Last night, yet another indicator of what might go down during the Oscars in a few weeks sounded off. This time, it was the Directors Guild of America awards, which have a good history of predicting the big winners for the Academy Awards, though not quite as strong an indicator as the PGA awards. So, this makes things a bit more confusing, considering that the PGA sided with Adam McKay's funny, enveloping The Big Short and the DGA gave its major win to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu last night for The Revenant, the second in a row for the Mexican auteur following last year's far more aggravating Birdman.
My hope for the Oscars was that George Miller might take the Best Director award while the Best Film award would almost inevitably go to The Revenant, though there would now seemingly be a good chance that The Big Short will give Inarritu's survivalist tale a run for its money. Those two would certainly be the top two picks for Best Picture going into the awards, as it stands, but the other DGA winners don't really give any hints. On the TV side, awards went to Game of Thrones and Veep, as well as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Back in film, best first feature went to Alex Garland for the fascinating sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, with good reason, while best documentary direction went to Matthew Heineman for Cartel Land, a good piece of reportage directed without much personality. How this wins over Frederick Wiseman's sublime, relevant In Jackson Heights, no one will ever fully be able to explain to me. But hey, bringing reason, logic, or intelligence into any discussion about these awards is the textbook definition of a fool's errand.
Here's a full list of the DGA winners:
Feature Film: Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series: David Nutter, Game of Thrones, “Mother’s Mercy”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series: Chris Addison, Veep, “Election Night”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries: Dee Rees, Bessie
Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director: Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Matthew Heineman, Cartel Land
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs: Adam Vetri, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge, “Gods of War”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs: Kenny Ortega, Descendants
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming: Dave Diomedi, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “Episode #325”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials: Andreas Nilsson, Emily’s Oz for Comcast, Time Upon A Once for General Electric, Dad Song for Old Spice
