Those differences made sense, as in each case a smaller, lower-budget movie (“Parasite,” “Moonlight,” and “Spotlight”) took home the Oscar over a movie of scale and scope. And as expected, this year’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of a Motion Picture went to Chloé Zhao’s magic-hour road trip “Nomadland,” as voted on by the guild’s 8,000 members. Searchlight’s frontrunner looms large in a field of small movies, as it keeps racking up wins on its way to multiple Oscars come April 25.
“We’re proud to have produced a film about community and what connects us,” said producer Peter Spears, who with producer-star Frances McDormand brought the book by Jessica Bruder to Zhao to adapt into a film. If there was going to be an upset in the Oscar race, this was the chance to mark a change in momentum for Aaron Sorkin’s fading Best Picture contender “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” But that did not happen. As usual the PGA Awards (hosted by an energetic Tracee Ellis Ross) imported a slew of Oscar nominees to present prizes or introduce the 10 feature motion picture contenders, including Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”), and Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”). Anyone still hoping to put a dent in the “Nomadland” winning streak will look to the Screen Actors Guild Awards (April 4) and BAFTAs (April 11), where several films boast a home-team advantage: “The Father,” “Sound of Metal,” and “Promising Young Woman.” Netflix
Many producers at the PGA event touched on the challenges presented by the pandemic, which demanded new levels of safety protocols and nurturing. “The term producer took a much larger feeling in my mind — a much larger role,” said Chris Licht of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Liz Tigelaar recalled the late director Lynn Shelton, who directed the fiery finale of “Little Fires Everywhere,” and turned up in the In Memoriam section along with Tom Pollock, Stuart Cornfeld, Buck Henry, Irrfan Khan, Carl Reiner, Kirk Douglas, Gene Reynolds, Fred Silverman, Steve Bing, Allan Burns, Ronald Schwary, Jamie Tarses, and more. 2020, said Anthony Mackie, “brought a seemingly endless series of losses.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
