Producers Guild of America Winners: '12 Years a Slave' and 'Gravity' Tie For Best Picture

The Producers Guild of America has named "Gravity" and "12 Years a Slave" the Best Films of the Year.

The tie marks the first time that the PGA has given the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for outstanding producer of theatrical motion picture to two films. It also comes a day after the Screen Actors Guild gave "American Hustle" the Best Ensemble award.

The PGA is important because the film that wins Best Film at the ceremony is also expected to take the Best Picture Oscar. This is because the Producers Guild, like the Academy, uses a preferential ballot to determine the winner. Additionally, the Producers Guild has 4,500 members and a number of the members are also Academy voters.

The unprecedented tie has turned the race into a three-way game and now most pundits will turn to the Directors Guild to see which director is likely to win the Oscar.

The PGA is known for coinciding with the Oscars a number of times. Films that won the PGA and have gone on to win the Oscar include "Argo," "The Artist," "The King's Speech," "The Hurt Locker," "Slumdog Millionaire," and "No Country for Old Men."

However, the Guild has diverged with the Academy a number of times. Films that have gone on to win the PGA but not the Oscar include "Brokeback Mountain," "Little Miss Sunshine," "Moulin Rouge," and "The Aviator."

Other winners at the PGA awards include "Frozen" for Best Animated Film and "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks" for Best Documentary. "Frozen" continues to be the front-runner for the Oscars while "We Steal Secrets" is not nominated for the Academy Awards.

The Stanley Kramer award for independent filmmaking was handed out to "Fruitvale Station."