The Hurt Locker Wins Best Picture From PGA; Is Avatar No Longer An Oscar Sure Thing?
After the past six weeks, there’s no surprise thatAvataris in the Monday box office news. Once again the film is making scads of cash, pushing pastThe Dark Knight’s domestic total and closing in onTitanic’s box office record. High 3D ticket prices help quite a bit, asAvataris still way behindGone with the WindandStar Warson the list of most-seen films.
But while theAvatarbox-office steamroller has made the film look like a lock for the Best Picture Oscar, last night’s Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards have changed the odds. The PGA awarded Best Picture for 2009 toThe Hurt Locker, which was a stunning upset forAvatar, and makesThe Hurt Lockeran Oscar front-runner.
Kathryn Bigelow, screenwriterMark Boaland co-producersNicholas ChartierandGreg Shapirotook the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures, which is a long way of saying thatThe Hurt Lockerwon Best Picture. The other contenders wereAvatar,Up In The Air,An Education,Invictus,District 9,Star Trek,Up,Precious, andInglourious Basterds.
Pixar’sUpwas also in contention for the category for animated films, which it won.
The Covewon the award for documentary achievement.
The PGA award for best picture is very often an indicator of what will win the Best Picture Oscar; thirteen of the past twenty PGA winners have also won the Academy Award. The last two years have seen the awards match up, but otherwise you’ve got to go back a while to see them start to correspond on a regular basis. So this isn’t yet a guarantee forThe Hurt Locker, but it’s a damn good sign.
Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards also went down this weekend, and there were a couple surprises there, too.Jeff Bridgeswon Best Actor forCrazy HeartandSandra Bullockwon Best Actress forThe Blind Side.Mo’niqueandChristoph Waltz, as expected, took the Supporting awards. The upset wasInglourious Basterdstaking the ensemble award overThe Hurt Locker.
