Deadpool doesn’t have a chance at winning the Oscar for Best Picture, but now it has a legitimate shot at snagging a once-unthinkable nomination for the Academy’s top prize.
After the surprise Best Adapted Screenplay nod from the Writers Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America followed up with a legitimate shocker by adding Deadpool to its Ten Finalists for Best Picture of 2016.
Of all the pre-Oscar guilds, the PGA is the closest indicator for what the Academy’s Best Picture nominees will be. Now with the Ryan Reynolds box office hit looking like a viable contender to be top Oscar finalist, the Academy may finally have the blockbuster nominee they’ve been coveting ever since they went from a 5 nominee limit in the Best Pic category and expanded it to include up to 10.
The biggest omission? Probably the risk-taking biopic Jackie, about Jacqueline Kennedy’s struggles in the aftermath of JFK’s assassination. Its hope as a top Oscar finalist is now, at best, in dark horse status. The film getting the biggest boost (outside of Deadpool)? Hidden Figures, which I would love to see have its profile raised with a slew of Oscar nominations.
The other 8 PGA nominees look like an aggregate of the titles that have been popping up most consistently throughout the Awards Season, but of course it’s all moot at this point; La La Land will win everything. Including this.
That will become official when La La Land is announced as the winner during the Producers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday January 28, 2017.
Producers Guild of America
Darryl F. Zanuck Award 2016 Nominees
Best Film
- Arrival
- Deadpool
- Fences
- Hacksaw Ridge
- Hell or High Water
- Hidden Figures
- La La Land
- Lion
- Manchester by the Sea
- Moonlight
The PGA also announced its nominees for Best Animated Film and Best Documentary Feature:
Best Animated Film
- Finding Dory
- Kubo and the Two Strings
- Moana
- The Secret Life of Pets
- Zootopia
Best Documentary Feature
- Dancer
- The Eagle Huntress
- Life, Animated
- O.J. Made in America
- Tower
Click on links below for other Critics Group Awards and Guild Nominees that have been announced so far this season:
Academy Award Nominees
Golden Globe Winners
Screen Actors Guild Winners
Writers Guild of America Nominees
National Society of Film Critics
New York Film Critics Circle
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Boston Society of Film Critics
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association
The National Board of Review
Critics’ Choice Awards Winners
One thing worth noting here is that the Producers Guild always nominates 10 films, whereas the Academy — which can nominate *up to* 10 films — has nominated only 8 or 9 per year since the rules for tallying the nominations were revised in 2011. I suspect that that would affect Deadpool’s chances of getting an Oscar nomination even if it *did* make the top ten, as it were.
Right, although at this point I wonder if it has a better shot than LION (can Harvey complete the campaign sale?), HELL OR HIGH WATER (were enough screeners watched?), or HACKSAW RIDGE (critics can forgive Mel, but can Hollywood?).