PGA and WGA Awards Place ‘CODA’ as the Best Picture Favorite One Week Before the Oscars
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards were held this weekend, and they might give us a good hint at what to expect from the 94th Academy Awards next week.
Before we dive into the discussion, here is the list of winners of the PGA Awards:
Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
Being the Ricardos, produced by Todd Black
Belfast, produced by Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, Tamar Thomas
CODA, produced by Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger — WINNER
Don’t Look Up, produced by Adam McKay, Kevin Messick
Dune, produced by Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Denis Villeneuve
King Richard, produced by Tim White, Trevor White, Will Smith
Licorice Pizza, produced by Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson, Adam Somner
The Power of the Dog, produced by Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier
Tick, Tick… Boom!, produced by Julie Oh, Lin-Manuel Miranda
West Side Story, produced by Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger
Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Encanto, produced by Yvett Merino, Clark Spencer — WINNER
Luca, produced by Andrea Warren
The Mitchells vs. The Machines, produced by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Kurt Albrecht
Raya and the Last Dragon, produced by Osnat Shurer, Peter Del Vecho
Sing 2, produced by Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy
Then, for the WGA, we had:
Original Screenplay
Aaron Sorkin, for Being the Ricardos
Adam McKay, for Don’t Look Up; story by Adam McKay and David Sirota — WINNER
Wes Anderson, for The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun; story by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness, Jason Schwartzman
Zach Baylin, for King Richard
Paul Thomas Anderson, for Licorice Pizza
Adapted Screenplay
Siân Heder, for CODA — WINNER
Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, and Eric Roth, for Dune
Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan, for Nightmare Alley
Steven Levenson, for Tick, Tick… Boom!
Tony Kushner, for West Side Story
Even though it started off like a wild horse in the race back in December/January, with these last guild ceremonies, CODA has officially established itself as the big favorite going into the upcoming Academy Awards. Siân Heder’s extraordinary remake of the 2014 French comedy La Famille Bélier is truly the film of 2021, and crowning it as Best Picture is the least the Oscars can do this year to make up for basically blowing up the entire prestige of the Academy.
We found out yesterday that West Side Story lead actress Rachel Zegler, who probably should be nominated in the Best Actress category, isn’t even invited to the ceremony. While this is actually not the Academy’s call, but rather Disney’s, it perfectly encapsulates the endless string of head-scratching decisions the Academy has made for the 94th Oscars, including cutting off eight categories from the televised show.
So far, the only main category that is still an open race is Best Actress. While most awards experts are starting to agree that the trophy will go to Jessica Chastain, names like Nicole Kidman and Olivia Colman should not be crossed off just yet. Voting closed last week, so we just have to wait now. While we will post our official list of predictions later this week, here is a quick look at what the winners list could look like a week from now:
Best Picture: CODA
Best Director: Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Best Actor: Will Smith (King Richard)
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Best Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Best Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Best Original Screenplay: Licorice Pizza
Best Adapted Screenplay: CODA
We also predict that Dune will be the big winner of the night, as it will collect most technical awards, including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Production Design, at the very least. Best Score will be a toss-up between Dune and Encanto, with the Villeneuve-directed science-fiction epic possibly having an edge over the Disney animated movie.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
