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.

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.

“No Strings Attached” #1 at Box Office

“The Green Hornet” got thrashed by a new chick flick. That’s right. The R-rated romantic comedy,”No Strings Attached,” debuted at number one this weekend with an estimated haul of $20.3 million. The rom-com stars Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher and reportedly was produced on a $25 million budget.

“The Green Hornet” slipped from first to second with a take of about $18.1 million — bringing the superhero action comedy two week total to around $63 million. The comedy “The Dilemma” snagged third with $9.7 million, followed by ”The King’s Speech” with $9.1 million and rounding out the top five, “True Grit” with $8 million.

“The King’s Speech” surprise win

The race to the Oscars just got a little more interesting. Last night in Beverly Hills, the British historical drama,”The King’s Speech,” picked up the top honor at the Producers Guild Awards for best produced motion picture. ”The Social Network,” which had been on a roll at awards shows, was left in the dust along with eight other film nominees including “The Fighter” and  “Inception.” Here’s the Los Angeles Times article on the upset.

Academy Award nominations announced on Tuesday

Many in Hollywood  and here in the Media City will be up before sunrise this Tuesday, January 25, to hear the list of nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards.  Last year’s best supporting actress winner, Mo’Nique, and Academy President, Tom Sherak, will reveal the Oscar nominations at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

Also this year,  the announcement of the Oscar nominees will be streamed live on the Internet via livestream.com  and available on mobile devices, according to the Academy.

The Oscars ceremony is Sunday, February 27, 2011 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony is set to be televised live in more than 200 countries around the globe.

The 2011 WGA screen award nominees

The Writers Guild of America today announced its nominees for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen in 2010. Here are some of the big screen nominees:

Original Screenplay

• Black Swan, Screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin; Story by Andres Heinz; Fox Searchlight
• The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Paramount Pictures
• Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan; Warner Bros.
• The Kids Are All Right, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg; Focus Features
• Please Give, Written by Nicole Holofcener; Sony Pictures Classics

Adapted Screenplay

• 127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy; Based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston; Fox Searchlight
• I Love You Phillip Morris, Written by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; Based on the book by Steven McVicker; Roadside Attractions
• The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich; Sony Pictures
• The Town, Screenplay by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard; Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan; Warner Bros.
• True Grit, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on the novel by Charles Portis; Paramount Pictures

The full list is here. The WGA screen awards will be handed out on Saturday, February 5, 2011, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.

Producers Guild of America 2011 award nominations

The Producers Guild of America announced the nominations for its 2011 PGA awards in television and motion pictures today. The film list includes some familiar award nominees: “Inception,” “Black Swan,” “The Social Network,” “The Town,” and  “True Grit.” Go here for the complete list.  The 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony is set for Saturday, January 22, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.  

Oprah Winfrey’s new TV network goes live

That talk- show- diva- now- network-mogul, Oprah Winfrey, launched her own cable television network on New Year’s Day. One million viewers turned in, according to deadline.com

You can get an idea of the kind of programming Oprah is offering by visiting her OWN website. This is a terrific looking site, packed with all sorts of stuff — including hundreds of comments from viewers and Oprah fans about the new network. Check it out here.

New Year’s weekend Box Office

New Year’s weekend Box Office turned out to be very much like Christmas weekend –  slow and very unexciting. Attendance was done at movie theaters during those two weekends not because of the bad weather, but most liekly due to the weak slate of films — not one in the top five is a real “gotta see” type film or blockbuster.

The comedy sequel, “Little Fockers,” held onto the number spot with a weekend tally of $25.7 million. The western-remake with awards buzz, “True Grit,” held remained in second place with $24.4 million.

The fantasy,”Tron:Legacy,” landed in third again with $18.7 million, followed by the animation, “Yogi Bear,” in fourth with $12.3 million, and fifth earning $10.2 million, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

Photo from http://www.dga.org

Director James Cameron is king of the Box Office right now, but the Directors Guild of America picked filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow as the best feature film director of 2009. The winner was announced last night at the 62nd Annual DGA Awards dinner in Los Angeles.   

The 58-year-old Bigelow won for the highly acclaimed Iraq-war drama, “The Hurt Locker.” She is the first woman to ever win the prestigious award, considered a reliable predictor of who will walk away with the best director Oscar. Bigelow is quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying: “This is amazing. I’m so deeply stunned, honored and awed.”

Bigelow and the film have won numerous awards, including the Darryl F. Zanuck producer of the year award from the Producers Guild of America, last Sunday in Hollywood. The Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, and the big money is on Bigelow’s name being mentioned for best director.

For a list full list of the 2009 DGA award winners click here.

Awards season is heating up in Hollywood. Today the Producers Guild of America announced its top picks for the Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award. Some of these films have won or been nominated for other awards — which means they’re getting some serious Oscar buzz right now.

Here are the 10 nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures.

1. “Avatar”

2. “District 9″

3. “An Education”

4. “The Hurt Locker”

5. “Inglourious Basterds”

6. “Invictus”

7. “Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

8. “Star Trek”

9. “Up”

10. “Up In The Air”

Some of the producer credits on the nominated films have not been determined. Let’s hope the producer credit dilemma gets solved pronto because the awards ceremony is coming up fast. The red carpet for the 21st Annual PGA Awards will be rolled out at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunday, January 24, 2010.

For more on these nominees and those in the animated films, documentary, and long-form television categories, click over to the Producers Guild of America website. Also, over on The Wrap a report on some of the notables that got passed over for these awards as well as more on the films that did make the cut.