- Title: USA: Hollywood celebrates its movers and shakers at Producers Guild Awards
- Date: 25th January 2011
- Summary: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 22, 2011) (REUTERS) ( ** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) VARIOUS OF RED CARPET AT PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS ACTOR SEAN PENN ON THE RED CARPET ACTOR MARK WAHLBERG ON THE RED CARPET DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER JAMES CAMERON WITH WIFE SUZY AMIS ON THE RED CARPET 5 SEAN PENN GREETS ACTRESS HELEN MIRREN ACTRESS AMY ADAMS ON THE RED CAR
- Embargoed: 9th February 2011 12:00
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- Location: Usa, Usa
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA2674BIU27IEUNL928OPOX3T7I
- Story Text: Hollywood took to the red carpet to laud the arguably most important people in film at the 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards Saturday (January 22), held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California (United States).
Actors Sean Penn, Helen Mirren, Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, and Kerry Washington were among those attending the swank affair, along with powerful industry heavyweights like James Cameron, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Judd Apatow, who hosted the awards ceremony.
All were there for one reason: to honor the best in filmmaking for 2010 and to thank the people who rarely get public recognition but are most instrumental in bring a picture to light.
"I mean, without the producers, we wouldn't get work, so obviously they're incredibly important," says Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren. She adds, "But a really good producer is a very rare thing. So many people get the moniker of producer, but very few of them really understand what real producing is, and I've had the great advantage to work with some amazing producers, and when you do work with a really good producer, you come to understand how terribly important that role is."
Says Kerry Washington: "Without them, we'd all just be at home, reading really cool scripts, wondering 'what that would look like'."
Before the show, filmmaker and Academy Award-winner James Cameron said that being a successful producer doesn't mean you aren't nervous when starting out on a film, or that the audience will give any leniency, regardless of past successes. Cameron is the director and visionary of the two highest grossing films of all time, "Titanic" and "Avatar."
"I think you have to have a healthy degree of fear of the fact that sooner or later, no matter how hard you work on a film or how long, sooner or later you're going to have to put it in front of the public, and they don't owe you anything, they either like it or they don't," says Cameron, who won a special award at the event.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, producer and CEO of Dreamworks Animation, was thrilled to be honored by his peers with a nomination for "How to Train Your Dragon" in the animated film category.
"I love it," says Katzenberg. "Because I know how hard it is to produce a movie, I know that the producers are the ones who are the glue that bring it all together and allow great script, great director, great actors, all the crafts, for all of them to come together takes a fantastic producer. There are no accidents here, no happy accidents."
Comedic filmmaker Judd Apatow was slightly nervous before heading into the ballroom to host the event.
"It does not make me feel comfortable being the center of attention, but they asked me to do it, and I thought "I'm so dead inside that if it goes badly, I'll feel something, and if it goes well, I'll feel something. So it was worth a try," says Apatow.
When asked what he thought of Ricky Gervais' stint as host of the Golden Globe Awards, held at the same venue as the Producers Guild Awards nearly a week before, Apatow said he liked some but not all of the British comedians jokes. Gervais has come under criticisms by some in Hollywood who thought he went to far in his skewering of celebrities at the Globes.
"If you go after people in somewhat of a dismissive way of their entire careers, those are the kinds of jokes I don't like, but some of the other jokes, I thought, were really funny," says Apatow. "I thought he wasn't self deprecating, and then, heading in to making fun of other people, you kind of have to start with yourself, I think."
For Tom Hooper, who directed the film "The King's Speech," appearing at an awards show red carpet while jetlagged can be a jarring experience.
"I must admit, facing the barrage of photographers when you are exceptionally jetlagged, as I am now, is slightly a surreal experience," says Hooper.
Later in the evening, the guild "The King's Speech" with its top award for best film, beating out "The Social Network," which won the Golden Globe Award for best dramatic film. "The King's Speech" stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter, and is about the struggles of British King George VI in overcoming a stammer. In past years, the Producers Guild Awards nominees have been a harbinger for the much coveted Oscar nod.
The nominations for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, January 25, and the prizes will be handed out in a telecast on Sunday, February 27. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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