Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film on Saturday (February 10), confirming his status as strong favourite to win the directing prize at next month’s Oscars.
British filmmaker Nolan, also winner of the directing Golden Globe for Universal Pictures’ Oppenheimer and nominated for the best director Bafta, took the award from a field that included two other best director Oscar nominees in Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos and Killers Of The Flower Moon’s Martin Scorsese.
Winners of the DGA feature directing award have gone on to win the best director Oscar in all but eight of the last 75 years. In the last decade the only discrepancy was in 2020, when Sam Mendes won the DGA honour for 1917 but Bong Joon Ho took the Oscar for Parasite.
Last year, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert followed their DGA feature award for Everything Everywhere All At Once with a best director win at the Oscars. In 2022 Jane Campion scored the same double for The Power Of The Dog.
In the 76th DGA Awards ceremony at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles the Guild’s Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film went to Celine Song for Past Lives (A24).
The category - renamed in honour of former DGA president Apted, who died in 2021 – was notably female-dominated, with Song and three of the other five nominees being women.
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary went to Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov for 20 Days In Mariupol (PBS Distribution). Chernov’s film is one of the two nominees in the DGA category that are also nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar, the other being Bobi Wine: The People’s President.
The DGA gave its award for directing on a drama series to Peter Hoar for the Long, Long Time episode of The Last Of Us (HBO/Max).
The award for directing on a comedy series went to Christopher Storer for the Fishes episode of The Bear (FX).
The Guild’s award for movies for television and limited series direction went to Sarah Adina Smith for the Her And Him episode of limited series Lessons In Chemistry (Apple TV+).
Also presented during the DGA ceremony were three lifetime achievement and service awards.
Director David Nutter, known for his work on Game Of Thrones, Band Of Brothers and The Sopranos got the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in television.
Janet G Knutsen, who has worked on features including Cobra and Rocky IV, was named winner of the Frank Capra Achievement Award recognising an assistant director or unit production manager.
Gary Natoli, whose credits include this year’s Golden Globes show and last year’s Oscars, received the Franklin J Schaffner Achievement Award recognising an associate director or stage manager.
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