‘Big Short’ wins Producers award; #OSW crisis also in room

The Big Short, a satirical comedy about the USA financial crisis, has won top prize at the Producers Guild Awards. Yes it can be hard to keep track of all of these guild awards and “this changes the whole Oscar race!” moments, but we promise, this one matters.

And because, perhaps most importantly, seeing or reading about a film in the winner’s circle at a major awards show like the PGA Awards leads some people in other groups that have not yet voted, including the Academy, to stop saying of it “Why?” and start saying “Why not?”

Other PGA trophies presented Saturday night included “Inside Out” for animated feature, “Amy” for documentary feature, “Fargo” for television movie or miniseries, “Game of Thrones” for TV drama series, “Transparent” for TV comedy series and “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” for digital series. This is a significant bellwether for several reasons: The PGA winner has gone on to take home Best Picture at the Oscars for each of the last eight years, ever since the Academy and the PGA both adopted an expanded field of over five nominees and began using a preferential ballot to determine the eventual victor.

Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner, two of The Big Short’s producers, went up to claim the award.

Pitt was not in attendance at the Los Angeles ceremony, but a stunned Kleiner and Gardner, who had not prepared an acceptance speech, used their time in the spotlight to address “the elephant in the room” and address the diversity controversy surrounding the Academy Awards after no minority actors were nominated for the top acting categories for the second year in a row.

We really thought that Spotlight had it in the bag come Oscars night. She said that as producers, “We have privilege in our hands as storytellers”.

“Inside Out” and “Amy” picked up prizes for best animated film and best documentary. One of the traditional “run up to the Oscars” ceremonies that are considered bellweathers in their movie categories, the PGAs also honor the best of production in television, and are sort of a clean up in the post-Golden Globes landscape. “We need to tell stories that reflect our world on every street corner”. Said McCreary, “Tonight, we are asking all of you to pledge to make a conscious decision to challenge the status quo”.

In TV, HBO’s Game of Thrones (Season 5) and its producers took the outstanding drama award.

Lady Gaga made a tardy, but stunning performance of her Oscar-nominated song “Til It Happens To You”, she wrote for The Hunting Ground with Diane Warren.