Besides the best-picture award, there are categories for best first feature and best feature made for $500,000 or less.
The best-picture award went to Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," and John Travolta was named best actor for his performance in that movie.
Even Dustin Hoffman sounded oddly monotonous as he presented the best-picture award.
Great special effects don't win a best-picture award.
The film won the Golden Lion, the best-picture award, at the Venice Film Festival.
The best-picture award has gone less often to the stuffy, overproduced behemoths and outright duds that used to win with regularity.
Should the film win the best-picture award, he said, its presence will expand in theaters around the country and it will probably gross an additional $20 million or more.
Last year, however, the group went mainstream, giving the best-picture award to Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which later won the Oscar.
Separately, the Producers Guild of America, which holds an awards ceremony on Saturday night, looked at the question after it nominated "The Aviator" for its best-picture award.
"The Red Sorghum Field," an epic film about seduction and war in China, has won the best-picture award at the 38th Berlin Film Festival.