Winners of the Children’s, Short Form, Sports, and PGA Innovation Awards Announced as part of the West Coast Celebration of the Producers Guild Awards on February 26

Lydia Dean Pilcher Announced as Recipient of the Vance Van Petten Entrepreneurial Spirit Producing Award and Jessica Li for the Debra Hill Award

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Producers Guild of America hosted its annual West Coast celebration of the PGA Award nominees and their producing teams tonight at The Aster in Hollywood. The celebration kicked off events leading into the Producers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 28.

During the evening, winners of four of the PGA Awards categories were announced.

• The producing team for Sesame Street was presented with the award for Outstanding Children’s Program.
• The producing team for Formula 1: Drive to Survive was presented with the award for Outstanding Sports Program.
• The producing team for Adolescence: The Making of Adolescence was presented with the award for Outstanding Short Form Program.
• The producing team for The Wizard of Oz at Sphere was presented with the PGA Innovation Award which celebrates outstanding entertainment endeavors across VR, AR, experiential and other emerging media.

The remaining Producers Guild Awards winners will be announced at the annual award show on Saturday, February 28, at The Fairmont Century City.

Additionally, during the evening, Lydia Dean Pilcher (“Queen of Katwe,” “Radium Girls”) was presented with the Vance Van Petten Entrepreneurial Spirit Producing Award for her nearly two decades of work championing sustainability in film and television, including chairing the PGA’s Sustainability Task Force. Pilcher’s award was presented by Tendo Nagenda. Recent NYU graduate of their dual MBA/MFA program, Jessica Li was announced as the recipient of the Debra Hill Fellowship supporting emerging producers. The award was presented by Selection Chairs Deniese Davis and Lucienne Papon.

In attendance were PGA guests and producing team members from 62 nominated productions, including: Simran Baidwan (THE PITT Sn 1), Caroline Baron (THE BEAST IN ME & SEVERANCE Sn 2), Sam Bisbee (THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR), Jerry Bruckheimer (F1 & THE AMAZING RACE Sn 37), Steven Corfe (RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE Sn 17), J. Miles Dale (FRAKENSTEIN), Mary Alice Drumm (ELIO), Howard Gordon (THE BEAST IN ME), Andrew Jarecki (THE ALABAMA SOLUTION), Liza Marshall (HAMNET), Sara Murphy (ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER), Sev Ohanian (SINNERS), Jane Rosenthal (THE WIZARD OF OZ AT SPHERE), Charles Roven (AKA CHARLIE SHEEN), Nina Wolarsky (ADOLESCENCE). The West Coast celebration was sponsored by United for Business and featured Glenfiddich Scotch Whisky, Silverado Vineyards, with support by Waymo.

The PGA Innovation Award is juried and not voted on by the membership of the Producers Guild. This year’s jury was led by Angela Russo-Otstot (Chief Creative Officer of AGBO), Joanna Popper (CEO, Laurel Beach), and Maureen Fan (Co-Founder & CEO of Baobab Studios). The complete blue ribbon jury included:

• Albert Cheng, Head of AI Studios, Amazon MGM Studios
• Angela Russo-Otstot, Chief Creative Officer at AGBO
• Blake Kammerdiener, Sr. Manager, Film and TV, XR Programming at SXSW
• Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications, OpenAI
• George Strompolos, CEO of Promise
• Jess Lee, Partner at Sequoia Capital, Co-Founder & CEO of Polyvore
• Joanna Popper, CEO, Laurel Beach
• John Gaeta, Founder, Escape AI Media
• Lisa Gregorian, President, Unlikely Collaborators
• Liz Rosenthal, Curator, Venice Immersive, Venice International Film Festival, Founder & CEO Power to the Pixel
• Maureen Fan, CEO, Co-Founder Baobab Studios
• Miles Perkins, Industry Manager, Film & Television, Unreal Engine
• Nonny de la Peña, Director ASU Narrative and Emerging Media Program and CEO Emblematic Group
• Shicong Zhu- Head of Studio (LA), DramaBox
• Stephanie Mehta, CEO and Chief Content Officer, Mansueto Ventures
• Victoria Bousis, Cross-Media Director, Technologist, & Founder of UME Studios - PGA Innovation Award Winner (2023) “Stay Alive My Son (VR)”