Atlanta and The People v. O.J. Simpson were among the many new series recognized by the Directors Guild of America’s awards for TV on Wednesday, including directors of color such as Donald Glover and veteran filmmaker John Singleton into the nominations mix. They were joined by representatives of the usual suspects for TV accolades—namely Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, and Veep—as well as new blockbuster dramas Stranger Things and Westworld.
Considering 2016’s slate of episodic nominees consisted entirely of white directors, this year’s lineup marks a clear improvement in at least one sense. But where the DGA partly improved in its representation of TV directors, it also took a disappointing step backward. Last year, Jill Soloway (Transparent), Gail Mancuso (Modern Family), and Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland)—all Emmy or DGA winners for directing—were nominated by the DGA; this year, all were overlooked. Of the 11 directors cited on Wednesday in the major categories, only one woman—Becky Martin of the multinominated Veep—was among them.
It’s especially unfortunate given that Soloway’s directorial work on Transparent (particularly the gorgeous third season premiere “Elizah”) remains among the most imaginative in TV and that acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay was also in the running for Queen Sugar. DuVernay’s helming of the new OWN series’ first two episodes was visually striking and emotionally lush, and while the show ran a bit under the radar, the fact that directors make up the entire DGA voting body seemingly could have given her a leg up, given the relative obscurity of most TV directors. And yet, it didn’t—nor did it help her in the documentary category here either, for 13th, which is very likely to earn her an Oscar nomination. (Kristen Johnson’s deeply personal nonfiction film Cameraperson was also ignored by the DGA.)
Still, there’s a lot of good to celebrate here: Even if Glover wasn’t Atlanta’s principal director—that honor goes to Hiro Murai—his episode “B.A.N.” was one of the series’ most distinct and memorable, while the Duffer Brothers’ nostalgic, homage-filled Stranger Things pilot certainly deserved a mention as well. And on the documentary side, it’s great to see Raoul Peck’s powerful, prescient I Am Not Your Negro shortlisted ahead of the Oscar nominations.
The DGA will announce its five nominees for feature films on Thursday. Below are the guild’s selections for Drama Series, Comedy Series, Movies for Television and Miniseries, and Documentary.
Drama Series
The Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things (“Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers”)
Ryan Murphy, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (“From the Ashes of Tragedy”)
Jonathan Nolan, Westworld (“The Original”)
Miguel Sapochnik, Game of Thrones (“The Battle of the Bastards”)
John Singleton, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (“The Race Card”)
Comedy Series
Alec Berg, Silicon Valley (“Daily Active Users”)
Donald Glover, Atlanta (“B.A.N.”)
Mike Judge, Silicon Valley (“Founder Friendly”)
Becky Martin, Veep (“Inauguration”)
Dale Stern, Veep (“Mother”)
Movies for Television and Miniseries
Raymond De Felitta, Madoff
Thomas Kail & Alex Rudzinski, Grease Live!
Kenny Leon & Alex Rudzinski, Hairspray: Live!
Jay Roach, All the Way
Steve Zaillian, The Night Of (“The Beach”)
Documentary
Otto Bell, The Eagle Huntress
Ezra Edelman, O.J.: Made in America
Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg, Weiner
Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro
Roger Ross Williams, Life, Animated
Correction, January 12: This post originally stated that only one woman was nominated in the DGA’s television categories. While only one woman was nominated in the drama, comedy, TV movie/series and documentary categories, several were nominated in the Variety/Talk/News/Sports and Children’s Programming categories.
