The Producers Guild of America announced its nominations earlier this week for its 25th Annual Awards show happening Jan.19th, 2014. Like many award shows this year the nominees run the entire gamut from indies to established blockbusters, something that makes picking a winner all that much harder.
To help the process along let’s consider the prize itself. Since this is the PGA and the Writers’ or Actors Guild the criteria for winning should be a little different. Writers and actors help to create the finished product but it is the producers that really bring the film/TV show together from start to finish. That is what needs to be considered when playing in this arena.
With that in mind, choosing a best picture becomes a little easier. Nominees this year include American Hustle, Nebraska, Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years A Slave, Saving Mr. Banks, Her and Gravity. All of those are stellar films worthy of praise but Wolf of Wall Street and 12 Years A Slave blow them all away in production-value. American Hustle is a close second but the level of detail involved in each of them is breathtaking. Given that Scorcese is involved Wolf of Wall Street is the most likely to win that category.
Things get a little bit trickier when it comes to animated movies. This year’s nominees include The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Epic, Frozen and Monsters University. While Despicable Me 2 earned far more money at the box office Monsters University really deserves the credit with this one. As with any Pixar film, it took years to get made and every frame has been thought out. While not nearly as good as the first one, it is still above and beyond efforts like The Croods and Epic.
Strangely the nominees for the television medium and pretty much the same as in every other awards show this year making it a rather stale race. While each of the shows have earned consideration some amount of variety, even an underdog nominee out of left field, would be a nice change. Picking the same shows year after year gets dull.
Being a producer is a tough gig and one that rarely gets the recognition it deserves. 2013 was a year of amazing production in every medium, one cannot help but wonder what 2014 will hold in store for audiences.