Adam McKay’s The Big Short came up big at the Producers Guild of America Awards last night, winning a key prize before the Academy Awards.
The Big Short won the PGA’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures Saturday night. It’s a key victory for the film, as it beat a field that includes most of the same movies up for the Best Picture Oscar.
The only differences between the PGA field and the Oscar nominees was Sicario, Ex Machina and Straight Outta Compton. The Academy Awards dropped those three, but nominated Room instead.
Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner were the producers cited on The Big Short’s award. Pitt and Gardner also won the award in 2013 for 12 Years A Slave.
The PGA Award is a great predictor of the Oscars. The last movie to win the PGA, but lose at the Oscars was Little Miss Sunshine in 2006. However, the 2013 ceremony had a tie between Gravity and 12 Years A Slave.
Inside Out won the Animated Feature award and Asif Kapadia’s Amy won the Documentary feature prize.
On the TV side, Fargo won the David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form TV; Game of Thrones won the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama; Transparent won the Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy; The Jinx won the award for non-fiction; The Voice took home the Competition TV series award; Last Week Tonight won Live Entertainment & Talk; Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel won Sports Program; Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee won Digital Series; and Sesame Street won Children’s Program.