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

• AMY (Reviewed, Top Box Office Doc Hits)
• THE HUNTING GROUND (Top Box Office Doc Hits) 
• THE LOOK OF SILENCE (Reviewed)
• MERU (Top Box Office Doc Hits)
• SOMETHING BETTER TO COME

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...

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274 Days Until Nomination Morning!

WOOoooOOo Multiple Oscar Dates Announced!
Important dates for this forthcoming season.  I've included Off-Oscar business, too. So mark your calendars...

• Nov 14th, 2015 Governors Awards. (We don't know who will be honored yet but they generally make the announcement in late summer. They've already chosen two of the women on our top ten most deserving of honoraries list so hopefully we'll get a third this year!)
• Dec 30th, 2015 - Oscar Nomination Balloting Begins

• Jan 8th, 2016 - Oscar Nomination Ballots Due
• Jan 10th, 2016 - The 72nd Annual Golden Globes
• Jan 14th, 2016 - Nomination Morning. Merry Christmas! 
• Jan 23rd, 2016 - Producers Guild Awards
• Jan 30th, 2016 - SAG Awards

• Feb 8th, 2016 - Oscar Nominee Luncheon
• Feb 12th, 2016 - Voting Begins on Winners
• Feb 13th, 2016 - Sci/Tech Awards. Which beauty will host this year? It's usually a rising young actress. Margot Robbie did the honors (with Miles Teller) last year
• Feb 23rd, 2016  - Final Oscar Ballots Due

Your Weekly Reminder The Julianne Moore is an Oscar winner. She won 52 days ago!

The High Holy Nights
• Feb 28th, 2016 -88th Academy Awards. Predictions Ongoing Here.
Yes, I know I need to continue. We'll try to start again tomorrow!
• Feb 26th 2017 -89th Academy Awards. 
• Mar 4th 2018 - 90th Academy Awards. Ohmygod. Soon we're just a decade shy of Oscar's Centennial! They better pull out all the stops in 2028 and have every living Oscar winner there. Hopefully we'll all still be alive to see it!

Birdman Surprises at PGA. Is it a Three Way Best Picture Race?

The Film Experience has never loved the complacency of locked up Oscar races, so it is with great pleasure that I share the news (though you probably didn't miss it) that Birdman won the Producers Guild Award tonight. Do we have an actual race for Best Picture? Have you voted as to who should win yet?

This doesn't mean that Boyhood is in trouble, necessarily, but it's a fascinating curveball, especially given that Boyhood was such a feat of producing; Imagine bankrolling and shepherding a small scale but dozen yaer experiment when you had no idea how it would turn out or if it would work at all?!

As you know from my top ten list I do slightly prefer Birdman to Boyhood but let's forget about Oscar's unfortunate "side-taking" for a minute and face facts: either of those films would make thrilling, atypical and totally deserving Best Picture winners.

More...

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Producers Guild Nominations: Lots of Titles Still In Play For Oscar!

Big awards day, huh? The PGA have announced their preferred excellence in production for 2014. No big surprises so the only thing to talk about is the chaos of what might be nominated for Best Picture in less than two weeks.

PRODUCERS GUILD NOMINATIONS

Feature Film
AMERICAN SNIPER
BIRDMAN
BOYHOOD
FOXCATCHER
GONE GIRL
GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
IMITATION GAME
NIGHTCRAWLER
THEORY OF EVERYTHING
WHIPLASH

... Only five of these made my top 30. Not a consensus year for TFE, then.

PGA's list is very similar to the BFCA top ten only they shoved  American Sniper and Foxcatcher in the Unbroken and Selma slots. The AFI was also similar but that Institute also made room for Into the Woods and Interstellar and Selma. In short: the Best Picture race is still rather confounding when it comes to who might be nominated and how many pictures will be there beyond the frontrunners Boyhood and Birdman and, I guess, Imitation Game... though I had previously thought that Selma would have or had already supplanted it in third spoiler position. [More...]

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Podcast: Sundance Debrief and DGA Reactions

On this week's special cross-country podcast recorded live from Utah, Nathaniel welcomes back Katey Rich in New York, Nick Davis in Chicago, and special guest Guy Lodge, also in Chicago en route to London. Guy and Nathaniel share their Sundance favorites, the chief crossover being Richard Linklater's Boyhood. 

Other Topics include: The Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild winners and what that might mean for 12 Years a Slave and Gravity come Oscar night, categories where we'd enjoy ties on Oscar night, and favorite "overheard" bits in movie theater lines regarding Dallas Buyers Club and Philomena. 

You can listen to the podcast right here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments! 

Which tie would you love to see this year?

Sundance Debrief and Oscar Ties