'Anora' wins at Producers and Directors Guild Awards

Did a wide-open Oscar race just get a frontrunner?

Sean Baker's Brooklyn comedy “Anora” took top honors at both the Producers Guild Awards and the Directors Guild Awards on Saturday night, catapulting it to Oscar favorite status with wins from a pair of closely watched Academy Awards precursors.

Hollywood's award season has been uncharacteristically up for grabs with half a dozen films viewed as legitimate best-picture contenders. Some had pegged “Anora” as the frontrunner going into the season after the film, starring Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

But after a number of films took turns in the spotlight, including Golden Globe winners “The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez," “Anora” reemerged in a big way over the weekend. Baker's film also won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday.

Both guild ceremonies were held in Beverly Hills, California. The PGA's top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, has matched the Oscar winner for best picture in 16 of the last 21 years. Since 2009, when the guild and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences both adopted a preferential ballot to pick a winner from 10 nominees, they've corresponded all but three times.

The DGA is similarly predictive. In the past 74 years, 66 winners have gone on to triumph at the Oscars. That makes Baker the favorite for best director in a field entirely composed of first-time nominees.

The guild also named RaMell Ross' “Nickel Boys" best first film. Ross' movie, nominated for best picture by the Oscars, is his narrative film debut.

Oscar voting begins Tuesday. Jacques Audiard's “Emilia Pérez" is the lead nominee with 13 nominations, but the Netflix film has seen its chances crater following multiple waves of backlash and controversy.

Another Oscar category also found clarity over the weekend. On Saturday at the Annie Awards, DreamWorks Animation's “The Wild Robot” cleaned up with nine awards including best film. “The Wild Robot” will be the heavy favorite to win best animated film at the March 2 Academy Awards.

Sean Baker, left, and Mikey Madison, winners of the award for best picture for "Anora," pose in the press room during the 30th Critics Choice Awards on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Mikey Madison arrives at the 77th Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sean Baker arrives at the 77th Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)