I’m in an odd position this year, because I’ve actually seen the films considered the leading contenders for the Best Picture Oscar. I saw The Social Network, Black Swan and The King’s Speech. I’ve also seen Inception, The Kid’s Are All Right and The Town, although I doubt any of those films will be in major Best Picture contenders. The only ones I’ve yet to see are The Fighter, 127 Hours and True Grit (which I’ll be seeing next weekend!). Most critics and Oscars-watchers have already declared The Social Network the film to beat for all of the big awards. So imagine everyone’s surprise when The King’s Speech took home the big prize at this weekend’s Producer’s Guild Awards! Yes, my personal favorite movie of the year, The King’s Speech, is back in contention for all of the big prizes (Best Picture, Best Director), and not just Best Actor for Colin Firth. YAY!
The king, it turns out, isn’t ready to give up his crown. In a surprise win, The King’s Speech took the top prize Saturday at the Producer Guild of America Awards, giving The Social Network its first setback of the trophy season and setting up a possible showdown at the Academy Awards. The drama about King George VI’s struggles with stuttering picked up the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award — the guild’s equivalent of best picture — for producers Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin.
Speech was considered an underdog to Social, a skewering profile of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Social had picked up key pre-Oscar award wins for best picture, including the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice Award. Both Speech and Social are expected not only to collect a raft of Oscar nominations Tuesday, but to head the 10-film best picture field when the Academy Awards are handed out Feb. 27.
Over the past 21 year, the PGA best picture winner has matched the Oscar best picture winner 14 times, including the last three years. Last year, The Hurt Locker claimed the PGA award on its way to the best picture Academy Award. The Producers Guild also has been a bellwether for Academy Award nominations.
Last year, the first that the Oscar went to 10 nominees, the Producers Guild followed suit. This year’s PGA nominees —Social, 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, The Town, Toy Story 3 andTrue Grit— are considered leading contenders for a best picture nomination Tuesday.
The PGA gave its best animated film award to Toy Story 3 over Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon, while Waiting for Superman won the best documentary feature award.
The guild recognized television as well. Best comedy-series went to Modern Family, while Mad Men claimed best dramatic series. The Colbert Report picked up the trophy for best live entertainment television and The Deadliest Catch won for non-fiction TV.
[From USA Today]
Yes, the guild awards (producer’s, director’s, writer’s, actor’s) are all considered the bellwethers for the Oscars. And that makes me so, so happy. It’s not that I didn’t like The Social Network – I did. I liked it a lot, and I thought it was a very well-done film, from the script, to the direction, to the acting (minus Justin Timberlake). But The King’s Speech was just flat-out brilliant, enjoyable and amazing. In addition to Best Picture, I hope TKS will also be a major contender for Best Adapted Screenplay, because David Seibler’s script was magnificent (and better than Aaron Sorkin’s excellent script for The Social Network). All in all, an embarrassment of riches. Which is means this year’s Oscars will be really good!
Photos courtesy of PRPhotos.
Ok, Kaiser, now I must go see “The King’s Speech”. I really hope it gets nominated for best pic and Colin for Best actor.
I want “The Town” to get at least the nomination, just to get a little Hamm red carpet porn. And to see Affleck get some love for making a great movie.
My favorite picture I have seen this year was “Get Low”. With Robert Duvall and Bill Murray. I am beyond baffle why FOX did NOTHING to get it recognized. It really is a great movie.
I also have seen The Social Network, Black Swan, 127 hours and The King’s Speech. And they were all fine films. With The King’s Speech being the favorite among them. Simply cause I have alot of love for beautiful period pieces.
Not only Firth but Pearce was great in it.
But I am at a lost why everyone is so batty over The Social Network. It was okay but not Oscar worthy. Then again it has a studio behind it pushing it.
I was talking about this earlier, good competition this year! I hope Colin Firth wins Best Actor, but I still would like Aaron Sorkin to win for Screenplay. As far as Best Directing I vote The Social Network but I’m so unsure about Best Picture: in my mind, it’s a tie, so whoever wins that one, I’m happy.
We’ll see! It is true that The Academy loves corsets and suits, so…who knows?
He’s so beautiful….
Oh Kaiser this news made my day. The Social network is OK but it’s not Oscar worthy. The best thing about it was Andrew Garfield and I’m bummed that there was no major pushing for Never Let me Go because he and Carey Mulligan were marvelous in this movie. However, I’ll keep my fingers and toes crossed for King’s Speech, Colin Firth, Christian Bale and for any actress but Natalie Portman. She did an OK job playing crazy Natalie Portman but she wasn’t Nina.
There has been a lot of controversy around The King’s Speech. A few days ago, I read an article that basically said that it may not be nominated by the Academy due to the suppression of history. According to an email that was sent around to Academy members, there are claims that the history of the king (allegedly being a Nazi sympathiser) was suppressed and that the Jewish members of the Academy would not vote The King’s Speech.
If this is true, then these awards should really be questioned. I thought films won based on their direction/story/quality, not political reasons, based on little proof.
The article is here:
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/nazi-smear-hits-kings-speech-oscar-campaign-20110123-1a17a.html
I liked True Grit, but its the only movie I’ve seen out of any of these. I’m going to see The King’s Speech and Social Network hopefully before the Oscars.
wait SAG award because Social Network again is the movie to lose even if many journalists think “the fighter” could win SAG ensemble(because it’s the best-acted movie of the year and it’s a performance-driven movie).
On “the King’s speech”, i prefer this movie to Social Network because you laugh,you smile, you cry,you empathize with the characters and the movie is well-made and the story is interesting whereas for Social Network,it’s a very very well-made movie(almost perfect) but it’s cold,the directing is very detached with the characters(i never empathized with the characters)
@fandora: i thought Portman is very great in Nina:her acting looks alike Dicaprio’s acting in Shutter Island but contrary to Dicaprio, i never saw her to act like that and the movie is better(even if a few grotesque)
I’ve always heard it was his brother and Wallis Simpson that were the nazi sympathizers. And then, wasn’t Chamberlain the prime minister while George VI was king? I’m pretty sure Chamberlain didn’t really do anything to stop or question Hitler (he was the “appeasement” guy, I think. Ohhhh, european history, it’s been sososo long!)
In any event, the oscars aren’t about “who’s a stand up guy?”, they’re about great films (and who can kiss up enough to get the votes!)
i dont get the fuss over the stupid facebook movie. really? beating out an utterly original screenplay and the director of inception? what a joke. I hate that this is political and not about the actual best, most brilliant movie winning, but some campaigning done by a studio. that movie is not oscar worthy.
the king wasnt a nazi sympathizer. his brother edward was, and he abdicated, thankfully, to be with wallis simpson. it is likeely ww2 would have looked a lot different had edward not abdicated.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the last 45 minutes of the film. Some impatient and politically incorrect broad stood up and screamed “Just spit it out you incredibly luscious speciman of royal man-dong”.
My husband was so embarrassed for her. (We’re going again next weekend).
The King’s Speech was a flawless movie, but it has some disadvantages that might cost it the Oscar. One, the subject matter is British (the Academy prefers American films). Two, it’s about one man overcoming his struggles, while the Academy likes “big” movies with social significance.
Facebook changed the world, it has social relevance to almost everybody on the planet, and it shows Americans as leading the world, so the Academy would like it, regardless of how good the movie actually is.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for King’s Speech and CF.
Like many others, I don’t get Social Network’s appeal as a front runner for Best Movie, and I could do without Ms Smugness NP for Best Female.
What is not to like about Colin Firth Here he is this weeking in London riding his bike to the local store.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1349962/The-Kings-Speechs-Oscar-favourite-Colin-Firth-gets-bike.html
Couldn’t agree more. Just saw The Social Network, and while it was a great movie, The King’s Speech was so much better. I hope it wins!!
I too thought this was a fabulous film and would love to see it win Best Picture” (and Colin Firth win Best Actor for his amazing performance). I haven’t seen “The Social Network, but don’t understand what’s so great about a movie about Facebook. Maybe it’s because I’m not on Facebook and have no interest in internet social networking. Mark Zuckerberg was profiled on “60 Minutes” a few weeks ago, so I don’t need to spend $12 to find out how the company was founded.
I hope The King’s Speech wins. It was just so good.
Hautie – Get Low was awful: I watched it very carefully and, no, it won’t get supported by its studio. (Nice little baby smile at the very end, though.)
TKS should win. 30 years in the making, waiting for the Queen Mum to die before they did it. As for the Nazi slurs? They are just part of the typical road to the Oscars. Every Oscar favourite gets some slur on the way to the golden guy.
Rabbit Hole deserves more oomph than its getting. Nicole Kidman just blew me away and I don’t really like her. But big kudos to her there for taking a Pulitzer Prize winning play and making it into a movie with her own production company.
I too have seen most of the films that are going to up for Best Picture and The Kings Speech is the best out of all of them! TSN was good but that it’s – just good. It wasn’t great, except for Andrew Garfield in my opinion, but it was good.
I’m hoping this is a trend because I would love to see TKS win!
um, Inception sucked big time.
give me a break on that-i was SO disappointed. every character acted the role as though they were readin ga different script-but not in a good way.
and that Juno chick-ellen what’s her name is not a great actress. Leo was phoning it in…
and,ooooo, special effects. let’s drool b/c some guy with a computer can make images happena nd pretend they are in someone’s brain/dream.
seriously-sooo tedious.
Then again,w ith every damn movie being made these days, 2 hours long!!!! they are all tedious it seems.
Very few movies are worth watching for 2 hrs. And I miss the brilliance of a perfect 90 min. flick.
but seriously, it’s a rare subject that needs to be stretched to over two hours, or made 3D.
I think we are in a low period, film wise.
The Indie movement now is code for a low budget and shooting the scenes with the camera angled. lol. But so many of these so called indies have hollywood endings now. the indie has been co-opted.
yea, i will just sit back and wait for this period to be over, thanks. but I LOVE colin firth-and always have. so happy for him, and he clearly is pleased with himself, too(:
And Portman-don’t even get me started. totally agree with those who say she has little range. so overrated. uugh. but one can one do? people are into her…
I was shocked when I saw the PGA winner was The King’s Speech but in a good way! I definitely am Team King’s Speech if it’s between The King’s Speech and The Social Network for Best Picture. I totally agree with Kaiser about the 2 movies compared to each other. The Social Network is a superficial human drama that happens to involve the founder/CEO of Facebook but The King’s Speech is about the development of a friendship that actually shows you some 3 dimensional characters.
I’ve seen them all except 127 Hours (severe claustrophobia plus a lifelong fear of losing an appendage make that film my personal nightmare) and I too thought “The King’s Speech” was the best.
“The Social Network” was smart and fun, “Black Swan” was trippy and weird, “True Grit” was amazing for Hailee Steinfeld, “The Fighter” showcased how amazing Christian Bale is (and Amy Adams was good as well), “Inception” was mind-blowing, “The Kids are All Right” was a sweet and realistic portrait of a marriage, well acted, and “The Town” was tense and well-paced.
“The King’s Speech” was terrific- every element of that film was uniformly great. Over the holiday break, my family and I saw four of these films, including “The King’s Speech”, and we all agreed that it was the best.
Either way, I’m glad that the Oscars are shaking up a bit- the show is more exciting when there is suspense!
I am obsessed with that movie! I loved everything about it. I didn’t really think the Social Network was that great, I mean liked it, but I think it was generally overrated.
Social Network in my opinion was an alright movie. I saw it and was just not that impressed by anything. The acting was good but the script was formulaic. I loved The King’s Speach … I LOVED True Grit … I loved Inception. I don’t know about Black Swan … beautiful creepy movie and I actually really liked Natalie Portman’s performance in it but it’s just not my “genre” of movie but I have to say I wouldn’t be upset if it won. If f’ing social network wins all the awards I’ll cry … but let’s be honest people … we all know it will because when have the Oscar’s ever given the right movie the right award? (hint: never)
I’m going to see this movie next friday, hope it’s worth the money for the ticket.
I read just good reviews on this movie and I think that it has big chances for the oscars, but I also know that the Academy – for some inexplicable reason – loves Fincher (how to explain the 11 nominations for that horrible movie “The curious case of Benjamin Button”?).
Inception is a decent movie, but I don’t think it’s oscar worthy.
I bet on 127 hours and the King’s speech for both best director and best actor.
I’m on team everyone here. I saw it last week and it was no wonder that every show until 10pm was sold out. I’ve seen some of these and The King’s Speech is the only I could see myself watching again. The only thing I couldn’t buy was Guy Pearce as on older brother to Colin Firth, but that’s so minor and seeing as how they both nailed it, there’s no reason to cry. I hope Geoffrey Rush gets his due on this one, he was my favourite.
Maybe another quibble: Wasn’t it weird that a film about the two wars told from England’s point of view was bust-out-of-your-corset stuffed with German music? Don’t get me wrong, Beethoven’s seventh symphony and Emperor Concerto are so, so beautiful, bit I’m just saying it didn’t make a lick of sense, did it Herr Saxe-Coburg…shh. Right, I mean, Herr Windsor Flying Ear-Flap.
I’ve seen The King’s Speech, Social Network, Inception and Toy Story 3 so far, and seeing Black Swan tonight. So far, I want TKS to win. I loved Toy Story and liked Inception (mainly due to JGL), but was bored out of my brain during TSN. I saw it at my place with friends, and I got up halfway to do the dishes as I thought that would be more entertaining.