For those of you who don’t know, Hollywood is a huge union town. Nearly every job associated with a film set has a union attached, Producers Guild of America, Director’s Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, Writer’s Guild of America, Art Director’s Guild, Editor’s Guild, Costume Designer’s Guild… you get the picture. There are a lot of unions in Hollywood. (These unions are a good thing for many reasons, I’ll discuss why in a later post.)
Every year during Award Season, each of these guilds award the best films in their field. Arguably, the most important guild award ceremonies are the Producer’s Guild of America (PGA), Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), and Director’s Guild of America (DGA). These awards usually predict Oscar nominations and wins better than any other award show or critic. Winning these Awards is important, as these awards are awarded by professional peers and not a random jury.
The PGA and WGA annouced their award nominations today:
PGA:
Best Producer of a Feature Film:
- 127 Hours (Produced by: Danny Boyle and Christian Colson)
- Black Swan (Produced by: Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, and Brian Oliver)
- Inception (Produced by: Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas)
- The Social Network (Produced by: Dana Brunetti, Ceán Chaffin, Michael De Luca, and Scott Rudin)
- The Kids Are All Right (Produced by: Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray)
- The Fighter (Produced by: David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, and Mark Wahlberg)
- The King’s Speech (Produced by: Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, and Gareth Unwin)
- The Town (Produced by: Basil Iwanyk and Graham King)
- Toy Story 3 (Produced by: Darla K. Anderson)
- True Grit (Produced by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, and Scott Rudin)
Best Producer of a Animated Film:
- Despicable Me (Produced by: John Cohen, Janet Healy, and Christopher Meledandri)
- Toy Story 3 (Produced by: Darla K. Anderson)
- How to Train Your Dragon (Produced by: Bonnie Arnold)
The rest of the nominations are here.
These are really solid nominations. I’d love to see Inception win this, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Darla K. Anderson get 2 awards for Toy Story 3. The rest of the nominations are really solid as well, I’m even okay with Glee getting a nomination from the producers because even though the show sucks content wise, its a very well produced show. The PGA got the television nominations right, which also makes me happy. These awards will be hosted by Judd Apatow and will be on January 22nd.
WGA:
Original Screenplay
- Black Swan (Screenwriters: Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin)
- Inception (Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan)
- The Fighter (Screenwriters: Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson)
- The Kids Are All Right (Screenwriters: Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg)
- Please Give (Screenwriter: Nicole Holofcener)
Adapted Screenplay:
- 127 Hours (Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy; Based on the book
Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston)
- The Social Network (Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The
Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich)
- I Love You Phillip Morris ((Written by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; Based on
the book by Steven McVicker)
- The Town (Screenplay by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard; Based
on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan)
- True Grit (Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on the novel by
Charles Portis)
Documentary Screenplay:
- Enemies of the People (Written, Directed, Filmed and Produced by Rob Lemkin
and Thet Sambath)
- Freedom Riders (Written, Produced and Directed by Stanley Nelson)
- Inside Job (Produced, Written and Directed by Charles Ferguson)
- The Two Escobars (Written by Michael Zimbalist, Jeff Zimbalist)
- Gasland (Written and Directed by Josh Fox)
- Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)? (Written and
Directed by John Scheinfeld
Again, solid nominations. I will be very upset if Christopher Nolan does not win for Best Original Screenplay. I read the screenplay recently (as well as seen the movie 4 times in theaters) and I’ve also seen most of the other nominations and I just don’t think they’re better. No other live-action screenplay can be described with a diagram. (Yes, Nolan has a diagram basically explaining the story in the published copy of the Inception Shooting Script.) If Aaron Sorkin doesn’t win Best Adapted Screenplay it will be a crime against humanity. I’m so glad that Inception and The Social Network aren’t in the same screenwriting categories because I’d be horribly conflicted about the winner. The other scripts are good, but those two are works of art. I’m surprised at the nominees for Best Documentary Screenplay because I really expected to see Waiting for Superman nominated. Pretty much every documentary critic is madly in love with that film and its even got a little buzz for a Best Picture Nom at the Academy Awards. I don’t really know who should win, I haven’t seen any of these films. But I will try to see them before the ceremony. These awards will be held on February 5th.
Extremely Behind the Camera 