Following James Cameron's best director upset at the Golden Globes, the Producers Guild of America one-upped the Hollywood Foreign Press Association by choosing not the blockbuster Avatar, but Kathryn Bigelow's independently made Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker (above, top photo) as the best film (or best producers) of the year. Bigelow, screenwriter Mark Boal, Nicholas Chartier, and Greg Shapiro are the film's credited producers. Expect Bigelow to win the Directors Guild Award next Saturday as well.
Louie Psihoyos' The Cove (above, lower photo) and Pete Docter's Up won in, respectively, the best documentary and best animated feature categories. The Cove, which exposes the slaughter of dolphins at a cove near the fishing town of Taiji, Japan, has already won most Best Documentary awards this season.
Up received excellent reviews upon its release, and now that the Oscars have 10 Best Picture slots it may end up as the second animated feature ever to get an Oscar nomination in that category. (Disney's Beauty and the Beast was the first, back in 1991 — or early 1992, when the nominations were announced.) Up was also one of 2009's biggest blockbusters and was in the running for the Producers Guild's Best Picture award.
Grey Gardens won the longform television award. Directed by Michael Sucsy, the drama stars Jessica Lange and Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Drew Barrymore.