‘Green Book’ Wins PGA Award and Has Best Picture in Sight

New York Times

Kyle Buchanan

January 20, 2019

“Green Book” chronicles a road trip that, while fraught and contentious, ultimately pays dividends for those involved.

The film’s award-season run has been just as bumpy and rewarding.

Saturday night in Beverly Hills, the Producers Guild of America gave Peter Farrelly’s racial-issues comedy its top prize, a win that opens a clear path for “Green Book” to potentially take the academy’s best picture Oscar. Only twice since the academy expanded the best-picture field a decade ago have the two organizations differed on a winner. (That would be 2017, when “La La Land” won the PGA and “Moonlight” took the Oscar; and 2016, when the producers crowned “The Big Short” and the Oscar went to “Spotlight.”)

The victory for “Green Book,” over heavy hitters like “Roma” and “A Star Is Born,” surprised many in the Beverly Hilton ballroom, not least of all Farrelly, whose best-known film was previously “Dumb and Dumber.”

“It’s my first time at the PGA Awards, and the first time I ever heard of the PGA Awards,” Farrelly joked during his acceptance speech. Read more.