Ahead of tonight’s Producers Guild of America awards ceremony, the annual breakfast with the nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award at the Skirball Cultural Center. The theme of the panel, moderat…
of America awards ceremony, the annual breakfast with the nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award at the Skirball Cultural Center., nominated as one of the producers for his musical “West Side Story.”
In response to a question about how producers can be successful and enter the business, Spielberg replied by saying, “the smartest thing I do is hire women. I always have and always will. I believe in the power of the producer. You’re not just the leaders. You are therapists. I rely on someone stronger than me to produce.”
One representative from each Producers Guild-nominated films took the stage for the in-person event – Todd Black , Philippe Rousselot , Mary Parent , Tim White , Sara Murphy , Tanya Seghatchian , Julie Oh and Spielberg – while Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Messick both appeared virtually via Zoom. The support that was given by streaming giant Netflix was also a common talking point among its three nominated films.
Oh attended one of only five performances that took place in New York starring Lin-Manuel Miranda. She initially wasn’t aware of the show and was surprised the rights were available. Philippe Rousselot started his opening remarks by acknowledging the strong year for movies. Discussing the journey to get “CODA” made, and ultimately sold at Sundance for a record $25 million to Apple, he said, “It’s been the most extraordinary journey of my producer life.”