The Producers Guild of America announced the nominees for its film award, which is one of the best predictors of the Best Picture Oscar. While helping out a few of the awards season outliers, today’s nominations did not help Star Wars: The Force Awakens one bit.
The seventh film in the Star Wars series failed to earn a nomination, but Alex Garland’s indie sci-fi cult hit Ex Machina did. Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian are the other sci-fi/action films that are up for the award.
Straight Outta Compton and Sicario proved that their Oscar hopes are still alive thanks to PGA nominations. The other nominees are films that everyone has expected to be there - Bridge of Spies, The Big Short, Brooklyn, The Revenant and Spotlight.
While it wasn't much of a surprise that The Force Awakens was left out, it's shocking to see that both Carol and Room were nowhere to be found.
While it is possible to still earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination without a PGA nomination, it is really hard to win the top Oscar without consideration from the PGA. Last year’s winner was eventual Best Picture Oscar winner Birdman and only three films earned a PGA nomination and missed the Oscar Best Picture field. Only two films at the 2014 ceremony missed a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
Here’s the full list of nominees, via Variety:
The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
The Big Short
Producers: Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
Bridge of Spies
Producers: Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, Kristie Macosko Krieger
Brooklyn
Producers: Finola Dwyer & Amanda Posey
Ex Machina
This film is in the process of being vetted for producer eligibility
Mad Max: Fury Road
Producers: Doug Mitchell & George Miller
The Martian
Producers: Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Mark Huffam
The Revenant
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Keith Redmon
Sicario
Producers: Basil Iwanyk, Edward L. McDonnell, Molly Smith
Spotlight
Producers: Michael Sugar & Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Blye Pagon Faust
Straight Outta Compton
Producers: Ice Cube & Matt Alvarez, F. Gary Gray, Dr. Dre, Scott Bernstein
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
Anomalisa
Producers: Rosa Tran, Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman
The Good Dinosaur
Producer: Denise Ream
Inside Out
Producer: Jonas Rivera
Minions
Producers: Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy
The Peanuts Movie
Producers: Craig Schulz, Michael J. Travers
The PGA TV nominations were announced in December. The awards are on Jan. 23 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.