With AMERICAN HUSTLE and 12 YEARS A SLAVE nabbing the honors at last week’s Golden Globes, and AMERICAN HUSTLE winning big at the Screen Actors Guild, it seemed like GRAVITY would fade away as a critical darling and box office hit that racked up the nominations but not the trophies to go with it. Sure, Alfonso Cuaron was named Best Director at the Globes, but would the notoriously conservative Academy Awards give the biggest honor to a science fiction film?
The Producers Guild Awards have correctly been the precursor to the eventual Best Picture winner at the Oscars for the last six years, including the “upset” win by THE KING’S SPEECH in 2010. Whoever won last night was surely going to be the big winner in February at the Oscars. But, then something happened that has never happened before at the PGA: a tie.
Both 12 YEARS A SLAVE and GRAVITY shared the top award of Best Picture, sending prognosticators and Hollywood executives into a tizzy over what this means for their Oscar chances. By not awarding AMERICAN HUSTLE, this opens the race up to Steve McQueen‘s brutal and hard to watch drama as well as Cuaron’s brilliant and technologically stunning space film. Both films are unique and wholly unlike one another aside form the craftsmanship and impeccable production values. While AMERICAN HUSTLE and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, amongst the other nominees, have divided audiences, 12 YEARS A SLAVE and GRAVITY have consistently been acclaimed. Who will win the biggest honor in American film just became a little more interesting.
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