Producers Guild of America

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 2,800 members of the producing team worldwide.

[edit] History

The PGA began as two separate organizations, with the Screen Producers Guild being formed in 1950. Its first president was William Perlberg. In 1957, television producers followed suit, forming the Television Producers Guild, with Ben Brady as its first president. These merged in 1962 to form the PGA under legendary producer Walter Mirisch. Subsequent Presidents of the PGA have included Stanley Rubin, Leonard Stern and Kathleen Kennedy.

The Golden Laurel Awards (subsequently renamed the Producers Guild Awards) were first held in 1990, establishing the Guild awards as one of the bellwethers for the Academy Awards. 11 of the 16 winners of the PGA's Darryl F. Zanuck Award have gone on to win the Oscar for best feature.

In 2001, the PGA merged with the American Association of Producers (AAP), enabling the Guild to represent all members of the producing team. Since that time, the Guild has been composed of three Councils: The Producers Council (representing producers, executive producers and co-producers), the AP Council (representing associate producers, production managers, production supervisors, segement and field producers, production coordinators, visual effects producers and post-production staff) and the New Media Council.

In 2001 producers John Schwally and Nelle Nugent established the PGA East Regional Office of the Guild, located in New York and servicing Guild members based on the East Coast. Since 2004 David Picker has served as Chair of the region.

The PGA formed its New Media Council in 2002, in order to better represent producers working in emerging media such as DVDs, broadband and mobile entertainment, interactive television and console games.