The Producers Guild nominations and the Writers Guild nominations are out, reinforcing Oscar hopes for a number of frontrunners, including "The Social Network," "The King's Speech" and "The Fighter," and cementing Ben Affleck's "The Town" as a serious awards contender as well.
All four films are among the features singled out by the Producers Guild of America, whose 10 nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award are liable to look a lot like the Academy's Best Picture nominations will in three weeks.
"Black Swan," "The Fighter," "Inception" and "The Kids Are All Right" got Original Screenplays nods from the Writer's Guild, along with dark horse candidate "Please Give." "127 Hours," "The Social Network," "The Town" and "True Grit" were joined on the Adapted Screenplay side by another unexpected entry, the comedy "I Love You Phillip Morris."
Because the WGA limits eligibility to guild members and films produced under guild guidelines, its field is much smaller than the Oscar screenplay field.
See Full List of WGA nominations here
In the top PGA category, "The Social Network," "The King's Speech," "The Fighter" and "The Town" are joined by "127 Hours," "Black Swan," "Inception," "The Kids Are All Right," "Toy Story 3" and "True Grit."
The only mild surprise in the PGA lineup is that the acclaimed indie "Winter's Bone" is not included. But with the producers typically recognizing some bigger-budgeted, commercial hits in their lineup, the inclusion of "The Town" over Debra Granik's low-budget backwoods drama is not a shock.
In the category for animated features, expected nominees "Toy Story 3" and "How to Train Your Dragon" were joined not by the indie favorite "The Illusionist" or by Disney's "Tangled," but by Universal's summer release "Despicable Me."
Nominees in the top television categories include "30 Rock," "Modern Family" and "Glee" among comedies, and "Breaking Bad," "Dexter" and "Mad Men" among dramas.
Judd Apatow will host the Jan. 22 ceremony.
The PGA announcement kicks off a key day for guild nominations, with the Writers Guild of America announcement expected to follow later Tuesday morning.
In the past, the PGA has agreed with the Academy on about 80 percent of its nominations. When it had five feature film nominees it generally lined up with the Academy on four of them; last year, when it followed the Academy in moving to 10 nominations, it continued the ratio by hitting eight out of the 10 Oscar nominees.
(The two exceptions: the PGA opted for "Star Trek" and "Invictus," while the Academy chose "The Blind Side" and "A Serious Man.")
The PGA winners and Oscar winners have agreed six out of the last 10 years, including the last three years in a row. The PGA chose "Little Miss Sunshine" over "The Departed" in 2006, and "Brokeback Mountain" over "Crash" the previous year.
The Producers Guild of America's awards show will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 22, three days before Oscar nominations are announced.
