The Directors Guild has announced its feature nominees, and if there's a notable surprise, it's that Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi made the cut over Todd Phillips (Joker) and Greta Gerwig (Little Women), among many other equally deserving filmmakers. Waititi, though, navigated a very fine line and pulled off a careful balancing act of genres that blend heart and humor with the Holocaust. It shouldn't have worked, but it did, and now Waititi finds himself in esteemed company.

Waititi will compete against Oscar-winning directors such as Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Sam Mendes (1917), as well as Oscar-winning screenwriter Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and South Korean sensation Bong Joon-ho, whose Parasite seems destined to win the Oscar for Best International Feature.

Meanwhile, the first-time filmmakers who earned DGA nods this year are Mati Diop (Atlantics), Alma Har'el (Honey Boy), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz (The Peanut Butter Falcon), and Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man in San Francisco).

On the documentary side, the nominees included the filmmakers behind Netflix's American Factory, Amazon's One Child Nation, Neon's Honeyland, NatGeo's The Cave, and Sony Pictures Classics' Maiden.

For the full list of nominees and their support staffs, continue reading.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM

BONG JOON HO, Parasite (Neon)

Mr. Bong's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Park Min Chul

First Assistant Director: Kim Seong Sik

SAM MENDES, 1917 (Universal Pictures)

Mr. Mendes's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Callum McDougall, Hannah Godwin

First Assistant Director: Michael Lerman

Second Assistant Director: Joey Coughlin

MARTIN SCORSESE, The Irishman (Netflix)

Mr. Scorsese's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: John A. Machione, Carla Raij

First Assistant Director: David Webb

Second Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks

Second Second Assistant Director: Trevor Tavares

Additional Second Assistant Director: Ryan Robert Howard

Location Manager: Kip Myers

QUENTIN TARANTINO, Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood (Columbia Pictures)

Mr. Tarantino's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Georgia Kacandes, Nathan Kelly

First Assistant Director: William Paul Clark

Second Assistant Director: Christopher T. Sadler

Second Second Assistant Director: Brendan "Bear" Lee

Additional Second Assistant Directors: Debbie Chung, Katie Pruitt

TAIKA WAITITI, Jojo Rabbit (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Mr. Waititi's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Václav Mottl, Pavel Voráček

First Assistant Director: Mark Taylor

Second Assistant Director: Martina Götthansová

Second Second Assistant Director: Martina Frimelová

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT OF A FIRST-TIME FEATURE FILM 

MATI DIOP, Atlantics (Netflix)

Ms. Diop’s Directorial Team:

First Assistant Director: Vincent Prades

ALMA HAR'EL, Honey Boy (Amazon Studios)

Ms. Har'el's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: David Grace

First Assistant Director: Sean Vawter

Second Assistant Director: Colin Flaherty

Second Second Assistant Director: Sarah Balboa

MELINA MATSOUKAS, Queen & Slim (Universal Pictures)

Ms. Matsoukas's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Pamela Hirsch, Max Berryhill (Los Angeles Unit)

First Assistant Directors: HH Cooper, Joe Suarez (Los Angeles Unit)

Second Assistant Directors: James Roque, Johnny Recher (Los Angeles Unit)

Second Second Assistant Directors: Sumner Boissiere, Tami Kumin (Ohio Unit)

TYLER NILSON & MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, The Peanut Butter Falcon (Roadside Attractions)

Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Manu Gargi

First Assistant Director: James Grayford

Second Assistant Director: Dee Jones

Second Second Assistant Director: Michael McKay

JOE TALBOT, The Last Black Man in San Francisco (A24 Films)

Mr. Talbot’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Natalie Teter

First Assistant Director: Hilton J. Day

Second Assistant Director: Dominic Martin

Second Second Assistant Director: Jeremiah Kelleher

Additional Second Second Assistant Director: Alex Gilbert

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT OF A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory (Netflix)

Feras Fayyad, The Cave (National Geographic Documentary Films)

Alex Holmes, Maiden (Sony Picture Classics)

Ljubomir Stefanov & Tamara Kotevska, Honeyland (Neon)

Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)