“Anora” director Sean Baker has won the DGA Award for Theatrical Feature, gaining significant Oscar momentum ahead of final voting.
With its surprising best picture win at the Critics Choice Awards — its only prize of the night — the $6 million dramedy, which claimed the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, has solidified itself as a major contender in an unpredictable awards season.
“I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to be able to do thing I knew I wanted to do since I was 5 years old,” Baker told the crowd Saturday at the conclusion of the 77th annual DGA Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton.
A wide-open year has unfolded with plenty of twists and turns, including campaign controversies and surprising Oscar snubs like DGA nominee Edward Berger and recent Critics Choice shocking victor Jon M. Chu for “Wicked.”
Legendary filmmaker Ang Lee, a two-time Oscar-winning director of “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi,” received the Guild’s highest honor, the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award from his “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Michelle Yeoh. In the Guild’s 88-year history, only 36 directors have been recognized with this honor, including Frank Capra (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (1968), Orson Welles (1984), Billy Wilder (1985), Steven Spielberg (2000), Martin Scorsese (2003), Miloš Forman (2013), Ridley Scott (2017), and most recently Spike Lee (2022).
Writer, director and comedian Judd Apatow hosted the annual ceremony, taking on President Donald Trump and other controversial figures. DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter opened the ceremony, paying tribute to the first responders who bravely took on the L.A. wildfires and calling on the industry to work to “bring production back to the U.S. and bring it back in force.”
For decades, the DGA Award for Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has been a reliable predictor of success in the Best Director category at the Academy Awards. Since the award’s inception, only eight times has the DGA winner failed to secure the Oscar: Anthony Harvey (“The Lion in Winter”), Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”), Steven Spielberg (“The Color Purple”), Ron Howard (“Apollo 13”), Ang Lee (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Rob Marshall (“Chicago”), Ben Affleck (“Argo”) and Sam Mendes (“1917”).
When it comes to the DGA and the Oscar for best picture correlation, history shows a DGA nom is even more critical. Only two films — “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) and “CODA” (2022) — have managed to win best picture at the Oscars without a DGA nom. Meanwhile, six films have won best picture without even an Oscar nom for directing: “Wings” (1927), “Grand Hotel” (1932), “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Argo” (2012), “Green Book” (2018) and “CODA.”
Also among the winners was “Nickel Boys” helmer, RaMell Ross, who took home the first-time director prize. His drama is nominated for two Oscars including best picture and adapted screenplay. Ross gave an exuberant speech that noted that the film is a rare example of “Black subjectivity.”
“It’s so difficult to see ourselves [in mainstream film as] something that’s as uniquely Black as jazz, something that’s as unique as Toni Morrison’s writing. It does not exist,” Ross said.
The duo Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev walked away with the documentary category for “Porcelain War.”
In the outstanding directorial achievement in television, commercials and documentary categories, FX’s drama “Shogun,” HBO/Max’s comedy “Hacks,” and Netflix’s miniseries “Ripley” were the big winners.
Apatow took a moment during the ceremony to show a clip of an interview he did a few months ago with filmmaker David Lynch, who died in January at age 78. Apatow said he realized that the interview was likely Lynch’s final one, which came for the Mel Brooks documentary in the works for HBO. The clip shot outdoors shows a side of Lynch that was “so sweet and funny and full of life.” He then rolled a few minutes of the interview featuring Lynch talking about the juxtaposition of light and dark in his work.
Yeoh’s presentation life achievement kudos to Lee was an emotional highlight of the night. Lee emphasized how touched he was to receive such a high accolade from his fellow directors.
“Movies are my faith. It’s what I believe in more than reality,” Lee told the crowd. “It is only through pretending that we can hope to touch the truth.”
The list of nominees and winners for the 77th annual DGA Awards is below.
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Variety Awards Circuit: Oscars
Film Categories
Theatrical Feature Film
- Jacques Audiard — “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
- Sean Baker — “Anora” (Neon) — WINNER
- Edward Berger — “Conclave” (Focus Features)
- Brady Corbet — “The Brutalist” (A24)
- James Mangold — “A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)
Michael Apted First Time Directorial Feature
- Payal Kapadia — “All We Imagine as Light” (Janus Films/Sideshow)
- Megan Park — “My Old Ass” (Amazon MGM Studios)
- RaMell Ross — “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) — WINNER
- Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel — “Armand” (IFC Films)
- Sean Wang — “Dìdi” (Focus Features)
Documentary
- Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev – “Porcelain War” (Picturehouse) — WINNER
- Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie – “Sugarcane” (National Geographic)
- Johan Grimonprez – “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (Kino Lorber)
- Ibrahim Nash’at – “Hollywoodgate” (Fourth Act Film)
- Natalie Rae & Angela Patton – “Daughters” (Netflix)
TV Categories
Dramatic Series
- Alex Graves – “The Diplomat,” “Dreadnought” (Netflix)
- Hiromi Kamata – “Shōgun,” “Ladies of the Willow World” (FX)
- Issa López – “True Detective: Night Country,” “Part 6” (HBO)
- Frederick E.O. Toye – “Shōgun,” “Crimson Sky” (FX) — WINNER
- Jonathan Van Tulleken – “Shōgun,” “Anjin” (FX)
Comedy Series
- Lucia Aniello – “Hacks,” “Bulletproof” (HBO/Max) — WINNER
- Ayo Edebiri – “The Bear,” “Napkins” (FX)
- Duccio Fabbri – “The Bear,” “Doors” (FX)
- Jeff Schaffer – “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “No Lessons Learned” (HBO/Max)
- Christopher Storer – “The Bear,” “Tomorrow” (FX)
Movies for Television and Limited Series
- Kevin Bray – “The Penguin,” “Top Hat” (HBO/Max)
- Alfonso Cuarón – “Disclaimer” (Apple TV+)
- Jennifer Getzinger – “The Penguin,” “A Great or Little Thing” (HBO/Max)
- Helen Shaver – “The Penguin,” “Cent’anni” (HBO/Max)
- Steven Zaillian – “Ripley” (Netflix) – WINNER
Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming
- Paul G. Casey – “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “Jiminy Glick, Andrew Cuomo, Adam Kinzinger” (HBO/Max)
- Jim Hoskinson – “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez & Mavis Staples w/ Jeff Tweedy” (CBS)
- David Paul Meyer – “The Daily Show,” “Indecision 2024: The Democratic National Convention ‑ Plot Twist!” (Comedy Central)
- Liz Patrick – “Saturday Night Live,” “John Mulaney / Chappell Roan” (NBC) — WINNER
- Paul Pennolino – “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “India Elections” (HBO/Max)
Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials
- Hamish Hamilton – “The 96th Annual Academy Awards” (ABC)
- Beth McCarthy‑Miller – “The Roast of Tom Brady” (Netflix) — WINNER
- David Paul Meyer – “The Daily Show Presents A Live Election Night Special With Jon Stewart: Indecision 2024: Nothing We Can Do About It Now” (Comedy Central)
- Glenn Weiss – “The 77th Annual Tony Awards” (CBS)
- Ali Wong – “Ali Wong: Single Lady” (Netflix)
Reality Programs
- Neil DeGroot – “Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted,” “The Cliffs of Ireland” (National Geographic) — WINNER
- Joseph Guidry – “Deal Or No Deal Island,” “Are You Decisive?” (NBC)
- Ari Katcher – “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show,” “Road Trip” (HBO/Max)
- Patrick McManus – “American Ninja Warrior,” “Las Vegas Finals 4” (NBC)
- Mike Sweeney – “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” “Ireland” (Max)
Children’s Programs
- Kat Coiro – “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” “Welcome to Spiderwick” (Roku Channel)
- Michael Goi – “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” “Aang” (Netflix)
- Jim Mickle – “Sweet Tooth,” “This Is a Story” (Netflix)
- Jennifer Phang – “Descendants: The Rise of Red” (Disney+)
- Amber Sealey – “Out of My Mind” (Disney+) — WINNER
Commercials
- Lance Acord – “An American Love Story” (Park Pictures)
- Kim Gehrig – “A Life in Sound” (Somesuch)
Kim Gehrig – “Am I A Bad Person?” (Somesuch)
Kim Gehrig – “Find Your Friends” (Somesuch) - Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim – “Michael CeraVe” (Prettybird)
- Andreas Nilsson – “Board Game” (Biscuit Filmworks)
Andreas Nilsson – “First Office Poo” (Biscuit Filmworks)
Andreas Nilsson – “One More” (Biscuit Filmworks)
Andreas Nilsson – “Whizzer” (Biscuit Filmworks) — WINNER - Ivan Zachariáš – “Flock” (Smuggler)
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