Picture’s up on the 2026 Director’s Guild Award nominees. The DGA announced on Thursday that this year’s five contenders are Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another, Ryan Coogler for Sinners, Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein, Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme, and Chloé Zhao for Hamnet.
The guild also unveiled the five nominees for its first-time feature filmmaker honor. Those directors are Hasan Hadi for The President’s Cake, Harry Lighton for Pillion, Charlie Polinger for The Plague, Alex Russell for Lurker, and Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby.
Speaking of firsts, this is the first time that either Coogler or Safdie has been nominated for the DGA’s top prize. Coogler is also the first Black director to be recognized by the DGA Awards since 2019, when Spike Lee received his first-ever nominataion for BlacKkKlansman. The Sinners director joins a shortlist of Black nominees that includes Jordan Peele for Get Out, Barry Jenkins for Moonlight, Steven McQueen for 12 Years a Slave, Lee Daniels for Precious and John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood.
Both del Toro and Zhao are returning champions, with the former previously winning the DGA Award for 2017’s The Shape of Water and the latter for 2020’s Nomadland. Anderson is a two-time nominee for 2007’s There Will Be Blood and 2021’s Licorice Pizza, but has yet to win his first statuette.
As with the just-announced SAG Awards, the final list of DGA nominees notably doesn’t feature any international filmmakers — several of whom are major contenders for the Best Director prize at the Oscars. Perhaps the chief omission is Jafar Panahi who has already won multiple precursor prizes for the Cannes-winning It Was Just an Accident.
The Iranian auteur was previously crowned Best Director by the Gotham Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle and is among the nominees for the Golden Globes on Sunday. Panahi’s popularity with the increasingly international Academy — plus the very real peril he faces in his native land — have made him an odds-on favorite to be part of the final five Oscar nominees. He currently sits at No. 4 on the Gold Derby leaderboard.
2026 Oscar nomination odds
Best Director
1.
Paul Thomas Anderson
One Battle After Another
2.
3.
4.
Jafar Panahi
It Was Just an Accident
5.
Joachim Trier
Sentimental Value
6.
Josh Safdie
Marty Supreme
7.
Guillermo del Toro
Frankenstein
8.
Jon M. Chu
Wicked: For Good
9.
Kleber Mendonca Filho
The Secret Agent
10.
Meanwhile, another Cannes winner, Joachim Trier, is holding onto the No. 5 spot for Sentimental Value, a film that’s been a major part of the acting races with the exception of SAG. While Panahi’s nomination seems assured, Trier could be more vulnerable to a repeat nomination for del Toro, a beloved figure within the film industry. In fact, the guilds have been responsible for bringing Frankenstein back into the awards mix after the creature feature met with a mixed critical reception on the film festival circuit.
There’s also the chance of a last-minute surge by Safdie. So far, much of Marty Supreme’s awards hopes have been pinned on star Timothée Chalamet, who won Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards last weekend and is poised for a repeat win at the Globes on Sunday, with a history-making Actor Award win potentially to follow. But the DGA recognition for Safdie along with Odessa A’zion’s recent Best Supporting Actress nomination from SAG indicates that the movie could be scoring points for other members of the cast and crew.
As for who will win this year’s DGA Award, all signs are pointing to Anderson, especially absent a challenger like Panahi. The filmmaker recently won the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay prizes at the CCAs, and is favored to repeat in the former category at the Globes this weekend over the also-nominated Panahi and Trier.
2026 Golden Globes Director Odds
Best Film Director
1.
Paul Thomas Anderson
One Battle After Another
2.
Jafar Panahi
It Was Just an Accident
3.
4.
5.
Guillermo del Toro
Frankenstein
6.
Joachim Trier
Sentimental Value
Anderson is also leading our odds in the Best Screenplay race, although the Globes notably doesn’t distinguish between adapted and original screenplays. That gives Coogler an opening to win for Sinners, which picked up the Best Original Screenplay prize at the CCAs.
2026 Golden Globes Screenplay Odds
Here’s hoping Anderson will have something new to say by Oscar night, because it’s looking like it’s going to be one acceptance speech after another for the next two months.
Note: Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge and Penske Media Corporation, which owns Gold Derby.