Producer's Guild Loves Bertie, Disses Zuck
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 9:23AM 
True Blood's Joe Mangianello presents an awardThe PGA (the producers not the golfers) have chosen The King's Speech as the best produced film of 2010. [Dumb joke] No word yet on which film the golfers prefer... maybe True Grit with all those wide open spaces or The Kids Are All Right with its landscaping subplot? [/Dumb joke] Stammering Bertie's win may come as a surprise to the producers of The Social Network who are very used to winning things for their exciting film about the billion dollar rise of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Why it's almost as if the Producers Guild have been reading all these speculative premature blog pieces "can TKS take it from TSN?" and decided that since they were producers of entertainment... they ought entertain by raising the stakes.
I'm not sure that this makes it a dead heat but it definitely raises one eyebrow. Que?
This Year's Prizes:
Theatrical Motion Picture: THE KING'S SPEECH
Animated Feature: TOY STORY 3
Documentary Feature: WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'
Episodic Television Comedy: MODERN FAMILY
Episodic Television Drama: MAD MEN (third consecutive win)
Longform Television: THE PACIFIC
Non-Fiction Television: DEADLIEST CATCH
Live Entertainment and Competition: Television THE COLBERT REPORT
and the honorary non-competition prizes
Milestone Award: JAMES CAMERON
Norman Lear Achievement (Television): TOM HANKS and GARY GOETZMAN
David O. Selznick Award (Film): SCOTT RUDIN
Visionary Awards LAURA ZISKIN
Stanley Kramer Award (which usually goes to a film, not a person): SEAN PENN
Amy Adams and Helen Mirren presenting...
For what it's worth...
here are the last 20 PGA winners and how they fared with Oscar
2009 The Hurt Locker (won)
2008 Slumdog Millionaire (won)
2007 No Country For Old Men (won)
2006 Little Miss Sunshine (lost)
2005 Brokeback Mountain (*sniffle*)
2004 The Aviator (lost)
2003 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (won)
2002 Chicago (won)
2001 Moulin Rouge! (lost which we knew it would but god bless them for going there.)
2000 Gladiator (won)
1999 American Beauty (won)
1998 Saving Private Ryan (lost)
1997 Titanic (won)
1996 The English Patient (won)
1995 Apollo 13 (lost)
1994 Forrest Gump (won)
1993 Schindler's List (won)
1992 The Crying Game (lost)
1991 The Silence of the Lambs (won)
1990 Dances With Wolves (won)
1989 Driving Miss Daisy (won -- this was the first year of the PGA prize)
Or, in the past 21 years, Oscar lines up 66% of the time. If you can find a pattern with the losers, you're my god. I can't see any patterns. All kinds of films win or lose, from big to small to American to British.
In other news: Amy Poehler and Justin Timberlake were there. Funny thing is, this is EXACTLY what happens when I talk* to Amy Poehler.
* ...and by "talk to" I mean watch her on Parks and Recreation. Aren't you glad that show is finally back?
What do you make of The King's Speech win here? A fluke or a real and present danger for Zuck and company come Oscar night?
Reader Comments (24)
This is... odd. THIS was the one award that finally got away? I would've thought it would be the Globe. If TKS had won that too, I'd be worried. But this really does feel like a simple matter of "we're bored with TSN winning everything and wanna mix it up a bit".
It's sad, though, that TSN's crazy streak was broken. Just seems wrong for it to have ended here...
adam -- even from a producers standpoint it does seem odd. Isn't it actually harder to get a big budget serious american drama produced than a low budget british period piece? Given the ratio of such films that are produced.
as I was writing on my blog,
if THE FIGHTER would've won this, and not King, than it would've really meant something!!! because we know Fighter is probably taking SAG ensemble, so that + PGA would've really counted as competition.
But this win really was a nice surprise just because it gave something different. it makes me a bit more excited about the race even though, strangely enough, The King's Speech is the one I like the least from the Top 11 BP contenders :D
Oh how to understand these different voting bodies? I'm not sure if they're bored with TSN winning everything or perhaps they realized that there in fact were other great movies this year.
I liked TSN and I haven't seen TKS (hooray, we're in abberviation territory) but I can't get upset about anything that rejects groupthink and gets some interest back in the race.
Thank you, God! Now the race becomes more interesting!
Wait, is The Fighter guaranteed best ensemble? If the producers are tired of seeing TSN win, who's to say the actors aren't? Or even the directors? I know I am. I also do think that The King's Speech plays remarkably well to the older crowd.
Nathaniel, I'm not sure how much budget has to do with difficulty in getting a film produced, actually. I've got to imagine that when you don't have much money to play with, penny pinching becomes paramount.
Now if they just didn't participate in groupthing vis-a-vis Mad Men and Waiting for Superman, I'd be happy.
I love that you spend even three minutes of your day thinking about which of the Best Picture contenders would be most beloved by professional golfers. (I'm sure you're right about Grit.) You are inimitable.
Nick -haha. WELL... it was more like 5 minutes. that's how crazy i am. I actually looked at the big list of movies. Remarkable really how few movies had anything like lush greens this year.
OMG. just thought of one: South Korea's MOTHER has whole scenes set at a golf course!
I was very shocked when I read the news. VERY. After its massive sweep carried on to the Globes I just thought this meant the unanimous sweep and support would just continue until Oscar night. Especially considering it wasn't actually winning a lot of tech awards or for its acting, but mainly the Pic/Dir/Wri trifecta. Because of that I thought that it would probably walk away with PGA, DGA and WGA with ease from the "big" ones left. Other guilds such as Art Designers, Costumes, Eddies, etc were maybes but even then I thought it had a good shot. The one "big" award where I thought it was vulnerable was SAG. Apparently, it's not that way. Yeah, it's still obviously in the lead, but I think it does mean quite a few things. 1. PGA was the first stop that used a preferential system just like AMPAS. That could mean something. 2. Losing somewhere where it seemed TSN would triumph more easily shows that despite the massive hype, it can lose. It sounds silly but it seems like yes, it can lose. People are apparently willing to not follow the leader everywhere. It also gives the whole thing an interesting turn especially for when we reach the awards where it seemed TSN was the most vulnerable but that it wouldn't lose because of its sweep. Since people are willing to not follow the huge sweeper. BAFTA and SAG for example. They seemed the two big stops where TSN *could* lose, but that maybe it just wouldn't because it was winning everything. But now that it's actually lost something it didn't seem it would lose, well, it's a big hit I think. And not winning those (SAG/BAFTA) could certainly change things. Oh and especially because even though The Fighter is the favorite, I can see The King's Speech win at SAG just as easily. I still think WGA and DGA are more than likely wins, but still...the race that *almost* seemed over is...well, not over...yet.
Do TV and film people all vote for everything for the PGA?
That could explain why King's Speech did better than expected, since Hooper is a fairly recent convert from television and, presumably, has built-in respect among them.
Unfortunately this is the only pref ballot body we get, right? Oh well- it's not enough to dissuade me from picking TSN for the Oscar.
another thought though -- couldn't tihs actually HELP The Social Network.
maybe it's a stretch but some people do believe that Oscar voters resent being told what to vote for (i don't personally believe this since Brokeback Mountain is the only case where they "rebelled") and so maybe TSN not seeming like such a YOU MUST VOTE FOR THIS will cool a little of the potential arrogant YOU MUST type of resistance?
(Ignoring disappointing news) Nice to see Parks and Recreation love. I just love Aubrey Plaza. And Nat, I was just about to mention Mother!
I fail to see how this helps TSN but it just helps TKS a little. I wish people would stop saying only old people like TKS. No proof of this really.
What if Nolan wins the DGA?
Anyway thanks for posting that photo of the True Blood actor.
I think golfers might be huge Secretariat fans.
I thought when it said "[Dumb joke]" that was referring to you saying that The King's Speech won and I was like "Ha, yeah, that was a dumb joke." And then I realized "[dumb joke]" was referring to the golfers and The King's Speech actually did win. Whoa.
Someone suggested (on another site) that the Scott Rudin vote might have been split between the Social Network and True Grit, since he produced both. ... Does anyone know the lineup of the night? Did Rudin receive his honorary award before or after he didn't win the PGA for Social Network? I wonder what kind of reaction that created in the famously tempestuous producer...
San Fran Cinema--I read that Rudin received his honorary award before the Producer of the Year award was announced.
And Helen Mirren presented the final award and asked if it was some kind of setup.
Fabrizzio -- oops. that does sound like i'm dissing TKS.
I'm 27, and I enjoyed and was much more moved by TKS than by TSN. So the PGA choice was good news to me.
I think The Social Network will win the big one. It's branded as the movie "that defined a generation" along with any of that marketing bogus. I don't think the producers' choice will create much of a difference with the ballots of the AMPAS.
I saw the movie. I thought it was cute (my apologies for the lack of a better term, but hey, the actors were). Its not the best Hollywood offered last year. But the Oscars are not about awarding the best, its about politics and marketing. Personally, I thought The Kids Are All Right was the best. But that's just the lesbian in me.
eh, i'm a little nervous now.
it's starting to seem a bit 2001ish; the daring, younger votes being split amongst several films with popular fan bases (THE SOCIAL NETWORK, BLACK SWAN, INCEPTION, TOY STORY 3) while the more conservative, traditional voters rally behind the same film (THE KING'S SPEECH)... i fear the latter could be this year's A BEAUTIFUL MIND, gulp
I was all blase and 'don't be silly, it was just a one off' until that last post. Because the scenario Ryan suggests - it sounds oddly plausible, no?
Which isn't to say that I think TKS is anything like as dire as ABM, but still, if this happens, its sure gonna rankle. ABM's win still gets my hackles up!
While we're mentioning this, I'm 17 and I enjoyed The King's Speech much more than TSN. It was just much more beautiful and better acted, in my opinion.
Also, if your looking for a pattern with the losers, the PGA picked an Oscar loser every four years or so until their 'New Media Council' was formed. just sayin :)
This seems to be just a bump in the road for TSN, in my ill-informed opinion haha. Though I'm still picking Colin Firth for Best Actor.