Following their writing, producing, and acting counterparts at the Writers Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, and SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America announced its picks for the best filmmaking of the year in a virtual, partially pre-taped ceremony April 10. Topping the list of 73rd DGA Award honors was Chloé Zhao, winning Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for “Nomadland”—the latest in a succession of triumphs for the Searchlight Pictures contender.
Featuring producer-star Frances McDormand as a van-inhabiting itinerant worker, Zhao’s documentary-like feature has earned accolades from the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, the Golden Globes, the PGA Awards, and more, and is in the running in six top Academy Award categories, including best picture and director. As one of Hollywood’s oldest organizations responsible for one of its oldest ceremonies, the DGA is seen as a prestigious precursor to the Oscars; due to a significant overlap between guild membership and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters, DGA’s film winners have gone on to claim the directing Oscar all but eight times. (Last year, however, proved one of those exceptions to the rule, with DGA’s honoree Sam Mendes of “1917” falling to Bong Joon-ho and “Parasite” with the Academy.)
Also worth noting is the historic nature of Zhao’s DGA victory: in the awards’ 73-year history, the writer-director-editor-producer follows Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” as the second woman, and first woman of color, to ever claim the category.
Two female filmmakers, Radha Blank for Netflix’s “The Forty-Year-Old Version” and Regina King for Amazon Studios’ “One Night in Miami,” were recognized in the DGA’s first-time feature category, also a rarity in the guild’s history. Winning that prize this year was Darius Marder for Amazon Studios’ “Sound of Metal,” another Oscar best picture contender.
Darius Marder’s Journey to Cast Both Deaf + Hearing Actors in ‘Sound of Metal’ The DGA television categories saw Susanna Fogel of HBOMax’s comedy “The Flight Attendant,” Lesli Linka Glatter of Showtime’s drama “Homeland,” and Scott Frank of Netflix’s limited series “The Queen’s Gambit” take home honors. Among the ceremony’s honorary winners were DGA members Betty Thomas, Brian E. Frankish, Joyce Thomas, and former guild president Paris Barclay, who became the first Black recipient of a special DGA prize.
“We overcame the daunting task of getting our industry back to work and most importantly, back to work safely,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme, also the evening’s variety special winner for HBOMax’s “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote.” Of the year’s challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, “In this transition of reckoning, our guild was brought closer together to listen, to learn—and often to unlearn.”
The DGA Awards recognize achievement in film, TV, documentary, variety shows, and commercials, representing and made up of thousands of behind-the-camera artists. For more on the guild and a full list of DGA Award winners, visit their official site.
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