“Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been named the best-produced film of 2022 at the Producers Guild Awards, which were held on Saturday evening in Los Angeles.
The freewheeling indie film won in a category that also included the formidable blockbusters “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The PGA had been a must-win awards show for “Top Gun,” and the fact that “Everything Everywhere” won is reminiscent of the low-budget “CODA” winning this award last year on its way to an unlikely Oscar Best Picture win.
The Producers Guild is also the only other awards show apart from the Oscars that uses the preferential or ranked-choice system of counting the votes in its top category. That system is designed to find a consensus choice, and the biggest question surrounding “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been whether it was too polarizing to win under that system.
The PGA win suggests that “Everything Everywhere” is not too polarizing – and combined with its Directors Guild win last week, it gives significant momentum to the presumed Oscar frontrunner.
In other awards, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” won the award for animated feature. Del Toro accepted the award, which was the first of the night, and then immediately left the Beverly Hilton to head for UCLA’s Royce Hall, where the Annie Awards were taking place and his film would win five more awards.
“Navalny” won the award for documentary film.
In the television categories, “The White Lotus” won for drama series, one year after being nominated (and losing) in the PGA’s limited-series category. The move mirrored the Television Academy’s recent decision that the series no longer belonged in the Emmys’ Limited Series category and henceforth would be considered a drama series.
The comedy series award went to “The Bear,” which scored a surprise victory over “Abbott Elementary,” “Barry,” “Hacks” and “Only Murders in the Building.” The limited or anthology series award went to “The Dropout.”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” won in the live, variety, sketch, standup and talk television category. “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” won for game and competition televison. “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” — which has since been canceled at CNN — won in the non-fiction category.
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” won for televised or streamed motion picture.
Traditionally, the Producers Guild Award for Theatrical Motion Pictures is one of the most accurate predictors of the Best Picture Oscar. After 2009, when the PGA followed the Academy by expanding its slate of nominees from five to 10 and instituting ranked-choice voting to choose the winner, the two organization gave their top award to the same film for six consecutive years, part of an overall eight-year streak.
In the years since then, as the Academy has gotten significantly larger and more diverse, the two groups have matched four times and awarded different films three times. For the last two years, with “Nomadland” and then the dark-horse Oscar winner “CODA,” the PGA gave its award to the Oscar winner.
Also at the ceremony, the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures went to Tom Cruise, who received an effusive tribute from Sherry Lansing and a marathon film package that curiously was filled with scenes from movies that he acted in but didn’t produce. Other honorary awards went to Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy (the Milestone Award), Mindy Kaling (the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television) and the film “Till” (the Stanley Kramer Award).
Here is the list of nominees. Winners are indicated by *WINNER.
Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Avatar: The Way of Water”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
“Elvis”
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” *WINNER
“The Fabelmans”
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”
“Tár”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
“The Whale”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” *WINNER
“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”
“Minions: The Rise of Gru”
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”
“Turning Red”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Picture
“All That Breathes”
“Descendant”
“Fire of Love”
“Navalny” *WINNER
“Nothing Compares”
“Retrograde”
“The Territory”
Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama
“Andor”
“Better Call Saul”
“Ozark”
“Severance”
“The White Lotus” *WINNER
Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy
“Abbott Elementary”
“Barry”
“The Bear” *WINNER
“Hacks”
“Only Murders in the Building “
David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television
“DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
“The Dropout” *WINNER
“Inventing Anna”
“Obi-Wan Kenobi”
“Pam & Tommy”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
“Fire Island”
“Hocus Pocus 2”
“Pinocchio”
“Prey”
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” *WINNER
Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
“30 for 30”
“60 Minutes”
“George Carlin’s American Dream”
“Lucy and Desi”
“Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” *WINNER
Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television
“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” *WINNER
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”
“Saturday Night Live”
Award for Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television
“The Amazing Race”
“Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls “ *WINNER
“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars”
“Top Chef “
“The Voice”
Previously announced winners:
The Award for Outstanding Sports Program
“Formula 1: Drive to Survive”
“Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Detroit Lions”
“Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers”
“McEnroe”
“Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off” *WINNER
The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program
“Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock”
“Green Eggs and Ham”
“Sesame Street” *WINNER
“Snoopy Presents: It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown”
“Waffles + Mochi’s Restaurant”
The Award for Outstanding Short-Form Program
“Better Call Saul: Filmmaker Training”
“Love, Death + Robots”
“Only Murders in the Building: One Killer Question” *WINNER
“Sesame Street’s #ComingTogether Word of the Day Series”
“Tales of the Jedi”
PGA Innovation Award
“Dance Monsters”
“Experience Yosemite”
“Ghostbusters VR Academy”
“Le Musk – A Cinematic Sensory Experience”
“Lustration”
“On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)”
“OXYMORE by Jean-Michel Jarre”
“PerfectoVerse”
“Stay Alive, My Son” *WINNER
“Stranger Things Immersive Watch Party”
“Verizon Pepsi Halftime Ultra Pass”
David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures: Tom Cruise
Milestone Award: Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy
Norman Lear Achievement Award: Mindy Kaling
Stanley Kramer Award: “Till”
