Sadness) or Jessie Buckley and/or Claire Foy from Women Talking. 


We'll see what the Academy comes up with tomorrow afternoon. There'll be a post up as soon as I can afterwards with the official nominations.

So what do you think of my predictions? Pretty solid or way off the mark? Who do you think will (or should) get a nomination tomorrow? Let me know by commenting below.

Awards Season 2023: Razzies Nominations

 

Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We can therefore deduce from this that the Golden Raspberries (which dishonour the cinematic bilge of the previous year) are the equal and opposite reaction to the Oscars. Who says this blog can't be entertaining and educational at the same time?

So here are the full nominations for the 43rd Annual Razzie Awards, and there's a rather surprising film in the lead.

WORST PICTURE

Blonde

Disney’s Pinocchio

Good Mourning     

The King’s Daughter

Morbius 

WORST ACTRESS

Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Firestarter)

Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic Park: Dominion)

Diane Keaton (Mack & Rita)

Kaya Scodelario (The King’s Daughter)

Alicia Silverstone (The Requin)

WORST ACTOR

Colson Baker (Good Mourning)

Pete Davidson (Voice Only) (Marmaduke)

Tom Hanks (Disney’s Pinocchio)

Jared Leto (Morbius)

Sylvester Stallone (Samaritan)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Pete Davidson (Good Mourning)

Tom Hanks (Elvis)

Xavier Samuel (Blonde)

Mod Sun (Good Mourning)

Evan Williams (Blonde)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Adria Arjona (Morbius)

Lorraine Bracco (Voice Only) (Disney’s Pinocchio)

Penélope Cruz (The 355)

Fan Bingbing (The 355 and The King’s Daughter)

Mira Sorvino (Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend) 

WORST SCREEN COUPLE

Colson Baker & Mod Sun (Good Mourning)

Both Real Life Characters in the Fallacious White House Bedroom Scene (Blonde)

Tom Hanks & His Latex-Laden Face (and Ludicrous Accent) (Elvis)

Andrew Dominik & His Issues with Women (Blonde)

The Two 365 Days Sequels 

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Blonde

Both 365 Days Sequels (365 Days: This Day and The Next 365 Days)

Disney’s Pinocchio 

Firestarter

Jurassic World: Dominion

WORST DIRECTOR

Judd Apatow (The Bubble)

Colson Baker & Mod Sun (Good Mourning)

Andrew Dominik (Blonde)

Daniel Espinosa (Morbius)

Robert Zemeckis (Disney’s Pinocchio)

WORST SCREENPLAY

Blonde

Disney’s Pinocchio

Good Mourning

Jurassic World: Dominion

Morbius

Blonde leads the pack with eight nods, with stoner "comedy" Good Mourning (written by, co-directed by and starring Colson Baker [a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly]) in second place with seven. Disney's Pinocchio gets six nominations, while Morbius gets five. I'm surprised, I was expecting Morbius to maybe get a few more. 

Blonde is the film adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' novel based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It's not a biopic in the strictest sense, because it's based on Oates' novel and not a biography or autobiography. It's come in for some flack- as a film which criticises the exploitation of Marilyn Monroe by... exploiting the very same persona- but Ana de Armas' performance has been widely praised. She has remained unscathed with today's announcement; director Andrew Dominik, not so much. 

There's a couple of films which can count their lucky stars not to be included on this list- Death On The Nile and Halloween Ends, I'm looking at you. 

As is tradition, the Razzies will be handed out the day before the Oscars, meaning that we'll see which of these stinkers walks away with the prizes on Saturday 11th March 2023.

As is also tradition, I'll be posting my predictions for the main six categories for the 95th Academy Awards a little later today, ahead of the announcement tomorrow afternoon.

Awards Season 2023: BAFTA Film Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 76th British Academy (BAFTA) Film Awards were announced this afternoon, by Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger, Christopher Robin) and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso, The French Dispatch). Here's a selection of the nominees:

BEST FILM

All Quiet On The Western Front

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Tár

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Aftersun

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Brian And Charles

Empire Of Light

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande

Living

Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical

See How They Run

The Swimmers

The Wonder

LEADING ACTOR

Austin Butler (Elvis)

Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Daryl McCormack (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

Bill Nighy (Living)

LEADING ACTRESS 

Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Viola Davis (The Woman King)

Danielle Deadwyler (Till)

Ana de Armas (Blonde)

Emma Thompson (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande)

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)

Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet On The Western Front)

Micheal Ward (Empire Of Light)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Hong Chau (The Whale)

Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Dolly de Leon (Triangle Of Sadness)

Carey Mulligan (She Said)

DIRECTOR

Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)

Todd Field (Tár)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Park Chan-wook (Decision To Leave)

Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King)

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

BAFTA previously announced longlists for all categories, so you can see what was in contention for nominations here.

All Quiet On The Western Front received a record-equalling 14 nominations across the board (it ties with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), whilst The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once got ten apiece. 

Very interesting to note that, whilst The Fabelmans was longlisted in several categories (including Best Film, and Best Actress [although not for Best Director]), it only received one nomination: Best Original Screenplay. I think it may fare better when the Oscar nominations are announced next week. I was also surprised not to see Olivia Colman's name in the Best Actress category for Empire Of Light - BAFTA always tend to skew towards British talent, so I thought she may be included. There was also nothing for Sarah Polley's Women Talking.

The nominees for the 2023 Rising Star award - the only BAFTA awarded by public vote- have also been announced: this year's nominees are Naomi Ackie, Sheila Atim, Emma Mackey, Daryl McCormack, and Aimee Lou Wood. Find out more about them, and cast your vote here.

The 76th BAFTA Film Awards will be handed out in just a month's time (on Sunday 19th February) in a ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated actor Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Withnail & I) will be hosting. 

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 (23rd January) and the Oscars on Tuesday (24th January). As has become tradition, my Oscar nomination predictions will follow sometime on Monday.