Feature: PGA Awards may offer Oscar clue

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Oscar handicappers expect the Producers Guild of America's 14th annual PGA Awards in Los Angeles Sunday will offer a signpost pointing to this year's top Oscar.

The PGA award for best picture -- formally known as the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year award -- has been a fairly reliable indicator of eventual Oscar winners since the award was established in 1989. Of the 13 PGA winners, nine have gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture.

This year's PGA nominees are: "Adaptation," "Chicago," "Gangs of New York," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "Road to Perdition" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

Only three of those movies -- "Chicago," "Gangs of New York" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" -- are also nominated this year for the Best Picture Oscar.

"The Hours" and "The Pianist" are conspicuously absent from the PGA list.

"The Hours" -- a complex story of three women living a lie in three different generations -- received nine Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. It also won Golden Globes for best drama movie and best actress, Nicole Kidman.

"The Pianist" -- director Roman Polanski's account of a man eluding the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto -- won for best film last weekend at both the BAFTA Awards in London and the Cesar Awards in Paris.

The PGA nomination for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is considered something of a surprise, since the movie is widely regarded in Hollywood as more of a crowd pleaser than the sort of prestige picture that merits best picture consideration.

The producers guild will honor Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti with its Milestone Award, in recognition of his "historical contribution to the entertainment industry." Veteran producer Robert Evans ("The Godfather," "Love Story") will receive the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures.

Producer-director Bud Yorkin ("All in the Family," "The Jeffersons") will receive the David Susskind Lifetime Achievement Award in Television. And George Lucas will receive the Vanguard Award, in recognition of his "outstanding achievement in new media and technology."

In addition, the producers will present the Visionary Award -- honoring producers of either television or film whose work demonstrates a "unique or uplifting quality" -- to Rita Wilson for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Todd Black and Denzel Washington will receive the Stanley Kramer Award -- which honors producers "whose work illuminates provocative social issues in an accessible and elevating fashion" -- for "Antwone Fisher."