Tom Cruise a no show as Blanchett shines at the PGAs red carpet

Filmmakers and their stars turned out on Saturday for the Producers Guild Awards (PGA), which is seen as the main litmus test of what will win the coveted best picture at the Oscars.

The ceremony highlights the best in film and television for the past year and stresses the producers’ role in getting productions to our screens.

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television goes to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver #PGAAwards2023 pic.twitter.com/yAQwsi9Zz8

— Producers Guild of America (@producersguild) February 26, 2023

Patricia Arquette, who stars and produces the hit TV show ‘Severance’ says, “To produce something, of ten times it takes 6 or 7 years before it even gets made. You hear ‘no’ a lot of times and then these films tonight and these shows tonight are also a celebration of producers who stood by directors, who stood by writers, who stood by a vision for something and didn’t always make these creators make the most obvious choice, so I think that’s exciting.”

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television goes to Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy #PGAAwards2023 pic.twitter.com/2gA8KXgtZp

— Producers Guild of America (@producersguild) February 26, 2023

A sentiment shared by producer and actor of ‘Andor’, Diego Luna.

He said, “I guess the most important one for me is that we’re celebrating the people that got involved with this project from scratch, from the first day and it’s been a long journey, four years of our lives and it’s important to celebrate and to acknowledge that we did something that we love, we did something audiences like and it’s important to celebrate.”

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television goes to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver #PGAAwards2023 pic.twitter.com/yAQwsi9Zz8

— Producers Guild of America (@producersguild) February 26, 2023

‘Top Gun Maverick’ actor and producer Tom Cruise is to receive the coveted David O Selznick Achievement Award but he chose to skip the red carpet at the event.

The Producers Guild Awards has a similar line-up in their best picture category except for ‘The Whale’, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ and ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ are nominated instead of ‘Women Talking’, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and ‘Triangle of Sadness’.

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television goes to Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy #PGAAwards2023 pic.twitter.com/2gA8KXgtZp

— Producers Guild of America (@producersguild) February 26, 2023

‘The Whale’ director Darren Aronofsky said, “It’s been such an exciting year for film in the sense that you have a film like ‘The Whale’ right next to ‘Top Gun’ and right next to ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ next to ‘Tar’. There have just been so many strange movies this year that all work in all different ways for all different people and people are coming out to the movies to see them and that’s exciting so I don’t know, I think it’s a healthy time.”