The guild awards this weekend were supposed to bring clarity to the Oscars race, but they did anything but. After the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday and the Producers Guild on Sunday, there is still a three-way race between Gravity, 12 Years A Slave and American Hustle. At the PGA Awards, Gravity and 12 Years A Slave both won in the guild’s first ever tie for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award.
The award was presented last night by Ben Affleck, whose Argo won both the Best Picture Oscar and the PGA last year. The Hollywood Reporter notes that he announced that there was a tie, but he announced Gravity first, which made everyone nervous. Then, 12 Years A Slave was picked, which was a huge sigh of relief for director Steve McQueen and his co-producers, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner and Brad Pitt.
If 12 Years hadn’t won the tie, it would have made its Oscar chances even slimmer. The PGA award is the best predictor of the Best Picture Oscar there is, since there has only been seven instances since the Guild began 25 years ago that the winners weren’t the same. Plus, that hasn’t happened since Little Miss Sunshine beat The Departed at the PGA Awards.
American Hustle won the SAG Award for Best Ensemble Saturday night, which gave that film’s crew reason to be excited this weekend, but the PGA loss has to hurt. Argo won both awards last year on its way to winning the Best Picture Oscar.
Fruitvale Station received the previously-announced Stanley Kramer Award. Disney’s Frozen won the top award for animated film.
As Deadline notes, the major TV winners on the night were Breaking Bad (Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama); Behind the Candelabra (David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television); Modern Family (Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy); and The Voice (Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television).
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