The 2016 Producers Guild Awards Have Been Announced

For those of you who like to predict the Academy Awards, your first major prognostication tool is now available. On Saturday night, in Los Angeles, the 27th annual PGA Awards were announced at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel. Surprising everyone, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, a comedic examination of the 2008 financial collapse, took home the awards’ top honor, Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. The other two big winners were Inside Out (winner of Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures) and Amy (winner of Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures). 

Check Out: When the PGA Awards Made Everything Worse

The PGA awards are, for Oscar buffs, the first major indicator as to what will win Best Picture; Every PGA winner since 2007 (when No Country for Old Men won) has gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. For 2015, if Oscar “buzz” is to be trusted, the front-runners this year have been The Revenant and Spotlight, with a legitimate interest in Mad Max: Fury Road. The PGA award to The Big Short all but cements a Best Picture Oscar for the film. The same this happened last year, when Birdman unexpectedly took home the PGA Award amongst other films that were more heavily earmarked for an Oscar win, but then won the Best Picture Oscar anyway.

Even if this PGA win proves to be a fluke, this win will, at the very least, weigh the Las Vegas odds in The Big Short‘s favor. We here at Crave will be running book.* Or perhaps this is merely an indicator as to how unpredictable this year will be. Some would say that the win of The Big Short just ensures that Oscar night will be 100% unpredictable.

*This statement is not true. 

Top Image: Paramount

Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia, and Blumhouse. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.