LOS ANGELES: Show business satire “Birdman” took the lead in what promises to be a competitive race for the best picture Oscar by winning the top award from Hollywood producers on Saturday.

“Birdman” beat nine other films, including “Boyhood” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” to take the Producers Guild of America award for outstanding producer of a motion picture. PGA winners have gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture, the film industry’s highest honour, for the past seven years.

“Birdman,” the first comedy from Mexican director and producer Alejandro G. Inarritu, has won critical acclaim for its story of a washed-up former superhero actor trying to make a comeback. The lead is played by Michael Keaton, who has real-life parallels with his character.

The film also breaks visual ground, unfolding in what appears to be one continuous shot within the cramped confines of a Broadway theatre.

Inarritu said his crew’s “only ambition was a risky and experimental kind of exploration in the cinematic land, to go through the mind of an artist with this complexity and the stressful mind of Riggan Thomson played by the incredible Michael Keaton.”

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015

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