The Producers Guild of America was in step with the Hollywood Foreign Press in selecting three animated features to compete in the 19th Annual Producers Guild Awards. The producers of DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille and 20th Century Fox’s The Simpsons Movie will be among the makers of other top films and television shows vying for awards on Saturday, Feb. 2 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
This is the third year the Producers Guild will recognize animated films with their own category. DreamWorks Animation’s and Aardman Animations’ Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit took the first award in 2005 before going on the win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Disney/Pixar’s Cars then came along to nab the 2006 PGA award, but ended up losing the Academy Award to Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s Happy Feet.
This year, animation was shut out of the TV competition as ABC’s Ugly Betty, HBO’s Entourage and Extras, and NBC’s 30 Rock received nominations for the Danny Thomas Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television’Comedy.
Candidates for the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures are The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax), Juno (Fox Searchlight), Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.), No Country for Old Men (Miramax/Paramount Vantage) and There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage/Miramax). To see the full list of 2007 Producers Guild Awards nominees, go to www.producersguild.org/pg/awards_a/.
