National Geographic Films dominated the 2023 Documentary Motion Picture nominees for the upcoming 34th Producers Guild Awards. The studio landed three of the seven spots with “Fire of Love” from Sara Dosa, “Retrograde” from Matthew Heineman and “The Territory” from Alex Pritz.
In addition to the Nat Geo trio, other nominees included HBO’s “All That Breathes,” Netflix’s “Descendant,” CNN and Warner Bros’ “Navalny” and Showtime’s “Nothing Compares.” All seven are in the discussion for Oscar recognition this year.
The Producers Guild Awards honors excellence in motion picture and television productions, as well as the most notable names in the industry who are shaping the producing profession.
PGA nominees for docs haven’t had the best track record of translating to Oscar attention, which differs from the narrative feature category. However, it strongly correlates to appearing on the Oscar doc shortlist of 15 films, which began voting today. Last year, seven of the eight PGA nominees made it to the shortlist, and four were ultimately nominated by the Academy — “Ascension,” “Flee,” “Writing with Fire” and winner “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).”
When it comes to winners, in the last decade, four PGA winners became Oscar winners — “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012) “Amy” (2015), “O.J.: Made in America” (2016), “My Octopus Teacher” (2020) and the aforementioned “Summer of Soul.”
The nominees for sports, children’s and short form television programs will be announced on Friday, Dec. 16. For the theatrical motion pictures, animated features, television series and specials and televised/streamed motion pictures, they will be revealed on Thursday, Jan. 12. The winners will be announced on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023.
The Producers Guild of America represents over 8,500 producers. It is a non-profit trade organization that represents, protects, and promotes the interests of all producing team members in film, television and new media.
The full list of nominees is below; all are being vetted for individual producer eligibility.
- “All That Breathes” (HBO)
- “Descendant” (Netflix)
- “Fire of Love” (National Geographic Documentary/Neon)
- “Navalny” (CNN/Warner Bros.)
- “Nothing Compares” (Showtime)
- “Retrograde” (National Geographic)
- “The Territory” (National Geographic)
Read the current nominees for best documentary feature on Variety Awards Circuit. Make sure to bookmark the 2022-2023 Awards Season calendar for all key dates and timelines for the season.
