Sports, Children’s and Short-Form TV Program nominations also set
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) unveiled nominations in its television specialty categories for the 31st Annual Producers Guild Awards. Additionally, the PGA announced the nominees for the inaugural Innovation Award, which will honor an outstanding entertainment endeavor across the emerging mediums of VR, AR, experiential and more. The winner of the Innovation Award and the winner in the Short-Form category will be announced at a PGA nominees event on January 16 at the Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles. The winners in the Children’s and Sports categories will be announced in New York at a nominees celebration on January 13 at Ascent Lounge.
Nominated for the first-ever Innovation honor are: "Artificial," "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch," "Bonfire," "Cosmos Within Us," "Eleven Eleven," "First Man VR," "How to Train Your Dragon: Fly with Toothless VR," "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Virtual Tour," "Mesmerica," "Tree VR," "Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series–Episode I," "You vs. Wild," and "Interactive Play at Sesame Street Land, Seaworld, Orlando."
The PGA does not vet the individual producers of Short-Form programs, Sports programs, Children’s programs or the New Media projects submitted in the Innovation Award category.
The remaining nominations for Theatrical Motion Pictures, Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures, Television Series/Specials, Limited Series Television and Streamed/Televised Motion Pictures will be announced January 7, 2020. Winners of these categories will be announced at the Producers Guild Awards ceremony on January 18 at the Hollywood Palladium.
At the Producers Guild Awards ceremony in January, the Producers Guild will also present special honors to powerhouse producers and leaders who have left their undeniable marks on the industry. This includes Ted Sarandos (Milestone Award); Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures); Marta Kauffman (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television); Octavia Spencer (Visionary Award); as well as the Lionsgate film Bombshell (The Stanley Kramer Award).
Here’s a full rundown of the nominees announced today.
The Award for Outstanding Short-Form Program
Billy on the Street with Billy Eichner
Born This Way (S5)
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (S11)
Creating Saturday Night Live (S3)
Under a Rock with Tig Notaro (S1)
The Award for Outstanding Sports Program
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Oakland Raiders (S14)
Lindsey Vonn: The Final Season
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (S25)
SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt (S5)
What’s My Name | Muhammad Ali
The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program
Carmen Sandiego (S1, S2)
Green Eggs and Ham (S1)
Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (S1)
A Series of Unfortunate Events (S3)
Sesame Street (S49)
The PGA Innovation Award
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: An Interactive Adventure
Artificial
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Bonfire
Cosmos Within Us
Eleven Eleven
First Man VR
How to Train Your Dragon: Fly with Toothless VR
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Virtual Tour
Interactive Play at Sesame Street Land, SeaWorld, Orlando
Mesmerica
Tree VR
Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series – Episode I
You vs. Wild
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More