Argo Wins at Producer's Guild Awards (PGA), Along with Wreck-it Ralph, andModern Family, and Homeland Win on the TV Side

Tonight Argo is continuing its massive awards haul in Best Picture categories taking home the top prize, the Daryl F. Zanuk Award for Outstanding Producer of a Theatrical Motion Picture, or the Best Picture award at the Producer's Guild of America.  This film has won three major Best Picture awards from the PGA Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), and the Golden Globes.  Will Argo win at the Oscars?  Argo is missing one key component a Best Director nominee, and the last and only film to win without a Best Director nomination was Driving Miss Daisy (1989).  Films also typically win Best Picture, and Best Director, the two honors seems to come as a pair more often than not (but not always).  Let's look at the last few years to see how the PGA has done:

2011: "The Artist"
2010: "The King's Speech"*
2009: "The Hurt Locker"*
2008: "Slumdog Millionaire"*
2007: "No Country for Old Men"*
2006: "Little Miss Sunshine"
2005: "Brokeback Mountain"
2004: "The Aviator"
2003: "The Lord of the Rings: "The Return of the King"*
2002: "Chicago"*
2001: "Moulin Rouge!"
2000: "Gladiator"*

From 2000 through 2011, 8 of 12 films that won at the PGA went on to win at Oscar.  The Last time a film won at PGA and not at the Oscars was 6 years ago, and that was Little Miss Sunshine.  Let's look at the year's Oscar and PGA did not line up.

In 2006 the PGA winner was Little Miss Sunshine and the Oscar winner was The Departed.  First strike Little Miss Sunshine was a comedy with no director nomination, or editing nomination  up against Martin Scorsese who had never won an Oscar.  Little Miss Sunshine won SAG too, while Martin Scorsese won DGA.  To be fair films directed by two people rarely get nominations for both directors at Oscars, West Side Story was an exception, but it was West Side Story.

2005 the PGA went to Brokeback Mountain and the Oscar went to Crash.  Brokeback was the overwhelming favorite, but was missing one key component, a Best Editing nomination, which Crash received and won.  The editing nomination is one of the biggest components or clues as to who can win at the Oscars.  Crash also won SAG, but was not nominated at the Globes, one of the rare times the Best Picture was not even nominated at the Globes.

2004 the PGA went to The Aviator and Oscar went to Million Dollar Baby.  This really was the Aviator vs. Million Dollar Baby Oscars.  The Aviator cleaned up in the tech categories winning Best Editing, Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress.  Meanwhile Million Dollar Baby won Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor.  The Aviator actually won more awards, than the Best Picture winner, but everyone loved Clint!  During this season there was a clear split in what was "the best" critics and SAG went for Sideways, Globes and PGA went for The Aviator, but DGA picking Clint Eastwood was a sign the Oscars were going to change things.

2001 Moulin Rouge! won PGA and A Beautiful Mind won the Oscar.  A Beautiful Mind won the Globe for Best Drama, and Ron Howard won the DGA.  This started to that concept of a lack on consensus trend, which you see in 2004 and 2006.

A Beautiful Mind, Million Dollar Baby, and The Departed (although a little violent for their taste) were or felt like the right picks from the Academy's point of view.  A Beautiful Mind was a clever bio-pic.  Million Dollar Baby was about an upstart female boxer.  The Departed was a chance to finally honor Marty.  The only unexplainable year is 2005, but the lack of a Best Editing nomination helps with that (somewhat).  Brokeback losing was an interesting sign that Hollywood may not be as ok with "the gay thing" as one would expect.

So what does this mean for Argo?  Argo was not the critics darling that was Zero Dark Thirty and Amour, but they are not going to win the top prize this year.  Lincoln has the most nominations, but Daniel Day-Lewis appears to be the only person winning for that right now.  Life of Pi like The Aviator will clean up in the tech categories or at least do well like Hugo last year.  Tonight's SAG awards will either clear things up or make things cloudier and less predictable.  The Weinstein Machine will most likely steam roll the competition giving Silver Linings Playbook the win.  In that case who ends up on top?  The odd answer is Lincoln.  This year looks like those years that lack consensus, and what film came out on top most of the time, the one with little to no solid precursor strength.  That would be Lincoln.  

Argo won here tonight because of the hard work the producers to get this film made, and this film could repeat at the Oscar in Best Picture, this is within the realm of possibility.  The true test will be the guild awards and who wins.  SAG, DGA, WGA, and ACE. If Argo wins any two of these consider the Best Picture race over.  SAG will likely go to Silver Linings Playbook.  DGA could go to Affleck, but they could also pick Spielberg.  WGA will go to Lincoln's script.  ACE (the editing guild) is the one to watch.  If Argo wins this guild and DGA, along with their PGA win then they should out step Lincoln.  Zero Dark Thirty has a great shot with this guild, and this prize on Oscar night, so they should watch their step.  If you want to win your Oscar pool at work, pay attention to these awards.  At the his point Best Picture is still anyone's guess.

Here are the rest of the winners: 

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Wreck-It Ralph (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Producer: Clark Spencer

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama
Homeland (Showtime)
Producers: Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Michael Cuesta, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Michael Klick, Meredith Stiehm

The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television
Game Change (HBO)
Producers: Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Jay Roach, Amy Sayres, Steven Shareshian, Danny Strong

The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy
Modern Family (ABC)
Producers: Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Chris Smirnoff, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television:
American Masters (PBS)
Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television
The Amazing Race (CBS)
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Elise Doganieri, Jonathan Littman, Bertram van Munster, Mark Vertullo

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television
The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
Producers: Meredith Bennett, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Barry Julien, Matt Lappin, Emily Lazar, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Tom Purcell, Jon Stewart

The Award for Outstanding Sports Program
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program
Sesame Street (PBS)
“The Weight of the Nation for Kids: The Great Cafeteria Takeover” (HBO)

Academy Awards Best Picture Revisited: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

I took last weekend off but as the critics pick their top ten lists, and as award season starts to roll out, hear comes 2005 and the year Brokeback Mountain was snubbed as the Best Picture winner.  The other nominees this year were: Crash (winner), Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich.


Brokeback Mountain was directed by the masterful Ang Lee.  Lee's work includes 1995's Sense and Sensibility; his adaptation of one of Jane Austen's most famous books shockingly did not earn him a nomination in the Best Director category.  Lee's first pair of nominations came in 2000, when he was nominated as a producer and director for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  Looking back at this year, Lee was a favorite to win this award, not the eventual winner Steven Soderbergh.  Crouching Tiger earned him wins at the Golden Globes, the Director's Guild Awards, and at the British  version  of the Academy Awards (BAFTA).  Soderbergh was a double nominee that year for Erin Brockovich and Traffic; he won for Traffic.  While Brokeback Mountain did not win for Best Picture, Lee was the winner in 2005 for Best Director, and he deserved this honor.  Lee's direction is often lyrical, and he does a good job capturing every emotion,  and every beautiful aspect of the scenery.  Lee's direction was the best in 2005.


Every time I look back on this year, I yawn.  I took a week of because I honestly have not watch many of the best picture nominees in a long time.  I have watch both both Brokeback Mountain and Crash more than twice, while i have probably only seen the other three films once.  Many people complained that Brokeback was a letdown, or too slow moving, but the beauty of the story always captivated me.  2005 was the year with so much hope, but more letdown.  Peter Jackson was back with a reinvention of King Kong.  While the film's technical aspects were great, and his direction was decent this film was did not live up to the standards.  Woody Allen had two films the first Melinda and Melinda was not good, and the second Match Point was solid, but not deserving of a Best Picture spot.  Rob Marshall was fresh of the train riding high on his year with Chicago and he failed to excite with Memoirs of Geisha.  Sam Mendes had Jarhead which was solid but not good enough to crack the best picture barrier. City of God director Fernando Meirelles followed his this amazing film with the ever solid Constant Gardener. The Constant Gardener was too divisive, but had a lot of support in the technical categories.  The films that ended up having the most support were safe, and solid. The one film that would have added some excitement to this year was David Cronenberg's A History of Violence.  This film should have replaced Capote.


The biggest story to come out of 2005 was the David and Goliath battle between Crash and Brokeback Mountain.  Brokeback Mountain was juggernaut going into the night of the Academy Awards.  This film swept 99% of the major precursor awards, had the most nominations (8),  and was the highest grossing film of the nominees.  These are key elements to a film's eventual win.  There were however two things that were signs the film might lose.  The first sign came when the nominations were announced and Brokeback missed out on an editing nomination.  The Best Picture winner typically has a nomination in this category.  Brokeback won no awards from at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards (SAG).  While none of the actors were slated to win that night, and the Crash ensemble had a lot of famous names this loss showed there was an interesting lack of support.  SAG has gone both ways.  Sometimes SAG honors an ensemble on sheer cast numbers/the amount of famous people within the cast-Traffic, and other times they have crowned films because they are on a steamroll to the Best Picture Oscar-No Country for Old Men.

I will never forget the night Brokeback lost the Oscar for Best Picture.  The film went into the night with 8 nominations including: Best Picture, Best Director-Ang Lee, Best Actor-Heath Ledger, Best Supporting Actress-Michelle Williams, Best Supporting Actor-Jake Gyllenhaal, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Score.  Throughout the evening the film won Score, Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, while Crash won Original Screenplay and Film Editing.  I would have honored Brokeback with Best Cinematography as well but that went to Memoirs of Geisha. As Jack Nicholson cam on stage to announce Best Picture, and as he opened the envelope his reaction was priceless; he was shocked, he said "Wow."  Crash came out of nowhere to undeservingly steal the Best Picture prize (I would not have even nominated the film for Best Picture).  

Brokeback deserved the Best Picture award, and after watching this film last night, I am sure that there was some homophobia that prevented its win.  Even liberal Hollywood has some bigots. Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine who starred in and won an Oscar for Lead Actor in the film Marty stated "I didn’t see it and I don’t care to see it. I know they say it’s a good picture, but I don’t care to see it." Then he added, "If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!"  This is hard to digest, and guess what Ernest, John Wayne never played a sheep herder.  Liberals in Hollywood picked Crash because it focused on an issue that was still controversial, as to not raise suspicion about the deep seated discomfort with a gay male love story.  This was a year the Academy got it so wrong, it's embarrassing.

Top Ten On-Screen Couples of All Time

Great on-screen chemistry is an important aspect to movies, so movies have become so memorable and successful, because the actors have had such great chemistry.  This list focuses on on-screen romances.

10-Wall-E and Eve in Wall-E (2008) Of all the on screen animated couples in history I have been moved most by these two robots falling in love.  This love is not about chemistry (because the characters are animated), but mostly about finding that one person who completes you.  Wall-E is a lovelorn robot who idealizes finding the perfect person from seeing the film Hello Dolly!  Wall-E helps her save the world and you can't help but feel the connection.

9-Billy Crystal (Harry Burns) and Meg Ryan (Sally Albright) in When Harry met Sally (1989) The age old question "can women and men be friends?" Crystal and Ryan have great chemistry, even when they can't stand each other at the beginning of the movie, their on screen banter is great.  As the movie progresses and they become friends you can't but see that there is more to this relationship.  Watching how important they are to each other is beautiful, and seeing that a good relationship blossoms from friendship.

8-Warren Beatty (Clyde Barrow) and Faye Dunaway (Bonnie Parker) in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) The are in love, and they rob banks.  This romanticized tale of the famous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde had two of sexiest movie stars of the time with passionate on screen chemistry.  Their love story and the things they do bind them an interesting way. 

7-Heath Ledger (Ennis del Mar) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack Twist) in Brokeback Mountain (2004)  A forbidden love as these two work together in the mountains they discover something more about themselves, and their relationship.  One cold night their share a tent and their lives are changed forever.  When they see each other for the first time to go "fishing"  their embrace and passionate kiss exude passion.  When Ennis goes to see Jack's parents and finds his shirt in the closet he realizes they had as the song from the movie sad "A love that will never grow old."

6-Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra) and Richard Burton (Mark Anthony) in Cleopatra (1963) Their real life romance was apparent on the screen.  This film is not the best but the connection that Taylor and Burton had on screen was unmistakable.

5-Julia Roberts (Vivien Ward) and Richard Gere (Edward Lewis) in Pretty Woman (1990) The hooker and the millionaire fall in love?  This fairytale story details Roberts going from whore to a girl worth fighting for; she never kisses, but once she starts she can't stop.  As Gere climbs up her fire escape a modern fairytale is born and anything can happen in Hollywood. 

4-Vivien Leigh (Scarlet O'Hara) and Clark Gable (Rhett Butler) in Gone with the Wind (1939)-The passion and the tension between these two is so magnetic.  Rhett was not her first choice, but often in life, love and chemistry are not easy.  Leigh and Gable's  fighting adds to heat that they have and frankly I don't give a damn if you disagree with me.

3-Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) and Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt) in Titanic (1997)-My favorite modern day on screen couple.  DiCaprio and Winslet made it believable that they fell in love during their short time on this boat, and that they were meant to be together.  The last scene when they kiss in the staircase and everyone claps gives me butterflies in my stomach.

2-Katherine Hepburn (Amanda Bonner) and Spencer Tracey (Adam Bonner ) in Adam's Rib (1949)  This is another real life love affair that emulated great on screen chemistry.  In this film the pair are a married couple who are both lawyers and on opposing sides in a court case.  This film is funny, touching, and highlights some of the greatest on screen ever!

1-Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine) and Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund)  in Casablanca (1942)-As time goes by I can't ever forget this memorable on screen couple.  Thir brief love affair is something unforgettable, and it bodes the question do you give eternal love for safety?  Boggie and Bergman are magical together, they play off each other so well.  This iconic film is about their relationship and this pair sold it.