2024 PGA Awards live blog: ‘Oppenheimer’ wins Best Picture en route to Oscars

Denton Davidson
·7 min read
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Gold Derby is backstage at the 35th Producers Guild of America Awards on Sunday, February 25 in order to bring you all the up-to-date details on the presenters, nominees and winners. (See our official odds in 10 film and TV categories.) Senior editor Denton Davidson is in the press room and will let us all know every time something newsworthy happens. Read on for our 2024 PGA Awards live blog.

The PGA Awards honor the best producers of features, documentaries, series and specials, as voted on by more than 8,000 members of the producing guild. The 10 nominated films for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Best Picture are “American Fiction, “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest.”

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Since 2009, both the PGA and the Academy Awards have picked Best Picture with ranked choice voting. The PGA has been one of the most reliable Oscar predictors around, thanks in large part to the fact that both the guild and the academy use the the preferential ballot to determine a Best Picture victor. Since 2009, the PGA has forecast 12 of 15 Oscar champs.

SEE Oscar Best Picture Gallery: History of Every Academy Award-Winning Movie

Keep refreshing/reloading this 2024 PGA Awards live blog to see all the winners

6:45 p.m. — The 35th annual ceremony officially begins in The Ray Dolby Ballroom at the Ovation Hollywood. Guests are being encouraged to take their seats while DJ Reggie Watts spins epic film scores from his booth.

6:58 p.m. — Sarah Silverman takes the stage to present Best TV Comedy. Nominees are “Barry,” “The Bear,” “Jury Duty,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “Ted Lasso.” The winner is … “The Bear!”

7:00 p.m. — Natasha Lyonne presents “The Zone of Interest” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a clip.

7:10 p.m. — Sarah Michelle Gellar takes the stage to present Gail Berman with the Norman Lear Award. She tells the story of how Berman got “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” off the ground, turning it into an iconic TV series. Gellar credits Berman for being a mentor and showing her how to balance work and motherhood. Following a clip reel showing many of the iconic TV shows and films Berman has produced, she walks to the stage and accepts the award from Gellar.

7:16 p.m. — The next presenter is Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), presenting Best Documentary Feature. The nominees are: “20 Days in Mariupol,” “American Symphony,” “Beyond Utopia,” The Disappearance of Shere Hite,” “The Mother of All Lies,” “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” and “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hypnosis),” And the winner is … “American Symphony!”

7:24 p.m. — Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Kleiner presents a clip of Best Picture nominee “Anatomy of a Fall.”

7:26 p.m. — Actor/Comedian Drew Tarver presents the award for Best TV Variety Program. The nominees are “Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love,” “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” “Dave Chapelle: The Dreamer,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live.” And the winner is … “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

7:32 p.m. — “Barbie’s” Margot Robbie and America Ferrera take the stage to present a clip of their film, which is one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees.

7:35 p.m. — Filmmaker Ryan Coogler takes the stage to present the Milestone Award to Charles D. King. King is an Oscar-nominated producer most known for “Judas and the Last Messiah,” “Mudbound” and “Fences.”

7:53 p.m. — The next presenter is Emmy winner Tony Hale. He’s presenting Best TV Reality Series, and the nominees are: “The Amazing Race,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Squid Game: The Challenge,” “Top Chef” and “The Voice.” And the winner is … “RuPaul’s Drag Race”! In these political times, the producers encourage everyone to 1. Vote 2. Hire a drag queen 3. Tip your local queens.

7:55 p.m. — Tony Hale stays on stage to apologize to everyone who has lost so far. He then gets the fine task of thanking all of this evening’s paid sponsors. Three people in the room won a pair of Delta tickets. This whole bit was a little awkward.

7:57 p.m. — Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa present “The Holdovers” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a short clip of the film.

8:00 p.m. — Comedian and writer X Mayo is tonight’s next presenter. The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: “The Boy and the Heron,” “Elemental,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” And the winner is… “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”

8:05 p.m. — Lily Gladstone presents “Killers of the Flower Moon” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a short clip.

8:10 p.m. — Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone are the next presenters — giving a fake award for Best Not Produced project. I’m not sure why they’re wasting this kind of time, but here we are. They didn’t even give out an actual award.

8:13 p.m. — Maitreyi Ramakrishnan presents the award for Best Non-Fiction Series. The nominees are “60 Minutes,” “The 1619 Project,” “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life,” “Being Mary Tyler Moore” and “Welcome to Wrexham.” And the winner is… “Welcome to Wrexham”!

8:15 p.m. — Carey Mulligan and Sarah Silverman present “Maestro” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a short clip.

8:18 p.m. — Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh introduces tonight’s In Memoriam segment, tributing producers we’ve lost in the past year.

8:23 p.m. — Oscar winner Brie Larson presents the award for Best TV Movie. The nominees are “Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea,” “Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie,” “Quiz Lady,” “Reality” and “Red, White and Royal Blue.” And the winner is … “Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea.”

8:25 p.m. — Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Jeffrey Wright present “American Fiction” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a short clip.

8:30 p.m. — Actor and comedian Roy Wood Jr. presents the award for Best Limited Series. The nominees are “All the Light We Cannot See,” “Beef,” “Daisy Jones and the Six,” “Fargo” and “Lessons in Chemistry.” And the winner is…”Beef.”

8:33 p.m. — John Magaro presents “Past Lives” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a short clip.

8:37 p.m. — Michael Cimino presents the awards for Best Sports Program – “Beckham,” Best Children’s Program – “Sesame Street,” Best Short Form Program – “Succession: Controlling the Narrative” and the Innovation Award – “Body of Mine.”

8:38 p.m. — Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro presents the David O Selznik Award to Martin Scorsese. His reel of career highlights is obviously impressive, and it’s fun to see this look back at his career.

9:00 p.m. — Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., and Emily Blunt present “Oppenheimer” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a brief clip.

9:04 p.m. — Emmy winner Alex Borstein takes the stage saying, “I’m so confused, I thought this was a golf thing.” Finally some much needed humor on the night! She presents Best TV Drama Series. The nominees are “The Crown,” “The Diplomat,” “The Last of Us,” “The Morning Show” and “Succession.” And the winner is…”Succession.”

9:06 p.m. — Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe present “Poor Things” as one of tonight’s Best Picture nominees, followed by a short clip.

9:10 p.m. — Colman Domingo presents the night’s last award, Best Picture. The winner of tonight’s biggest prize is… “Oppenheimer.” Christopher Nolan and his team accept the award en route to the Oscars on March 10.

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