Star Trek nominated for best picture

Opting mostly for mainstream titles, the Producers Guild of America has tapped “Avatar,” “An Education,” “District 9,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Invictus,” “Precious,” “Star Trek,” “Up” and “Up in the Air” as nominees for its best picture award.The PGA, which made the announcement Tuesday morning, will announce the winner Jan. 24 in ceremonies at the Hollywood Palladium based on voting by its 4,200 members.

The list included a trio of sci-fi titles — “Avatar,” “District 9″ and “Star Trek.” Contenders missing the cut included “The Blind Side,” “It’s Complicated,” “The Last Station,” “The Messenger,” “Nine” and “A Serious Man.”

As with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the PGA’s expanded the category this year to 10 nominees.

The PGA’s trophy — the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award — has matched the Oscar Best Picture in 13 of its 20 years, including last year when “Slumdog Millionaire” took both.

“Up” also received a nomination in the PGA’s animated category along with “9,” “Coraline,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Princess and the Frog.”

The PGA’s selections of accredited producers have been used by AMPAS for the past three years as guidelines in determining the nominated producers in the Oscar best picture category. The producers branch of the Academy has about 8% of the nearly 6,000 members.

The PGA said Tuesday that it had not yet determined the accredited producers on “The Hurt Locker” and “Up in the Air.” Producers listed on Summit’s release of “Hurt Locker” are Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, while the “Up in the Air” producers listed by Paramount are Daniel Dubiecki, Jeffrey Clifford, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman.

Producers listed by the PGA for the other nominations were James Cameron, Jon Landau for “Avatar”; Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson for “District 9″; Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey for “An Education”; Lawrence Bender for “Inglourious Basterds”; Clint Eastwood, Rob Lorenz, Lori McCreary, Mace Neufeld for “Invictus”; Lee Daniels, Gary Magness, Sarah Siegel-Magness for “Push”; J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof for “Star Trek”; and Jonas Rivera for “Up.”

More than three-quarters of past PGA nominations for the best picture have subsequently scored Oscar mentions. Besides “Slumdog Millionaire,” last year’s PGA’s nominations went to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Dark Knight,” “Frost/Nixon” and “Milk,” while the Academy selected “Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “Slumdog” and opted for “The Reader” rather than “The Dark Knight.”

The PGA announced a quartet of nominees for its documentary award — “Bruma VJ,” “The Cove,” Sergio” and “Soundtrack for a Revolution.” It also tapped half a dozen finalists for its longform TV award with nods to the producers of “Georgia O’Keefe,” “Grey Gardens,” “Little Dorit,” “Prayers for Bobby,” “The Prisoner” and “Taking Chance.”

The Directors Guild of America will announce its feature film nominees on Thursday.

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