The silent French film, “The Artist,” begins the week with some extra Oscar heat. Last Saturday the feature, about an aging silent male film star and and a rising young actress, picked up the top trophy at the 23rd Producers Guild Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. In the past two years, the winner of the PGA honor for the best produced motion picture has gone on to win the Best Picture Academy Award. Last year, “The King’s Speech” — in 2010 “The Hurt Locker.”

Here are some of the big winners:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

 ”THE ARTIST”
Producer: Thomas Langmann

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:

“THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN”
Producers: Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:

“Downton Abbey” (Masterpiece) (PBS)

The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy:

“Modern Family” (ABC)
Producers: Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Jeffrey Richman, Dan O’Shannon, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker

The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama:

“Boardwalk Empire” (HBO)
Producers: Eugene Kelly, Howard Korder, Stephen Levinson, Martin Scorsese, Rudd Simmons, Tim Van Patten, Terence Winter

A complete list of the winners on the Producers Guild of America website.

“Jumping the Broom, “The Help, “Pariah,” and Tower Heist” among the films receiving multiple nominations for the 43rd NAACP Image Awards. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization. The Image Awards celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, film, and literature as well as honoring individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.  The nominees were announced yesterday.

Here are the major film nominations for the 43rd Image Awards:

Outstanding Motion Picture

“Jumping the Broom”

“Pariah”

”The First Grader”

“The Help”

“Tower Heist”

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

Eddie Murphy “Tower Heist”

Laurence Fishburne “Contagion”

Laz Alonso “Jumping the Broom”

Oliver Litondo “The First Grader”

Vin Diesel  “Fast Five”

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture

Adepero Oduye “”Pariah”

Emma Stone “The Help”

Paula Patton “Jumping the Broom”

Viola Davis “The Help”

Zoë Saldana  “Colombiana”

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Anthony Mackie “The Adjustment Bureau”

Charles Parnell “Pariah”

Don Cheadle “The Guard”

Jeffrey Wright “The Ides of March”

Mike Epps  “Jumping the Broom”

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Bryce Dallas Howard “The Help”

Cicely Tyson “The Help”

Kim Wayans “Pariah”

Maya Rudolph “Bridesmaids”

Octavia Spencer “The Help”

For the complete list of nominees go to the NAACP Image Awards website. The winners will be announced during a live broadcast on NBC, February 17 . The show begins at 8 p.m.

The entertainment industry’s awards season is in full bloom. This past week, the Directors Guild of America released a slew of its nominations for television, feature films, and documentaries.

Here are the nominees for the prestigious outstanding directorial achievement in feature films for 2011.

Woody Allen  “Midnight in Paris”
Fifth nomination. He won in 1977 for “Annie Hall”
David Fincher “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Third nomination.
David Hazanavicius “The Artist”
First nomination.
Alexander Payne  “The Descendants”
Second nomination.
Martin Scorsese  “Hugo”
Ninth nomination. He won this award in 2006 for “The Departed”

The DGA Award for feature film directing is a pretty good barometer for who is going to walk away with the Academy Award for Best Director. The DGA Awards began in 1948 and since then, only six times has the DGA Award winner not picked up the Best Director Oscar as well.

The winner will be announced at the 64th Annual DGA Awards gala later this month on Saturday, January 28 at The Grand Ballroom in Hollywood.

For the DGA Award nominees in television go here and for documentaries here.  Also, the winners in these categories will be announced at the DGA Awards dinner and ceremony on January 28.

Photo courtesy Guest Blogger Jean Youn

It’s been quite a while since the film, “Back to the Future,” hit movie theaters in 1985. Many of us probably have, at some point or another, thought about the idea of the ability to go back and forth in time from past, present, and future.

Many things have indeed changed throughout the course of time. Things that might have been unimaginable many years ago are a reality today. However, time travel is still just something that’s fun to think about, but not a reality.

People have varying levels of wealth, abilities, and power, but there is one thing that we all have been blessed with equally — time.

We all get 24 hours of time every day. Also, we’ve all been given a fresh new year.

This year, I would like to do everything I can to make my cleaners the best in quality of work and also the best in delivering honest service among cleaners in our area.

I hope that you would use this time to make 2012 your best year thus far and continue to make each year following even better.

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Jean Youn is the owner of Value Village Cleaners at 912 West Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale 91202. For details on services, coupons and more, check out the Value Village Cleaners website  here.

“Little White Corvette”  — Action/comedy screenplay by Michael Diliberti reportedly sold in a deal worth a cool million bucks to GK Films. It’s about money-strapped siblings who set out to peddle a load of cocaine discovered in the trunk of their late father’s white corvette. Diliberti wrote the story with David Branson Smith. Script is on the Black List 2011, a collection of unproduced screenplays favored by Hollywood executives. Emma Stone is attached to star and will executive produce along with Diliberti. Both Stone and Diliberti are repped by WME. Stone is managed by Anonymous. Diliberti managed by New School Media.

“Cult”   — A mystery crime drama from sci-fi writer/producer, Rockne S. O’Bannon, has been greenlighted by the CW Network. TV series revolves around an inquisitive female production assistant on a popular TV show called “Cult,” who teams up with a journalist blogger to investigate copycat crimes which appear to be perpetrated by zealous fans of the show. In a strange twist in the deal, the CW ordered the pilot after rejecting it six years ago. O’Bannon is the creator and executive producer of the sci-fi series “Farscape.”

The Writers Guild of America has put out the rest of its list of nominees for 2012 awards. Yesterday, the WGA West and East, revealed the nominations for outstanding achievement in writing for the big screen during 2011.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Pictures

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming; Fox Searchlight

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian; Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, originally published by Norstedts; Columbia Pictures

The Help, Screenplay by Tate Taylor; Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett; DreamWorks Pictures

Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan; Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Paramount Pictures

Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; Based on the book by Michael Lewis; Columbia Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; Loteria Films

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Written by Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek; Oscilloscope Pictures

Nostalgia for the Light, Written by Patricio Guzmán; Icarus Films

Pina, Screenplay by Wim Wenders; Sundance Selects

Position Among the Stars, Script by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, Leonard Retel Helmrich; HBO Documentary Films

Senna, Written by Manish Pandey; Producers Distribution Agency

The winners will be honored on Sunday, February 19, 2012, during simultaneous ceremonies in Hollywood and New York.

The Producers Guild of America’s list of best motion picture producer nominees of 2011 include some of the year’s most talked about films. Yesterday, the PGA released the names of the nominees for the Producer of the Year Award in theatrical motion pictures, animated theatrical motion pictures, and in long-form television. The documentary film category and other television category nominations were releaved by the Guild last month.

Here are the nominees for The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures:

THE ARTIST
Producer: Thomas Langmann

BRIDESMAIDS
Producers: Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, Clayton Townsend

THE DESCENDANTS
Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Producers: Ceán Chaffin, Scott Rudin

THE HELP
Producers: Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Brunson Green

HUGO
Producers: Graham King, Martin Scorsese

THE IDES OF MARCH
Producers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brian Oliver

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum

MONEYBALL
Producers: Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt

WAR HORSE
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

Also, Steven Spielberg will received a special honor — the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures. All 2012 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced later this month, on January 21, during a gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

More of the nominees and selected award winners  here on the PGA website.

“Jadoo”  by writer/director, Amit Gupta, has a deal and is now on the really fast track.  That’s a great start to the new year for one filmmaker.  Done Deal Pro reports Gupta is repped by Abram Nalibotsky over at Gersh.

Based on Gupta’s family experience, the story revolves around  two feuding twin brother chefs who set up rival restaurants across from each other, leaving it up to a daughter, 20 years later, to try to bring them back together to cook her wedding feast.

AIR productions greenlighted the comedy feature and Nikki Parrot of Tigerlily Films is co-producing. The cameras are set to roll on “Jadoo” in March, according to Variety.

The Hollywood award season is in full swing.  Today the Hollywood Foreign Press Association released its list of nominees for the 69th annual Golden Globes. “The Artist,” “The Descendants”,  and “The Help” got the most film nominations. All three films have Oscar buzz.

Check out the Golden Globes website for a complete list of the nominations. The 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony is next month, January 15,  5 p.m. on NBC.

Some lucky thespians are celebrating nominations for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards . The nominees were announced yesterday in West Hollywood and leading the film field “The Help” and “The Artist.” Toping the  TV list, “Broadwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad,” and “Modern Family.”

The Los Angeles Times has extensive coverage here. The winners will be announced during the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which  will be simulcast live nationally on TNT and TBS Sunday, January 29  5 p.m. from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center.