2020 Directors Guild Awards Nominees: Tarantino, Scorsese, Bong Joon-Ho, And More (But No Greta Gerwig)
As awards season presses on, all eyes are turning to the Directors Guild of America, which has officially announced its list of nominees for its annual awards ceremony. Stalwarts like Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) are contending for the top prize alongside Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) and more, but despite earning a nod a couple of years ago for directing Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig was not recognized this time for her work on Little Women. Bummer.
Read on to find out who else earned a nomination, and which first-time feature directors are competing in a separate category.
Directors Guild Awards Nominees
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2019
Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Sam Mendes, 1917
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit
No big surprises there – although if I had my way, I'd have replaced Waititi with Gerwig just because I really loved what she did with her adaptation of Little Women. But I can't complain too much – the way Waititi successfully walked a tonal high wire in Jojo Rabbit was undoubtedly impressive.
It's also worth noting that, as Indiewire points out, the past six winners of this DGA Award have gone on to win the Best Directing prize at the Oscars...so place your bets now.
Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director for 2019
Mati Diop, Atlantics
Alma Har'el, Honey Boy
Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim
Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, The Peanut Butter Falcon
Documentary
Hoping for some representation for female feature filmmakers? Here's where you'll find it this year. Personally, I'm bummed that Todd Douglas Miller didn't get a nod for directing Apollo 11, one of the most immersive and mesmerizing docs of the year.
That's all for the theatrical features, but yesterday, the DGA also announced nominees for achievements in TV directing. There are some reality TV and commercial categories that you can read about here, but for our purposes, the only ones we really care about are the following:
TV Movies or Limited Series
Thanks to an error with the guild's digital voting system, the nominees in Comedy Series, Dramatic Series, and Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Specials will be announced this Friday, so stay tuned for those.
The Directors Guild of America winners will be announced on January 25, 2020.