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It is the first time the Producers Guild of America has declared a tie in the 25-year history of its awards. The PGA has correctly chosen the eventual Academy Award winner for best picture for the last six years, including Iranian hostage drama "Argo" a year ago.
The PGA decision clashes with that of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which on Saturday chose the 1970s-set corruption caper "American Hustle" from director David O Russell for its top prize, best film ensemble cast.
But SAG has a mixed record on foreshadowing the Oscar best picture with its ensemble cast award, correctly predicting the Academy Award in six of the last 10 years.
Nevertheless, after an intense week of awards, the Oscars are shaping up to be a three-way race between these films. "American Hustle", with its strong performance, and "Gravity", with its technical innovation, lead nominations with 10 nods a piece, while "12 Years a Slave" and its brutal depiction of pre-Civil War slavery in the United States has nine.
The highest honours of the film industry from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be handed out on Mar 2. Voting among the 6,000 members runs from Feb 14 to
It was a crucial night for "12 Years a Slave", which won the coveted Golden Globe last Sunday for best drama but failed to bring in any other awards that night. It has also lost out on key acting awards.
Director and producer Steve McQueen, in accepting the PGA award along with co-producer and actor Brad Pitt, addressed an issue that could complicate the film's Oscar potential: talk that it is too difficult to watch.
"When the film first came out in Toronto, some people were saying that this was a brutal film, that no one would go to see it," said McQueen, a British filmmaker. "Box office here in the United States and in the UK has proven differently."
'Amazing year in cinema'
The film from Fox Searchlight Pictures is based on the true-life story of Solomon Northup, a free man tricked and sold into slavery in Louisiana plantations who witnesses and is subjected to horrific treatment. He is played by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor.
"Gravity," from Mexican director and producer Alfonso Cuaron, is based on a script he wrote with his son Jonas Cuaron inspired by their own setbacks as filmmakers. It is about an astronaut played by Sandra Bullock who is stranded in space after a space station is destroyed and her fight to return to Earth and a life marked by deep loss.
Cuaron said that it took more than four years for him and co-producer David Heyman to make "Gravity" and that the director (himself) "was difficult, stubborn and uncompromising".
Cuaron tested the patience and budget of Warner Bros with his technical innovation to portray the weightlessness and the vastness of space.
Cuaron also touched on one of the big themes of the year, the extraordinarily high number of quality films that have made this awards season a celebration of a thriving industry.
"This has been an amazing year in cinema and I am talking about these amazing films that were nominated and many other films that were not nominated," Cuaron said.
The next big test for these films comes at next Saturday's Directors Guild Awards. Cuaron, McQueen and Russell are all nominated for the top DGA award and for the Oscar for best director.
But the longer time lag this year between Oscar nominations, voting and the ceremony could spell some unpredictable voting among Academy members, adding more uncertainty to the highly competitive race.
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About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. Its creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
