Producers Guild Wins for Spielberg and Actors Behind the Cameras
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 1:01PM 
Another day, another awards ceremony. Who can keep up?!?
Last night The Producers Guild of America gave their big prize, a transparent glassy gargantuan paperweight, to the man who helped The Artist come into being, Thomas Langmann. One thing that's not being much noted -- since behind the screen forces rarely get attention -- is that Langmann was once a regular presence in front of the camera in France and he's actually the son of director Claude Berri (of Jean de Florette/Manon of the Springs fame!). Of course right at the moment he's best known Stateside as 'that guy who was trying to tell his heartfelt story at the Golden Globes while Uggie was doing his tricks' and distracting the television cameras... as discussed on the most recent podcast. Another actor turned producer, Michael Rapaport was also honored (along with his co-producers) for the documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life.
Finally, Steven Spielberg was honored twice. He got a career-tribute and also won for The Adventures of Tin Tin because in Hollywood they like to re-reward the already abundantly successful people. (Notice how honorary Oscars often go to people who've already won Oscars instead of people who never won! Such a strange impulse. Perhaps it's a bit like paying tithing or making sacrifices to your gods?)
Winners List
Motion Picture The Artist
Motion Picture, Animated The Adventures of Tintin
Motion Picture, Documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life
Brangelina at the PGA. Sans cane!
TV, Long Form Downton Abbey
TV, Drama Boardwalk Empire
TV, Comedy Modern Family
TV, Competition Amazing Race
(speaking of rewarding the same things over and over again...)
TV, Non Fiction American Masters
TV, Live Entertainment/Talk The Colbert Report
Tobey and The Bening were among the many big names presenting
Vanguard Award Stan Lee (the award was presented by Spider-Man himself Tobey Maguire)
David O Selznick Award Steven Spielberg
Stanley Kramer Award Angelina Jolie for In the Land of Blood and Honey.
(For young Oscar obsessives in training out there Stanley Kramer was famous for "message movie" staples like Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and the like)
Milestone Award CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves
Reader Comments (6)
I think Brangelina should bring the cane to the Oscars, but have Angie use it, just for kicks.
As a Tribe Called Quest and long suffering Michael Rapport fan, I'm happy for the documentary win (it's called Beats Rhymes & Life btw).
I see the title was only mistyped when listing the winners, sorry!
Re: Stanley Kramer. I once taught a class where I illustrated the course content with parts of films (because there's nothing better than a movie). But I did find it puzzling that I had to explain the concept of the "humanist" director like Jean Renoir and Akira Kurosawa. I also had to explain that the concept of "social justice" used to be a part of mainstream Hollywood movies. It was strong-willed people like Stanley Kramer who insisted that this remain as part of the conversation, to not be silenced or cave in. That's why the award is named after him.
I don't think it should matter if someone has an oscar or not when talking about honorary oscars. The honorary oscar should be about career achievement in total (or a specific but not categorizable achievement, like Toy Story or Snow White are). The sum of Spielberg's work is greater than the individiual components.
Arguing that honorary oscars should only go to those without oscars diminishes that. It's like saying: "Oops, sorry nothing you did was good enough on it's own. Here's a trinket."
Colbert, Boardwalk Empire and A Tribe Called Quest. Best award show evvva.