LOS ANGELES, Jan 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – “Green Book” took home best film at
the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, boosting its chances at next month’s
Oscars after it picked up three wins at the Golden Globes.
The civil rights drama-comedy starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen
beat “Roma,” “A Star Is Born,” “The Favourite,” “Black Panther,”
“BlacKkKlansman,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “A Quiet Place,” “Vice” and “Bohemian
Rhapsody,” which won the top award at the Globes.
“Green Book” recounts the unlikely friendship between Don Shirley, a black
piano virtuoso, and his driver, Tony Lip, during a concert tour through the
segregated Deep South in 1962.
“I don’t need awards,” producer-director Peter Farrelly said, according to
industry magazine Variety. “This is like Warren Buffett winning the lottery.
I’m damn thankful.”
The win came despite recent controversies around the film including the
re-emergence of an anti-Muslim tweet from 2015 by screenwriter Nick
Vallelonga (the late Tony Lip’s son), for which he profusely apologized last
week.
Farrelly himself was in hot water earlier this month because of stories in
several media outlets from 1998 recounting his habit of flashing his genitals
as a prank.
Among other notable categories, the best animated film went to “Spider-
Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “The Americans” won top TV drama and “The
Marvelous Mrs Maisel” won the comedy series award.
The PGA is a more low-key affair than the Golden Globes, but it is seen as
a more accurate bellwether for the Oscars, with their top awards aligning in
20 of its 29 years.
That includes “The Shape of Water” last year, though in 2017 the PGA’s
best film went the “La La Land” while “Moonlight” won the Oscars.
The Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 22, with the
ceremony itself on February 24.