Brokeback wows movie guilds

Taken from the pages of a novella by E Annie Proulx, Ang Lee’s powerful tale of two gay cowboys in ’60s Wyoming continues its relentless haul of award nominations.

Brokeback Mountain, which stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, has already taken Best Picture plaudits from the east and west coast Critic's Circles in the US. Lee can now add nominations from the Writers Guild Of America (WGA) and the Producers Guild Of America (PGA) to that already impressive list.

In a major departure for the PGA, the movies going toe-to-toe with Brokeback Mountain for the Best Picture nod are mostly from indie-based production companies. In the running are Capote, Crash, Good Night, And Good Luck and Walk The Line. Notable absentees are Peter Jackson's epic King Kong, Steven Spielberg's Munich and Rob Marshall's Memoirs Of A Geisha.

The PGA best picture award is seen as a solid heads-up for the Oscar in the same category, largely due to the fact that a large proportion of the PGA are members of the Academy. Meanwhile, Ang Lee is pitted against Capote, The Constant Gardener, A History Of Violence and Syriana for Best Adapted Screenplay at the WGAs.

The big surprise came in the announcement of the movies battling it out for the Best Original Screenplay honour. Alongside Cinderella Man, Crash, Good Night, And Good Luck and The Squid And The Whale is the Judd Apatow and Steve Carell-scripted comedy The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Here is the full list of nominations from the Producers Guild Of America

Best Picture

Brokeback Mountain (Focus Features), Capote (Sony Pictures Classics), Crash (Lionsgate Films), Good Night, And Good Luck (Warner Independent Pictures) and Walk The Line (20th Century Fox).

The Darryl F Zanuck Producer of the Year Award for theatrical motion pictures:

Diana Ossana and James Schamus for Brokeback Mountain; Caroline Baron, William Vince and Michael Ohoven for Capote; Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman for Crash; Grant Heslov for Good Night, And Good Luck and James Keach and Cathy Konrad for Walk The Line.

Inaugural award for animated film:

Randy Fullmer for Chicken Little (Walt Disney Pictures); Mireille Soria for Madagascar (DreamWorks Animation); Jerry Davis, John Donkin and William Joyce for Robots (Fox); and Tim Burton and Allison Abbate for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (Warner Bros. Pictures). Credits are still pending for the fifth nominee, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (DreamWorks Animation).

Nominees for the longform television award. The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year award:

Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Halle Berry, Vincent Cirrincione, Shelby Stone and Nellie Nugiel for Lackawanna Blues (HBO); Mark Gordon, Celia Costas and Chrisann Verges for Warm Springs (HBO); credits are still pending for Empire Falls (HBO), Into The West (TNT) and The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers (HBO).

Episodic TV drama. The Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award:

24 (Fox): Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran, Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer, Evan Katz, Jon Cassar, Stephen Kronish and Michael Loceff; Boston Legal (ABC): David E. Kelley, Bill D'Elia, Mike Listo, Steve Robin and Janet Knutsen; Grey's Anatomy (ABC): Mark Gordon, Shonda Rhimes, James Parriott, Betsy Beers, Peter Horton and Rob Corn; Lost (ABC): J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, Jean Higgins and Carlton Cuse; and Six Feet Under (HBO): Alan Ball, Alan Poul, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Robert Del Valle and Lori Nemhauser.

For episodic TV comedy. The Danny Thomas Producer of the Year Award:

Arrested Development (Fox): Ron Howard & Brian Grazer, David Nevins, Mitchell Hurwitz, John Levenstein, Richard Rosenstock, Chuck Martin and Victor Hsu; Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO): Larry David, Jeff Garlin, Robert B. Weide, Larry Charles and Tim Gibbons; Desperate Housewives (ABC): Marc Cherry, Tom Spezialy, Michael Edelstein and George W. Perkins; Entourage (HBO): Doug Ellin, Stephen Levinson, Julian Farino, Mark Greenberg and Wayne Carmona; and Two and a Half Men (CBS): Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn and Michael Collier.

Variety TV producer of the year:

77th Annual Academy Awards (ABC): Gilbert Cates; The Ellen DeGeneres Show (Warner Bros. Television): Ellen DeGeneres, Mary Connelly, Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and Karen Kilgariff; Late Night With Conan O'Brien (NBC): Lorne Michaels, Jeff Ross, Tracy King, Frank Smiley and Daniel Ferguson; Late Show With David Letterman (CBS): Maria Pope, Barbara Gaines, Rob Burnett and Jude Brennan; Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO): Bill Maher, Scott Carter, Sheila Griffiths and Dean Johnsen.

Nonfiction TV:

30 Days (FX): R.J. Cutler, H.T. Owens, Ben Silverman, Morgan Spurlock, Jonathan Chinn, Alison Ellwood and Keith Hoffman; 60 Minutes (CBS): Jeff Fager; Amazing Race 6 (CBS): Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Amy Chacon, Hayma Washington, Evan Weinstein, Elise Doganieri and Scott Owens; Amazing Race 7 (CBS): Jerry Bruckheimer, Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, Amy Chacon, Hayma Washington, Evan Weinstein, Elise Doganieri and Mark Vertullo; and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC): Tom Forman and Craig Armstrong.

The PGA Milestone Award: Clint Eastwood.

David O. Selznick Achievement Award in theatrical motion pictures: Roger Corman

The Producers Guild Achievement Award in television: Norman Lear

The Stanley Kramer Award: Grant Heslov

Vanguard Award: AOL chairman and CEO Jon Miller.