PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINATIONS

Best Picture

The Artist (Thomas Langmann)

Bridesmaids (Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, Clayton Townsend)

The Descendants (Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Céan Chaffin, Scott Rudin)

The Help (Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Brunson Green)

Hugo (Graham King, Martin Scorsese)

The Ides of March (George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brian Oliver)

Midnight in Paris (Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum)

Moneyball (Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt)

War Horse (Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg)

Best Animated Feature

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg)

Cars 2 (Denise Ream)

Kung Fu Panda 2 (Melissa Cobb)

Puss in Boots (Joe M. Aguilar, Latifa Ouaou)

Rango (John B. Carls, Gore Verbinski)

Best Documentary

Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

Bill Cunningham New York

Project Nim

Senna

The Union

A spot of bother here. Drive and The Tree of Life, those two critically-acclaimed, internet-supported indie films, are absent. I think plenty of us were expecting the Drive snub, but not The Tree of Life. It's a worrying sign for two good films such as these. Will their ongoing support from the critics' groups keep them in good stead, or be dismissed by industry voters, just like the HFPA's support for The Ides of March was...

...until now. One of those two slots has been occupied by The Ides of March, which we must now begin to consider. It may not have the support of the SAG, but had it been riding a high around the time that SAG members were voting, I'm sure it would have picked up at least an ensemble nomination. Actors in the Academy may yet push it through, and if it can earn WGA, maybe ACE support too, be prepared to make way for The Ides of March in your Best Picture predictions.

On the other hand, I'm unconvinced by Bridesmaids. I wasn't sure if it'd turn up here - in fact, I had more faith in Ides. Nevertheless, the producers have declared their love for it, as the actors, unsurprisingly, did too. I don't think the Academy will follow suit, at least not in all categories, but it was always likelier to find success with the guilds than anywhere else.

The biggest surprise here for me, though, is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was never ready to write it off entirely, but I wasn't expecting the PGA to nominate it. It's like when The Hurt Locker beat Avatar here, and everyone was predicting Avatar. That, albeit, was a signal that The Hurt Locker was heading straight for an Oscar win, as with last year, when The King's Speech broke The Social Network's run with a PGA win. Should the other guilds nominate Dragon Tattoo, it could yet do rather well at the Oscars, although I'm not sure it even needs many more nominations. Maybe this  validates it as a Best Picture candidate, maybe they'll nominate it if they want to anyway.

The Documentary nominees, by the way, were announced over a month ago, although I can't find producer credits, oddly.

Winners are announced on the 21st.