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"Birdman" beat nine other films, including "Boyhood" and "The
Grand Budapest Hotel," to take the Producers Guild of America
award for outstanding producer of a motion picture. PGA winners
have gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture, the film
industry's highest honor, for the past seven years.
"Birdman," the first comedy from Mexican director and producer
Alejandro G. Inarritu, has won critical acclaim for its story of
a washed-up former superhero actor trying to make a comeback.
The lead is played by Michael Keaton, who has real-life
parallels with his character.
The film also breaks visual ground, unfolding in what appears to
be one continuous shot within the cramped confines of a Broadway
theater.
Inarritu said his crew's "only ambition was a risky and
experimental kind of exploration in the cinematic land, to go
through the mind of an artist with this complexity and the
stressful mind of Riggan Thomson played by the incredible
Michael Keaton."
"Birdman," from Fox Searchlight Pictures, has been among the
favorites in the Hollywood awards season. It tied with Wes
Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" for the most Oscar
nominations with nine a piece.
But in recent weeks, the coming-of-age tale "Boyhood" appeared
to pick up momentum in the best picture race. Awards experts
believe voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences wanted to reward the indie film that director Richard
Linklater made over 12 years with the same actors.
Producers are influential in the Academy as one of the biggest
voting blocs, along with actors, who will give out the Screen
Actors Guild awards to their peers on Sunday.
One category in which the PGA and the Academy will differ is in
best animated motion picture. The PGA's award went to "The LEGO
Movie," which was not nominated for an Oscar, one of the most
surprising exclusions of the Hollywood awards season.
The Academy Awards, Hollywood's biggest night, will be held on
Feb. 22 and coming weeks will be filled with intense lobbying
and promotion to sway the 6,000-plus voting members.
(Reporting by Mary Milliken; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore,
Larry King)
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