2015 Awards Season: The Big Short’s Surprise PGA Win Shakes Up Oscar Race

January 24, 2016

The Producers Guild of America handed out their awards last night and The Big Short came out the surprise winner for the top prize. That victory shakes up an awards season that had looked like it would be a two-horse race between Spotlight and The Revenant.

The categories and Winners are...

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

• The Big Short

• Inside Out

• Amy

• The Big Short beat The Revenant for Best Picture. That's a shock. That's beyond a shock. The Revenant was widely favored to win, while The Big Short wasn't in second place. Hell, a lot of experts didn't even even have it in third place. Its Oscar chances have certainly improved.
• This could spell a serious decline in the Oscar prospects for The Revenant. I had previously talked about the blowback the film had been receiving. The buzz went from "It's an amazing movie." to "The shooting conditions were so grueling that it is amazing they were able to make the movie." With some reports out there describing the filming conditions as less grueling and more abusive, the film's chance of becoming the big winner could plummet quickly as the prevailing talking points change.
• Inside Out winning was the least surprising event of the weekend.
• With this win, Amy has gone from favorite to overwhelming favorite to win the Oscar for Best Feature-Length Documentary.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Awards Season, Inside Out, The Revenant, Spotlight, The Big Short, Amy