Hollywood producers name La La Land year's best

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone starrer scored a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations earlier this month


January 29, 2017
Screen grab from the Lala Land trailer.

Hollywood producers named musical La La Land the best film of 2016 on Saturday at a ceremony marked by criticism of United States President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

The big win by La La Land at the 28th annual awards set up the film, which stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, as an odds-on Oscar favorite, after it scored a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations earlier this month.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA), which is among the leading industry organisations representing makers of movies and TV shows, also named Zootopia best animated film, O.J.:Made in America best documentary and Netflix's Stranger Things top television drama.

Oscar-nominated Iranian director to miss ceremony after Trump's Muslim ban

Musician John Legend, who starred in La La Land, criticised the new president's executive order placing curbs on people arriving in the United States from certain Muslim-majority countries, which spawned protests and confusion across several US airports on Saturday. "We encourage everybody out there to speak out against it," Legend said.

Introducing the splashy, colourful musical, Legend said, "Our vision of America is directly antithetical to that of President Trump. I want to specifically tonight reject his vision and affirm that America has to be better than that."

Accepting the award, La La Land producer Marc Platt continued in a similar vein saying, "It is the power of cinema fueled by free artistic expression that cannot be denied, that has no borders, and will never be banned from our hearts, our minds and our souls."

In past years, PGA best film winners have often gone on to win the Oscar for best picture. Among other honours for television productions, two FX shows prevailed, as another look at the famous O.J. Simpson murder case, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, won the producers' award for long-form television and the comedy series award was won by Atlanta.

John Legend: America has to be 'better' than Trump

Netflix’s Making a Murderer won for non-fiction television, while NBC's The Voice took home the prize for reality competition series and PBS' "Sesame Street" scored for children's program. Outstanding sports programme went to World of Sports, while Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won the live entertainment and talk television award.

Have something to add in the story? Share it in the comments below.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ