Producers Guild Noms Preview Best Picture Finalists; SPIDER-MAN Snubbed (AWARDS 2021)

The nominees for the 33rd Producers Guild awards preview frontrunners for the Best Picture Oscar.

Jeff Huston
Logo for the Producers Guild of America

The nominations for the 33rd Annual Producers Guild of America awards — honoring the best produced movies of 2021 — have been announced. The nominees were fairly predictable but also revealing, especially as it relates to one mega-blockbuster in particular.

An equivalent to the Best Picture category for the Academy Awards, the PGA nominations are generally a good sign of where the industry is trending in relation to what the eventual Best Picture nominees will be.

If this list of 10 from the PGA is any indication, one of those Oscar nominees won’t be Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Instead, surprise entry Being the Ricardos — the Lucy and Desi biopic produced, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin — made the PGA cut. While Ricardos has been on the radar this awards season, its stock has slipped of late. This nomination proves just how much respect there is for Sorkin within the industry. It’s his second-consecutive nomination after last year’s The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Along with Spider-Man: No Way Home being ignored, other notable absentees were Joel Coen‘s The Tragedy of Macbeth, the Daniel Craig James Bond finale No Time to Die, and Ridley Scott‘s box office adult-aud hit House of Gucci. Most prognosticators likely would’ve predicteed any of these four movies ahead of Ricardos — Spider-Man and House of Gucci especially.

Critics Group darling Drive My Car from Japan didn’t make the cut either, but that’s not a surprise since it hasn’t been a U.S. box office sensation like South Korea’s Parasite was two years ago. Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley was also denied a nomination, but its low box office gross has made it a Best Picture longshot.

In terms of the other 9 nominees joining Ricardos, none are shockers. If anything, the lineup reads exactly like the list of titles that have been trending this entire awards season.

In terms of studios, streamers Netflix, Amazon Studios, and Apple Original Films accounted for 5 of the 10 nominees, showing yet again how streamers have risen to equal footing with the traditional theatrical studios, at least as it relates to getting awards season traction.

Winners will be announced during the Producers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday, March 19, 2022, nine days before the Academy Awards which will be handed out on Sunday, March 27.

(Streaming or Theatrical availability is listed next to each title)

Producers Guild of America
2021 Nominees

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

Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures

  • Ascension (Paramount Plus)
  • The First Wave (Hulu)
  • Flee (VOD)
  • In the Same Breath (HBO Max)
  • The Rescue (Disney+)
  • Simple As Water (HBO Max)
  • Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Hulu)
  • Writing With Fire (limited theatrical)

2022 PGA Honorees – To Be Announced

  • Milestone Award (recognizing an individual or team who has made historic contributions to the entertainment industry)
  • David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures
  • Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television
  • Visionary Award (recognizing unique or uplifting contributions to our culture through inspiring storytelling or performance)
  • Stanley Kramer Award (an achievement or contribution that illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues)

Click on links below for other major Critics Group Awards and Guild Nominees that have been announced so far for the 2021 / 22 season:

Writers Guild of America Nominees 2021
Screen Actors Guild Nominees 2021
American Film Institute Top Ten 2021
Los Angeles Film Critics Assocation 2021
New York Film Critics Circle 2021
National Board of Review 2021

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