The Directors Guild of America has announced the nominees for its feature film award. They are Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Garth Davis (Lion), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), and Denis Villeneuve (Arrival).
Given that all of the movies were also on the list of 10 released by the Producers Guild of America, this makes them increasingly likely to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, if not necessarily locks for Best Director, since the DGA and Oscar voters often don’t line up precisely. While the academy and the DGA agreed on four of five slots last year, the DGA picked The Martian’s Ridley Scott while the Oscars favored Room’s Lenny Abrahamson.
Nominated for best first-time director were Davis—who immediately becomes the favorite in that category—along with Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen), Tim Miller (Deadpool), Nate Parker (The Birth of a Nation), and Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane). Parker, of course, has been widely excluded from awards-season consideration and barely visible since the movie’s release was dogged by his involvement in an alleged sexual assault in 2001, but DGA voters evidently didn’t consider that a deal breaker. As with the PGA nominations, the surprising inclusion of Deadpool continues to make it a dark-horse candidate for Oscar recognition.
It’s also worth noting that earlier Thursday, the San Diego State Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film released its annual report on the state of the film industry and found that the percentage of women directing films in the domestic top 205 for box office actually dropped in 2016, down from 9 to only 7 percent. “It is remarkable that with all of the attention and talk over the last couple of years in the business and the film industry, the numbers actually declined,” the center’s Martha Lauzen told Variety. “Clearly the current remedies aren’t working.” Like the movie nominations, the DGA’s nominees for television direction, announced Wednesday, included only one woman among the 11 directors cited in major categories.
The complete list of Directors Guild nominations, as provided by the DGA:
DAMIEN CHAZELLE
La La Land
(Lionsgate)
Mr. Chazelle’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Michael Beugg
– First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
– Second Assistant Director: Paula Case
– Assistant Unit Production Manager: Bart Lipton
– Second Second Assistant Director: Brett Robinson
– Additional Second Assistant Director: Dodi Rubenstein
This is Mr. Chazelle’s first DGA Award nomination.
GARTH DAVIS
Lion
(The Weinstein Company)
Mr. Davis’s Directorial Team:
– First Assistant Director: Chris Webb
– First Assistant Director: Ananya Rane (India Unit)
– Second Assistant Directors: Mark Ingram (Australia Unit), Sunny Tiku (India Unit), KP Singh (India Unit), Shaunak Kapur (India Unit)
BARRY JENKINS
Moonlight
(A24)
Mr. Jenkins’ Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Jennifer Radzikowski
This is Mr. Jenkins’ first DGA Award nomination.
KENNETH LONERGAN
Manchester by the Sea
(Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions)
Mr. Lonergan’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Declan Baldwin
– First Assistant Director: Michael J. Moore
– Second Assistant Director: David Blazina
– Second Second Assistant Directors: Tim LaDue, Scooter Perrotta
This is Mr. Lonergan’s first DGA Award nomination.
DENIS VILLENEUVE
Arrival
(Paramount Pictures)
Mr. Villeneuve’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Stan Wlodkowski
– First Assistant Director: Donald L. Sparks
– Second Assistant Director: Brigitte Goulet
– Second Second Assistant Director: Karine P. Labelle
This is Mr. Villeneuve’s first DGA Award nomination.
Nominees for the first-time director award are:
GARTH DAVIS
Lion
(The Weinstein Company)
Mr. Davis’ Directorial Team:
– First Assistant Director: Chris Webb
– First Assistant Director: Ananya Rane (India Unit)
– Second Assistant Directors: Mark Ingram (Australia Unit), Sunny Tiku (India Unit), KP Singh (India Unit), Shaunak Kapur (India Unit)
This is one of two DGA Award nominations this year for Mr. Davis. He is also nominated in the Feature Film category for Lion. He was previously nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials in 2009 for “Shadow Puppets,” U.S. Cellular.
KELLY FREMON CRAIG
The Edge of Seventeen
(STX Entertainment)
Ms. Fremon Craig’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Brendan Ferguson
– Production Manager: Dan Clarke
– First Assistant Director: James Bitonti
– Second Assistant Director: Daniel Mansfield
This is Ms. Fremon Craig’s first DGA Award nomination.
TIM MILLER
Deadpool
(Twentieth Century Fox)
Mr. Miller’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: John J. Kelly
– First Assistant Director: James Bitonti
– Second Assistant Director: Daniel Mansfield
This is Mr. Miller’s first DGA Award nomination.
NATE PARKER
The Birth of a Nation
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Mr. Parker’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Mark Moran
– First Assistant Director: Tomas Deckaj
– Second Assistant Director: Mark C. Stevens
– Second Second Assistant Director: Scott Bowers
This is Mr. Parker’s first DGA Award nomination.
DAN TRACHTENBERG
10 Cloverfield Lane
(Paramount Pictures)
Mr. Trachtenberg’s Directorial Team:
– Unit Production Manager: Robert J. Dohrmann
– First Assistant Director: Jason Blumenfeld
– Second Assistant Director: Paul B. Uddo
– Second Second Assistant Director: Jonathan M. Warren
– Location Manager: Batou A. Chandler
This is Mr. Trachtenberg’s first DGA Award nomination.
Read more in Slate about the 2016 Oscar race.
Correction, Jan. 12, 2017: This post originally misstated 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.
