“1917” has won the Producers Guild of America’s award as the best-produced feature film of 2019, giving it an important victory at an awards show that usually honors the film that goes on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The film, an immersive drama about World War I that was fashioned to look like a single shot, triumphed in a field that also included top Academy Award contenders “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “The Irishman,” “Parasite” and “Joker.” While the PGA win makes it a de facto frontrunner of sorts in that race, this is a year in which the Oscar race still feels unsettled. “Apollo 11” won the award for documentary feature, while “Toy Story 4” won for animated feature. Television winners included “Succession,” “Fleabag,” “Chernobyl,” “Apollo: Missions to the Moon” and “Leaving Neverland.” As the only other major award to use the same ranked-choice voting system as the Academy to determine its top film prize, the Producers Guild Awards are one of the most reliable predictors of Oscar success. The PGA winner has gone on to win the Best Picture Oscar 21 times in 30 years, and eight times in the 10 years since both groups expanded to 10 nominees and instituted ranked-choice voting. So while the win gives “1917” some valuable momentum in what has seemed to be a wide-open year, the compressed schedule leaves less time for any momentum to take hold before Oscar voting begins on January 30 (but also less time to momentum to change). The film is not nominated for any Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be handed out on Sunday. (SD-Agencies) | 