In the last frenzy of major awards-giving before the Oscars, Oppenheimer has won the best theatrical feature prize at the Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards, while Past Lives dominated the Independent Spirit awards, winning best film and best director.
Oppenheimer is the first Christopher Nolan-directed film to claim the prize; Nolan (and fellow producer Emma Thomas) having previously been nominated for Dunkirk, Inception, and The Dark Knight. The win puts it in pole position in the race for the best picture Oscar; the PGA, like its fellow industry associations the Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild, has a significant crossover with the Oscar voting pool, and seven out of the last 10 winners of the PGA’s theatrical film award have gone on to claim the corresponding Academy award.
Succession and The Bear continued their awards run by winning the best episodic TV awards for drama and comedy respectively, with Beef winning for best limited or anthology series and Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea for best TV movie.
The Independent Spirit awards, which were founded in 1984 as the Findie awards, are given to independent film-makers, with Celine Song’s acclaimed Past Lives picking up the two most high-profile prizes, for best film and best director for Song. American Fiction also won two awards, for best screenplay and best lead performance for Jeffrey Wright.
While the Independent Spirit awards exclude most Oscar contenders, Da’Vine Joy Randolph continued her near-unstoppable run to the Academy awards by winning best supporting performance for The Holdovers with Dominic Sessa, who was not Oscar nominated, winning best breakthrough performer for the same film. Among other notable winners, Fremont, from British-Iranian director Babak Jalali, was awarded the John Cassavetes prize for best feature film made for under $1m.
