The Producers Guild of America, the organization that celebrates the art of producing and represents the interest and well-being of its members, has announced its list of nominees across major film and television categories for the 34th annual PGA Awards, which will be held Saturday, February 25, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The PGA Awards' most highly coveted prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures is dominated by popular sequels such as Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Top Gun: Maverick.
20th Century Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water was 2022's highest-grossing film worldwide. The Avatar sequel has also broken into the top-10 highest-grossing films of all time whilst showcasing not only the ability to fill cinemas in the post-pandemic era but the ability to shoot high-quality motion capture sequences in an underwater setting. Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick was 2022's second-highest-grossing film worldwide and the Tom Cruise starring Top Gun sequel that was decades in the making won widespread critical acclaim. Another big-budget, blockbuster sequel was the Disney/Marvel Studios offering Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, 2022's sixth-highest-grossing film worldwide. Of the ten films nominated for the PGA's biggest prize, just a single entry came from one of Hollywood's many streaming studios, namely the fourth sequel on the list, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which earned Netflix's sixth-biggest film debut after a limited theatrical release. The widely praised Warner Bros biopic Elvis is also included in the list and its inclusion could very well be down to Austin Butler's incredible performance in the title role.
Indie films, usually the darlings of award season, make up the rest of the PGA's list in the major category. A24 has snuck two films onto the list Everything Everywhere All at Once—stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan are having a very successful awards season so far—and The Whale, which is providing an acting renaissance for lead actor Brendan Fraser, a hot pick for Best Actor honors at this year's Oscars. Director Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, widely considered to be one of his best films yet is Universal's entry on the list and the Cate Blanchett starring musical drama from Focus Features, Tár, which received a six-minute standing ovation upon its debut at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Rounding out the list is Searchlight's The Banshees of Inisherin, which reunites the über-talented writer/director Martin McDonagh with stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Whichever producing team lands the PGA's most sought-after prize for their film will be hopeful of repeating that success at the Oscars. In three of the last four awards seasons, the PGA's main prize recipient has gone on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, with the only exception being in 2019, when 1917 was awarded by the PGA and Parasite won Best Picture at the Oscars.
Here's the full list of nominees for the 2023 PGA Awards:
Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios)
Elvis (Warner Bros.)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
Tár (Focus Features)
Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures)
The Whale (A24)
Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (A24)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (Illumination)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (DreamWorks Animation)
Turning Red (Pixar)
Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama
Andor (Disney+)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Ozark (Netflix)
Severance (Apple TV+)
The White Lotus (HBO)
Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy
Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Barry (HBO)
The Bear (FX)
Hacks (HBO Max)
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)
The Dropout (Hulu)
Inventing Anna (Netflix)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)
Pam & Tommy (Hulu)
Award for Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
Fire Island (Hulu)
Hocus Pocus 2 (Disney+)
Pinocchio (Disney+)
Prey (Hulu)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)
Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
30 for 30 (ESPN)
60 Minutes (CBS)
George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO)
Lucy and Desi (Amazon Prime Video)
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (CNN)
Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Award for Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television
The Amazing Race (CBS)
Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls (Amazon Prime Video)
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (VH1)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Voice (NBC)
Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Picture
All That Breathes (HBO)
Descendant (Netflix)
Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary/Neon)
Navalny (CNN/Warner Bros.)
Nothing Compares (Showtime)
Retrograde (National Geographic)
The Territory (National Geographic)
Outstanding Sports Program
Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Netflix)
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions (HBO)
Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers (Hulu)
McEnroe (Showtime)
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off (HBO Max)
Outstanding Children’s Program
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV+)
Green Eggs and Ham (Netflix)
Sesame Street (HBO Max)
Snoopy Presents: It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown (Apple TV+)
Waffles + Mochi’s Restaurant (Netflix)
Outstanding Short-Form Program
Better Call Saul: Filmmaker Training (AMC)
Love, Death + Robots (Netflix)
Only Murders in the Building: One Killer Question (Hulu)
Sesame Street’s #ComingTogether Word of the Day Series (Cartoon Network)
Tales of the Jedi (Disney+)