There’s simply no stopping “Oppenheimer.”
On Sunday night, the Producers Guild of America gave its top film award to Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, completing a clean sweep of major industry prizes that suggests “Oppenheimer” will cruise to a best-picture victory at the Oscars next month.
“We’ve never won this before,” Nolan noted in his acceptance speech, though the PGA had previously nominated his films “Dunkirk,” “Inception” and “The Dark Knight.” Nolan, who produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife, and Charles Roven, continued, “Every time we found ourselves invited into this room, we felt such support for whatever leaps we’ve taken or whatever risks we’ve taken from a group of people who understand how difficult it is to get anything made.”
The PGA Awards are often considered a dry run for the Oscars’ best picture race since the guild shares significant member overlap with the academy and uses the same preferential ballot to pick its winner. (This year the PGA nominees matched exactly the Oscar best-picture list.) Since 2009, when both groups expanded the number of best-film nominees from five, the PGA winner has repeated at the Oscars all but three times.
Can “Oppenheimer” be beat? Only one film has ever taken top prizes from the producers, directors and actors guilds, as “Oppenheimer” has done, and still lost the best-picture Oscar, “Apollo 13” (1995). Nolan’s film is far better situated than that one was with two acting wins possible for stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. So the question now isn’t whether “Oppenheimer” will triumph at the Oscars, it’s how many statuettes it will earn before taking the top prize.
Elsewhere at the PGA Awards, which were held at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood, the documentary prize went to “American Symphony,” while “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was named the best animated film. The top TV prizes went to season-long sweepers “Succession” (best episodic drama), “The Bear” (best episodic comedy) and “Beef” (best limited series).
Here’s the complete list of winners:
Film
Feature Film
“Oppenheimer”
Animated Feature
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Documentary
“American Symphony”
Television
Episodic Drama
“Succession”
Episodic Comedy
“The Bear”
Limited or Anthology Series
“Beef”
Television Movie or Streamed Movie
“Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea”
Nonfiction Television
“Welcome to Wrexham”
Live, Variety, Sketch, Stand-up or Talk Show
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”
Game or Competition Show
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
Sports Program
“Beckham”
Children’s Program
“Sesame Street”
Short-Form Program
“Succession: Controlling the Narrative”
New Media
Innovation Award
“Body of Mine”