The Directors Guild of America announced its nominations Thursday for outstanding directorial achievement in theatrical feature film, offering one of the clearest snapshots yet of the Oscar race for director as guild voters begin to weigh in.
Nominated for the DGAās top film award are Paul Thomas Anderson for āOne Battle After Another,ā Ryan Coogler for āSinners,ā Guillermo del Toro for āFrankenstein,ā Josh Safdie for āMarty Supremeā and ChloĆ© Zhao for āHamnet.ā
Winners will be announced at the 78th DGA Awards on Feb. 7 at the Beverly Hilton.
The DGA award remains one of the strongest predictors of Oscar success. Twenty of the last 23 recipients of the guildās top directing prize have gone on to win the Academy Award for director. Last yearās DGA winner, āAnoraā director Sean Baker, went on to repeat at the Oscars.
Several of this yearās nominees are familiar figures to the guild. Andersonās nod for āOne Battle After Anotherā marks his third time being recognized by the DGA in the top film category, following his earlier nominations for āThere Will Be Bloodā and āLicorice Pizza.ā Zhao, who won both the DGA Award and the Oscar for āNomadland,ā receives her second nomination for the wrenching period drama āHamnet,ā making her one of a small group of women ā including Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow and Greta Gerwig ā to be recognized more than once by the guild.
Del Toro, who won the DGA Award for āThe Shape of Water,ā earns his second career nomination in the category for his long-gestating āFrankensteinā adaptation, while Safdie receives his first DGA nomination for theatrical feature film for his gonzo sports drama āMarty Supreme.ā
The DGA nominations often track closely with the Oscars in part because of overlapping membership: Most directors in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are also members of the guild. While the groups vote independently, that shared base has made the DGA one of the most reliable bellwethers in the Oscar directing race.
This yearās DGA nominations overlap significantly with the Golden Globe nominations for directing, which also included Anderson, Coogler, Del Toro and Zhao. The Globes additionally recognized Jafar Panahi for āIt Was Just an Accidentā and Joachim Trier for āSentimental Value,ā two filmmakers who didnāt appear in the DGA lineup. The differences highlight the contrasting makeup of the Globesā voting body of international critics and the DGAās more industry-focused membership.
The guild also announced nominees for the Michael Apted Award for outstanding directorial achievement in first-time theatrical feature film, a category that has increasingly served as a spotlight for emerging talent. This yearās nominees are Hasan Hadi for āThe Presidentās Cake,ā Harry Lighton for āPillion,ā Charlie Polinger for āThe Plague,ā Alex Russell for āLurkerā and Eva Victor for āSorry, Baby.ā Last yearās Apted Award winner, RaMell Ross, went on to earn a best picture Oscar nomination for āNickel Boys.ā
Television, documentary and other DGA nominations were announced earlier this week, recognizing directing work across drama, comedy, limited series and nonfiction programming. In dramatic series, nominees included āSeverance,ā āAndor,ā āThe Diplomatā and HBO Maxās āThe Pitt,ā while comedy series nominees included āThe Bear,ā āHacks,ā āThe White Lotusā and Apple TV+ās āThe Studio.ā