The Oscar season is a-coming! And as the gallery of predictive award ceremonies like the Golden Globes and the PGAs announce their winners and nominations for the best of film in 2020 (and, um, some of 2021; it's a weird award season!), one more potentially rabble-rousing organization has made their selections known.
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has listed their nominations for both best director in film, but also best first-time director in film. As such, we have ten filmmakers to honor and speculate on who will make that leap into Oscar-land, whether for the vaulted Best Director award, a Best Picture nomination, or ideally both. Let's examine them, shall we?
For my money, Chloé Zhao is the Best Director to beat. I think she'll win this DGA award for Nomadland, and I think she'll win the Best Director Oscar, too. Her work practically screams with "prestige," bittersweetly blending real people among movie stars to tenderly show a particularly American vision. But I'm also beyond happy to see Lee Isaac Chung nominated for Minari, another particularly American vision that is directed with beauty, warmth, and humor. It's also a nice surprise to see Emerald Fennell get honored as a director for Promising Young Woman; while I think she's got a strong shot at Best Original Screenplay, her filmic style deserves attention, too. As for our Netflix boys of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, well, at least the former knows how to competently construct a visual sequence.
The first-time filmmakers category features an eclectic array of new talent, with at least Regina King (One Night in Miami) and Darius Marder (Sound of Metal) possessing a shot to nab an Oscar nod. It's also refreshing to see a work of comedy honored, as Radha Blank was for her autobiographical Netflix film The Forty-Year-Old Version.
Check out the full list of DGA 2020 nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film and First-Time Feature Film below.
Theatrical Feature Film
- Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
- Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
- David Fincher, Mank
- Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7
- Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
First-Time Feature Film
- Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version
- Fernando Frías de la Parra, I'm No Longer Here
- Regina King, One Night in Miami
- Darius Marder, Sound of Metal
- Florian Zeller, The Father