The PGA, WGA, and DGA

It has been quite a long time since I last posted. I decided to take a short break to gather my thoughts, catch up on the contenders, and of course celebrate Christmas and New Years with my family. I now only have three big movies yet to see: Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, and Philomena. I will be seeing Her later this week, the other three I have no idea when I will get the chance to see them, hopefully soon cause I can hardly stand the wait. I hope you readers have enjoyed not only the holidays but also going to see some good movies and maybe some Oscar contenders :) 

In my absence, I missed the opportunity to discuss three of the important awards that help shape a consensus of what the Academy might nominate. Those would be the PGA and the WGA, and the DGA. These awards are similar to that of the SAG, they are guilds that are specific to certain categories, and in these guilds are lots of Academy members. So let me help you understand what they are, why they are important, and who they nominated.

First, the PGA. The PGA is the Producers Guild of America, and like the SAG, it is a guild of movie producers voting for producers, which is the same way for the WGA and the DGA. The people who produce the movies are the ones who win Best Picture. So this guild is essentially the equivalent of Best Picture. The PGA is made up of more than 5000 members, many of whom are Academy members, so this award is a big indicator of what may be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Since 2009 when the Academy switched to having 10 Best Picture nominees, the PGA has successfully predicted at least 7 or more of the nominees, and there has not been a year ever in PGA history that the eventual Best Picture winner was not nominated at the PGA. So, our Best Picture lies within the PGA nominees. Now I give you the Producers Guild nominations: 

Gravity

Her

Nebraska 

American Hustle 

12 Years a Slave

Dallas Buyers Club

Blue Jasmine

The Wolf of Wall Street 

Saving Mr. Banks

Captain Philips 

My thoughts: The shocking snub of Inside Llewyn Davis is baffling. It is one of the most loved and praised movies of the entire year, but the Academy LOVES the Coen brothers, so I expect it to make it to Best Picture at the Oscars, but this means that it will not win Best Picture because it was not nominated here. Dallas Buyers Club is looking like more and more of a threat to steal some movies’ chances come Oscar nomination morning. I am only expecting 9 Best Picture nominees, so that means one of these movies will get left out, which I think will be Blue Jasmine; and then I would take out Dallas Buyers Club and replace it with Inside Llewyn Davis. Maybe. Let me think on that some more. 

Secondly, the WGA. The Writers Guild of America, are screen writers voting for screen writers. With the exception of the first 12 years of the Academy Awards, due to the fact they did not have both Adapted and Original Screenplay nor did they have a set number of nominees, there have been only 2 instances where the Best Picture winner was not nominated for writing. It strengthens your chances to win Best Picture to be nominated and to have a great screenplay. The two movies that won Best Picture without a Screenplay nomination were 1965's winner The Sound of Music and 1997's Titanic, but both were the highest grossing films of their years. Maybe Gravity could be included in that, because I doubt it will get nominated for Screenplay. Back to the WGA; like the other guilds, they also have numerous Academy members in their group so who gets nominated here could determine who gets nominated at the Oscars, with the exception of a few mishaps every year, though they generally match the Adapted and Original Screenplay nominees. So here are the WGA nominees for both Original and Adapted Screenplay:

Original Screenplay 

American Hustle 

Blue Jasmine 

Nebraska 

Dallas Buyers Club 

Her 

Adapted Screenplay 

August: Osage County 

Lone Survivor 

Captain Philips 

The Wolf of Wall Street 

Before Midnight 

My thoughts: I find it VERY, VERY interesting that 12 Years a Slave got left out, Gravity not being nominated is not surprising. If both films fail to get nominated at the Oscars, American Hustle immediately becomes the film to beat for Best Picture, unless we have our third random instance where the Best Picture winner does not get a writing nomination, but because that is so unlikely I expect our Best Picture winner to be among its nominees. If Gravity happens to get nominated for screenplay at the Oscars, that could mean there is huge support for it and could be the one to beat. As the weeks have gone by I think the chances of American Hustle winning Best Picture could be very likely. 

Lastly, the DGA. The Directors Guild of America, this is directors voting for directors. As with the other guilds, it too has many Academy members in its group. Their track record for predicting the Best Director is almost flawless, all but 3 of the directors guild winners went on to win Best Director at the Oscars and also only 2 winners were not nominated at the Oscars, this is since 1950. They generally predict all of the nominees minus maybe one or two every year, but if you want to win Best Director you better hope you at least get nominated and hopefully win the DGA award. Here are their nominees:

Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave 

Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

David O. Russell, American Hustle 

Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street 

Paul Greengrass, Captain Philips 

There have been a lot of things going down in the past few weeks, lots of shifts in the race for most categories. I said from the beginning everything is up in the air, no movie or person is a definite winner. The nominees at the PGA, WGA, and the DGA have just made their case for a nomination that much stronger. We have about a week until Oscar nominations, a lot can happen in a week! 

Looking Ahead

Best Picture is the last category I have yet to break down for you, so expect that soon. Also I will be discussing BAFTA, the British Academy Awards, they are a big predictor of the Oscars, later today after their nominees are announced.  

THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS, our first major award ceremony takes place Sunday! Look out!! I am Pumped. 

I hope you are ready for punches to be thrown because the Awards Arena is about to start heating up! Grab a seat close to the ring, and I will try my best to keep you informed and prepared.