DGA Winners: Jane Campion, Maggie Gyllenhaal and more...

by Nathaniel R

As expected Jane Campion took Best Director at the Directors Guild Awards, their third female winner after Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland). The DGA win has long been the most predictive precursor prize for future Oscar glory. Their winner almost always repeats at the Oscar. Splits are rare but the most recent was very recent indeed during the Parasite vs 1917 war; Sam Mendes took the DGA but Bong Joon-ho won the Oscar.

Maggie Gyllenhaal took the coveted First Time Feature award making this the first year were both of those prizes went to women.  All the prizes and more comments after the jump...

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT - FEATURE FILM 

Campion with her starsOne of the best things about the DGA awards is that each nominee gets a presentation (not just the winner). If only this show were televised!

• Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
• Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
• ★ Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
• Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
• Denis Villeneuve, Dune Part One

This is Campion's second DGA nomination (she was also up for The Piano) and first win. She's already an Oscar winner having won Best Original Screenplay for The Piano (1993) but she'll likely have another Oscar (or three) by the end of March.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT - FIRST TIME FEATURE 

• ★ Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
• Rebecca Hall, Passing
• Tatiana Huezo, Prayers for the Stolen
• Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick tick...BOOM!
• Michael Sarnoski, Pig
• Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby

This is the seventh year of this category and Gyllenhaal becomes the second female winner (after Alma Ha'rel for Honey Boy, 2019). She cited Jane Campion's The Piano as a film that changed her life. 

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT - DOCUMENTARY

• Jessica Kingdon, Ascension
• ★ Stanley Nelson, Attica
• Raoul Peck, Exterminate All Brutes
• Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Summer of Soul
• Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin, The Rescue

While Summer of Soul is largely regarded as the Oscar frontrunner, perhaps the Directors viewed it as more of an editorial achievement given all the archival footage?

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series

• KEVIN BRAY Succession, “Retired Janitors of Idaho” (HBO)
• ★ MARK MYLOD Succession, “All the Bells Say” (HBO)
• ANDRIJ PAREKH Succession, “What It Takes” (HBO)
• ROBERT PULCINI & SHARI SPRINGER BERMAN Succession, “Lion in the Meadow” (HBO)
• LORENE SCAFARIA Succession, “Too Much Birthday” (HBO)

Pretty crazy to see all the nominations from a single show. Perhaps all television awards bodies need to look at their rules. This is Mylod's first DGA win (from two nominations for this show). Interestingly enough Succession was nominated here only once each for its first two seasons and then suddenly it has the whole category to itself. Succession took a year off from the Emmys (given the timing of its seasons) but should come roaring back with honors for Season 3 which is where these episodes are from.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series

• ★ LUCIA ANIELLO Hacks, “There Is No Line” (HBO Max)
• MJ DELANEY Ted Lasso, “No Weddings and a Funeral” (Apple TV+)
• ERICA DUNTON Ted Lasso, “Rainbow” (Apple TV+)
• SAM JONES Ted Lasso, “Beard After Hours” (Apple TV+)
• MIKE WHITE The White Lotus, “Mysterious Monkeys” (HBO)

Lucia Aniello repeats his Emmy win. The others will be eligible for the next Emmy awards this fall (these Ted Lasso nominations are from Season 2 and the previous Emmys honored Season 1). It'll be interesting to see how The White Lotus fares -- it was a phenomenon when it aired but it will be a full year-old by the time the Emmy nominations roll around and you know how voters can get with recency bias. 

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series

• ★ BARRY JENKINS The Underground Railroad (Amazon)
• BARRY LEVINSON Dopesick, “First Bottle” (Hulu)
• HIRO MURAI Station Eleven, “Wheel of Fire” (HBO Max)
• DANNY STRONG Dopesick, “The People vs. Purdue Pharma” (Hulu)
• CRAIG ZOBEL Mare of Easttown (HBO)

At the Emmys Scott Frank won this prize for The Queen's Gambit, but since the Emmys are on a different timetable than the DGA, Frank won the DGA last year leaving this race without a possible repeat winner. At the upcoming Emmys only Hiro Murai (Station Eleven) and Danny Strong (Dopesick) will be eligible since the others already had their Emmy shot for these shows. 

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Regularly Scheduled Programming

• PAUL G. CASEY Real Time With Bill Maher, “Episode 1935: Fareed Zakaria, Chris Christie, Eric Adams” (HBO)
• JIM HOSKINSON The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, “Episode 1105” (CBS)
• ★ DON ROY KING Saturday Night Live, “Keegan-Michael Key; Olivia Rodrigo” (NBC)
• DAVID PAUL MEYER The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, “Episode 26112” (Comedy Central)
• PAUL PENNOLINO & CHRISTOPHER WERNER Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, “Episode 830 — Season Finale” (HBO)

Don Roy King has won 11 Emmys for his work on Saturday Night Live and he's now won 8 DGA Awards for Saturday Night Live, six of them now consecutively in this particularly category, blocking all other "regular programming" shows from winning for over half a decade now. 

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Specials

• IAN BERGER The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Presents, “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse — Into the Magaverse” (Comedy Central)
• BO BURNHAM Bo Burnham: Inside (Netflix)
• ★ PAUL DUGDALE Adele: One Night Only (CBS)
• STAN LATHAN Dave Chappelle: The Closer (Netflix)
• GLENN P. WEISS The 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors (CBS)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs

• JOSEPH GUIDRY Full Bloom, “Final Floral Face Off” (HBO Max)
• PATRICK McMANUS American Ninja Warrior, “1304: Qualifiers 4” (NBC)
• RAMY ROMANY Making the Cut, “Brand Statement” (Amazon)
• BEN SIMMS Running Wild With Bear Grylls, “Gina Carano in the Dolomites” (National Geographic Channel)
• ★ ADAM VETRI Getaway Driver, “Electric Shock” (Discovery Channel)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs

• JAMES BOBIN The Mysterious Benedict Society, “A Bunch of Smart Orphans” (Disney+)\
• MICHAEL LEMBECK The J Team (Paramount+)
• PHILL LEWIS Head of the Class, “Three More Years” (HBO Max)
• ★ SMRITI MUNDHRA Through Our Eyes, “Shelter” (HBO Max)
• JEFF WADLOW Are You Afraid of the Dark?, “The Tale of the Darkhouse” (Nickelodeon)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials

• STEVE AYSON (MJZ) Anthem, Mattress Firm — Droga5
• KATHRYN BIGELOW (SMUGGLER) Hollywood In Your Pocket, iPhone 13 — Media Arts Lab
• IAN PONS JEWELL (RESET) ECG, Apple Watch — Apple; Sleep, Apple Watch — Apple; Time, Squarespace — Squarespace; Your Mom’s Short Ribs, Instacart — Goodby Silverstein
• HENRY‑ALEX RUBIN (SMUGGLER) Teenage Dream, Sandy Hook Promise — BBDO — New York
• ★ BRADFORD YOUNG (Serial Pictures x Somesuch) Super. Human., Channel 4 Paralympics — 4Creative

If you've been wondering where amazing successful cinematographer Bradford Young is (who seemed to vanish after his first Oscar nomination), he has only disappeared from the cinema since he's focusing on his young directorial career.  

Comments

[Edwin]

I’m not on social media, but according to a few of the other movie sites I follow, people on Twitter are apparently acting like Power of the Dog’s Best Picture win is in serious jeopardy all of a sudden? Is it just because the SAG showing for CODA? Or maybe people are concerned that Sam Elliott’s comments might reflect what a lot of other older members of the Academy also think? Where is this doubt coming from? Flashbacks to Brokeback Mountain’s Oscar trajectory perhaps?

In any case, Jane Campion winning Best Director is the biggest lock of the night, so we can all at least rest assured that is happening. And I’m still plenty confident Power of the Dog is winning Best Picture. The only thing that would make me concerned is if it loses the PGA next weekend. But until then, I kind of have to assume all the panicked doubt is just a bit of paranoia at the moment, right?

[N8]

I'm not sure it's that DGA really considers Summer of Soul to be "less directed than edited", because Attica is the exact same style of documentary (archival footage and talking heads). Perhaps it has more to do with Stanley Nelson being a more established documentarian than Questlove(?)

[jules]

Yay Jane!

I think Succession deserved all of the direction nominations in drama series. It wasn't as if any of the nominations were for the same person.

Edwin - People get bored at this point in the season and they need to create their own narratives when things feel too settled (the same thing is happening in the supporting actress race, where they are claiming that Ellis has momentum).

[Michael R]

Smith, DeBose, and Kotsur all win at The Baftas. Scanlan wins Actress. Campion wins Director and CODA wins Screenplay.

[Peggy Sue]

So happy for Maggie. I love her like the niece I will never have.

[thevoid99]

Yay Jane and Maggie.

Sam Elliott is now Jane Campion's bitch.

[Pam]

On the internet, what a difference a day makes. Oh, Jane Campion, why did you say that?