Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele are among the five directors who have been recognised for outstanding directorial achievement by the Directors Guild of America. The Guild announced its feature film nominees Thursday, including Gerwig for the coming-of age film Lady Bird and Peele for his horror sensation Get Out, which also earned him a first-time director nod.
Guillermo del Toro, who won the Golden Globe for directing Sunday, also scored his first DGA nomination for the romantic fantasy The Shape of Water, as did Martin McDonagh for his revenge tale Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Christopher Nolan got his fourth for Dunkirk. Nolan was previously nominated for Inception, The Dark Knight and Memento.
First-time feature film nominees include Peele, Aaron Sorkin for Molly’s Game, Taylor Sheridan for Wind River, William Oldroyd for Lady Macbeth and Geremy Jasper for Patti Cake$.
Winners will be revealed at an untelevised February 3 ceremony and dinner in Beverly Hills hosted by Judd Apatow.
With nearly 17,000 members, including television and commercial directors, the guild often selects a more populist lineup when compared with the selections of the nearly 400 members of the directors’ branch of the film academy.
Although Oscar and DGA nominations rarely match up exactly, guild choices can be a formidable predictor of the Oscar winner. Last year, Damien Chazelle became the youngest DGA feature film winner and went on to win the Academy Award for La La Land.
Oscar nomination voting closes Friday. Nominees will be announced January 23.
