Will indie films sweep the 2013 PGA and WGA?

Awards season pre-Oscars is all about predictions. And with Oscar nom voting closing January 4 coinciding with the Producers Guild and Writers Guild Award nomination announcements, buzz is reaching a higher pitch.

The PGA gives out awards to Best Producer of a Theatrical Motion Picture (the Darryl F. Zanuck Award), Animation Motion Picture, Documentary, and various Television categories. Nominated for the frontrunner award were interestingly, some of the dark horses in the Best Pic Oscar race. Skyfall (the first Bond film to be nominated), Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, and Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom were among those likely to get snubbed by the Oscars in the more prestigious categories. Predictably, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Les Mis, and Lincoln were nominated as well.

Writers Guild Awards go to Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Documentary Screenplay, with no TV categories. Splitting Original and Adapted allows for more nominees, including Looper (Rian Johnson, original), Flight (John Gatins, original), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, based on his novel). Surprisingly, Flight is getting more buzz for acting than directing or producing awards, so it's good to see it here for screenplay. The same goes for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, which may garner nominations for Philip Seymour Hoffman, but unlikely for Joaquin Phoenix after his negative awards comments.

It would be great to see well-crafted films like Moonrise Kingdom or Django Unchained, or The Master who lack the pure power of Zero Dark Thirty and Argo get recognized this awards season.

Oscar nominations will be announced January 10.