74th Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards: Jane Campion, Barry Jenkins, ‘Succession’ top winners

Jane Campion won the Directors Guild of America’s Theatrical Feature Film award for her western adaptation of The Power of the Dog, making her only the third woman in the org’s 74 years to win the prize.

Campion is only the second woman ever to receive a second nomination from the Directors Guild (the first was Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty who did not parlay her DGA nomination to a follow-up at the Oscars). Her first came nearly 20 years ago for 1993’s The Piano, and then went on to become the second woman ever nominated for Best Director at the Oscars.

Maggie Gyllenhaal continued her awards run with the DGA First Time Feature win for her film The Lost Daughter.

In television, Lucia Aniello won the comedy directing award for Hacks and Mark Mylod won the prize for drama for Succession. The Emmy-winning series nabbed all five slots in the directing category, a first at DGA. Barry Jenkins won the TV Movie/Limited Series category for The Underground Railroad.

Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee received the Guild’s top honorary award, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction.   

Spike Lee’s iconic body of storytelling has made an indelible mark on filmmaking. His feature directing career spans over 30 years and includes: She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, She Hate Me, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna, Red Hook Summer, Old Boy, and Chi-Raq. His 2018 critically acclaimed hit feature BlacKkKlansman earned him a DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film, an Academy Award and numerous nominations (see additional bio information below).

In 2002, the Guild awarded Lee with a DGA Honor for his distinguished contributions to our nation’s culture in support of filmmaking. 

The DGA Lifetime Achievement Award is selected by the present and past presidents of the Guild. In the Guild’s 86-year history, just 35 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), and most recently Ridley Scott (2017).

Here is the full list of winners of the 74th Directors Guild Awards.

FEATURE FILM

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON, Licorice Pizza
KENNETH BRANAGH, Belfast
JANE CAMPION, The Power of the Dog – WINNER
STEVEN SPIELBERG, West Side Story
DENIS VILLENEUVE, Dune

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, The Lost Daughter – WINNER
REBECCA HALL, Passing
TATIANA HUEZO, Prayers for the Stolen
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, Tick, Tick… Boom!
MICHAEL SARNOSKI, Pig
EMMA SELIGMAN, Shiva Baby

TELEVISION and DOCUMENTARY

Drama Series

KEVIN BRAY
Succession, “Retired Janitors of Idaho”

MARK MYLOD – WINNER
Succession, “All the Bells Say”

ANDRIJ PAREKH
Succession, “What It Takes”

ROBERT PULCINI & SHARI SPRINGER BERMAN
Succession, “Lion in the Meadow”

LORENE SCAFARIA
Succession, “Too Much Birthday”

Comedy Series

LUCIA ANIELLO – WINNER
Hacks, “There Is No Line”

MJ DELANEY
Ted Lasso, “No Weddings and a Funeral”

ERICA DUNTON
Ted Lasso, “Rainbow”

SAM JONES
Ted Lasso, “Beard After Hours”

MIKE WHITE
The White Lotus, “Mysterious Monkeys”

Movies for Television and Limited Series

BARRY JENKINS – WINNER
The Underground Railroad

BARRY LEVINSON
Dopesick, “First Bottle”

HIRO MURAI
Station Eleven, “Wheel of Fire”

DANNY STRONG
Dopesick, “The People vs. Purdue Pharma”

CRAIG ZOBEL
Mare of Easttown

Documentary

JESSICA KINGDON
Ascension

STANLEY NELSON – WINNER
Attica

RAOUL PECK
Exterminate All the Brutes

AHMIR “QUESTLOVE” THOMPSON
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

ELIZABETH CHAI VASARHELYI & JIMMY CHIN
The Rescue

Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming

PAUL G. CASEY
Real Time With Bill Maher, “Episode 1935: Fareed Zakaria, Chris Christie, Eric Adams”

JIM HOSKINSON
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Episode 1105”

DON ROY KING – WINNER
Saturday Night Live, ” Keegan-Michael Key; Olivia Rodrigo”

DAVID PAUL MEYER
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, “Episode 26112”

PAUL PENNOLINO & CHRISTOPHER WERNER
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “Episode 830 – Season Finale”

Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials

IAN BERGER
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents, “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse – Into the Magaverse”

BO BURNHAM
Bo Burnham: Inside

PAUL DUGDALE – WINNER
Adele: One Night Only

STAN LATHAN
Dave Chappelle: The Closer

GLENN P. WEISS
The 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors

Reality Programs

JOSEPH GUIDRY
Full Bloom, “Final Floral Face Off”

PATRICK MCMANUS
American Ninja Warrior, “1304: Qualifiers 4”

RAMY ROMANY
Making the Cut, “Brand Statement”

BEN SIMMS
Running Wild with Bear Grylls, “Gina Carano In The Dolomites”

ADAM VETRI – WINNER
Getaway Driver, “Electric Shock”

Children’s Programs

JAMES BOBIN
The Mysterious Benedict Society, “A Bunch of Smart Orphans”

MICHAEL LEMBECK
The J Team

PHILL LEWIS
Head of the Class, “Three More Years”
(HBO Max)

SMRITI MUNDHRA – WINNER
Through Our Eyes, “Shelter”

JEFF WADLOW
Are You Afraid of the Dark?, “The Tale of the Darkhouse”

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 – WINNER
(Serial Pictures x Somesuch)
Super. Human., Channel 4 Paralympics – 4Creative