The King's Speech breathed some much needed life back into the 2011 Oscar race on Saturday by prevailing over the much-lauded favourite The Social Network to win Best Picture at the Producer's Guild Awards. The Social Network has been long considered a shoo-in for the Oscars and its haul at the Golden Globes last Sunday only added to the speculation that this year's Best Picture hunt is a one horse race. That theory can now be challenged, somewhat. The King's Speech won an award which has dictated the past three Best Picture Winners - The Hurt Locker, Slumdog Millionaire and No Country For Old Men. Question is - will it join the thirteen of the last twenty PDA winners that went on to claim Best Picture or will it add to the unlucky seven that didn't? One thing to be sure of is that after such a prestigious victory The Social Network is no longer a guaranteed bet for the Best Picture honour in spite of the film's early awards dominance. The next stage in the Oscar race brings us to the Director's Guild Awards this Sunday where eight of the last ten winners have seen their film prevail at the Academy.
PRODUCER'S GUILD AWARDS ROUND-UP:
Gold Derby.com report that 127 Hours and True Grit (both snubbed by the Golden Globes) were among the ten films nominated for Best Picture. Last year the Oscars matched eight of the PGA's ten nominations and so this year the ten nominees for Best Picture at the Academy Awards could well look something like this: 127 HOURS / BLACK SWAN / INCEPTION / THE FIGHTER / THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT THE KING'S SPEECH / THE SOCIAL NETWORK / THE TOWN / TOY STORY / TRUE GRIT I would be okay with the majority of this line-up although I would quite happily swap one or two of those pictures for Winter's Bone. Toy Story 3 predictably won Best Animated Feature beating out 'competition' from Despicable Me and How to Train Your Dragon and the Best Documentary category was won by Waiting for Superman. In regards to the small screen, Modern Family prevailed over both Curb your Enthusiasm and The Office to win Best Comedy Series and Golden Globe Best TV Drama winner Breaking Bad lost out to Mad Men.