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Monday
Nov232015

PGA Documentary Nominations: Are They Actually Bad Luck for Oscar?

Precursor awards are like microwave popcorn. It takes a second for the bag to heat up and then things really start popping. Today the Producers Guild of America named their nominees for Theatrical Documentary Features. The Producers Guild Award winners will be presented on Saturday, January 23, 2016 in Los Angeles. 

Documentary Feature Nominees

The only one of these titles I hadn't personally heard of before today was Something Better to Come, a poverty-doc about children living on a gabarge dump in Moscow. More on what this list does and doesn't mean for Oscar after the jump...

It's easy to forget the minutiae of precursor awards once Oscar season wraps and the Oscars themselves fully dominate the memory banks. But here's a brief comparison of this decade's corresponding PGA & Oscar lineups. 

PGA Documentary 2014 Oscar Documentary 2014
• The Green Prince
Life Itself
• Merchants of Doubt
• Particle Fever
• Virunga
Citizen Four
• Finding Vivian Maier
• Last Days in Vietnam
• Salt of the Earth
• Virunga
   
PGA Documentary 2013 Oscar Documentary
2013
• A Place at the Table
• Far Our Isn't Far Enough
• Life According to Sam
We Steal Secrets
• Which Way is the Front Line From Here?
20 Feet From Stardom
• The Act of Killing
• Cutie & The Boxer
• Dirty Wars
• The Square
   
PGA Documentary 2012 Oscar Documentary
2012
• A People Uncounted
• The Gatekeepers
• The Island President
• The Other Dream Team
Searching For Sugar Man
• 5 Broken Cameras
• The Gatekeepers
• How to Survive a Plague
• The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man
   
PGA Documentary
2011
Oscar Documentary
2011
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
• Bill Cunningham New York
• Project Nim
• Senna
• The Union
Undefeated
• Hell and Back Again
• If a Tree Falls
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
• Pina
   
PGA Documentary 2010 Oscar Documentary 2010
• Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot SpitzerQ
• Earth Made of Glass
• Inside Job
• Smash His Camera
Waiting for Superman
• Exit Through the Gift Shop
• Gasland
Inside Job
• Restrepo
• Wasteland

 

As you can see from the charts, the Producers Guild and the Oscar's Doc branch don't align well. There's generally only one shared nominee and only once this decade have the two groups shared a documentary winner (Searching for Sugar Man). Coincidentally that was also the only recent year in which they shared two nominees since The Gatekeepers was nominated for both prizes, too. 

There's more overlap in these charts if you account for the Oscar "finalist list" since the Academy selects their 5 nominees from a 15 wide list that triumphed from a long list of 100+ titles each year). Several of the recent PGA nominees, though not all of them, have almost made it to Oscar's coveted shortlist. So, in short: should you be a filmmaker you should enjoy each "precursor" honor for what it is rather than as "dress rehearsal" for Oscar. Live in the now! Statistically all five of today's nominees are now solid threats for Oscar's finalist list (they're all on the 124 wide longlist that the branch is screening now) but actually bad luck if they're hoping to win an actual naked gold man. 

P.S. Though Documentaries are almost never nominated for Oscars outside of their specific category The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rape on college campuses, does have another way in. Lady Gaga wrote the theme song "Til It Happens To You" so perhaps she'll be up for Best Original Song

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Reader Comments (8)

I think the Melissa Etheridge song from the Al Gore movie was one of the few instances a documentary got 2 nominations

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterDAVID

Or last year with Glen Campbell.

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered Commenterteppo2

The worst thing about last year's Oscars was the shutout of Life Itself. Roger Ebert was beautiful.

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered Commenter/3rtful

Keep Lady Gaga away from the Oscars...and film/TV in general.

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterJohn T

"Best of Enemies" was robbed.

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterKBJr

JohnT - are you kidding me? Lady Gaga was sensational at last years Oscars telecast. And she is impressive on American Horror Story - Hotel.

I'll love to see her perform again at next years Oscars - and as the article states , a few documentaries have been nominated for original song the past few years.

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered Commenterbettes streep

I was NOT a fan of Gaga at all until the Cheek to Cheek era and the culmination of that at the Oscars where I way beyond enchanted. I don't even like The Sound of Music and I got chills.

Anyways, back on topic. I'm totally rooting for Amy because that was one of the best things i've seen this year. Not a single moment where I was completely enthralled with what was happening onscreen. Especially all the bits with Tony Bennett or the surprise sadness immediately after her Grammy win.

November 23, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterDerreck.

LIFE ITSELF was... not great.

November 25, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterGlenn Dunks
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