DGA nominees: Peele, Gerwig, McDonaugh, Nolan, del Toro

Erik Anderson January 11, 2018

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2017.

In a swift change from who the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated for the Golden Globes, this is not an all-male or all-white group of nominees. Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) becomes only the 7th female nominee in 70 years and Jordan Peele (Get Out) becomes just the 4th black director recognized. In fact, all of the black directors nominated (Lee Daniels – Precious, Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave, Barry Jenkins – Moonlight) have happened all in this decade. Peele actually earned two nominations today as he was also recognized in the First Time Feature Film category. Last year, Lion‘s Garth Davis made it in both as well but was off the Oscars’ Best Director list in favor of Mel Gibson.

The DGA and Oscar rarely match up. More often that not there’s just one name that doesn’t translate from here to there. 2012 was its own animal, when only two DGA nominees also earned Oscar nominations, and is really an outlier for comparison. The most obvious, and maybe too on the nose, comparison is actually the last time the two matched up 5/5. That was 2009 when James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Quentin Tarantino, Lee Daniels and Jason Reitman were nominated by both groups. It was the only time ever a woman and an black man were nominated in the same year (Bigelow won both) and this year we have…a woman and a black man in the running. Bigelow won both and was nominated by the DGA again in 2012, but Oscar has yet to have another female nominee since her win. There has never been a black winner from either organization. That could change this year.

Here are the nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film:

Guillermo del Toro – The Shape of Water

Mr. del Toro’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: J. Miles Dale
Production Manager: Dennis Chapman
First Assistant Director: Pierre Henry
Second Assistant Director: Tyler Delben

This is Mr. del Toro’s first DGA Award nomination.

Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird

Ms. Gerwig’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Lila Yacoub, Danielle Blumstein, Jamin O’Brien (New York Crew)
First Assistant Directors: Jonas Spaccarotelli, Cedric Vara (New York Crew)
Second Assistant Directors: Brendan Lee, Dana Zolli (New York Crew)
Second Second Assistant Directors: Lillian Awa, Teri Barber

This is Ms. Gerwig’s first DGA Award nomination.

Martin McDonaugh – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Mr. McDonagh’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Bergen Swanson
Assistant Unit Production Manager: Peggy Robinson
First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
Second Assistant Director: Paula Case
Second Second Assistant Director: Spencer Taylor

This is Mr. McDonagh’s first DGA Award nomination.

Christopher Nolan – Dunkirk

Mr. Nolan’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: David Witz, Christine Raspillere (France Unit), Chris Brock (UK Unit), Nicky Tüske (Netherlands Unit)
First Assistant Directors: Nilo Otero, William Pruss (France Unit), Willem Quarles van Ufford (Netherlands Unit)
Second Assistant Director: Eric Lasko, Nicolas Baldino (France Unit), Alexis Chelli (France Unit), Clément Comet (France Unit)
Second Second Assistant Director: Alina Gatti

This is Mr. Nolan’s fourth DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He was previously nominated for Inception in 2010, for The Dark Knight in 2008 and for Memento in 2001.

Jordan Peele – Get Out

Mr. Peele’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Marcei A. Brown, Rick A. Osako (Fairhope Unit)
First Assistant Director: Gerard DiNardi
Second Assistant Directors: Ram Paul Silbey, Marc Newland (Fairhope Unit), Jack McKenna (New York Unit)
Second Second Assistant Director: Maggie Ballard
Location Manager: Kurt Engler (New York Unit)

This is one of two DGA Award nominations this year for Mr. Peele. He is also nominated in the First-Time Feature Film category for Get Out.

“2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the DGA Awards, and filmmaking has reached new heights with each passing year. These nominees embody the excellence that comes to life when unique vision, craft and skill come together in pursuit of masterful storytelling,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “Being nominated by their peers is what makes this award especially meaningful for directors, and I congratulate all of the nominees for their outstanding work.”

Here is the side-by-side of DGA vs Oscar for this decade.

The nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film are:

Geremy Jasper – Patti Cake$

Mr. Jasper’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Sara Blechman
First Assistant Director: Inna Braude
Second Assistant Director: Natasha Rivera
Second Second Assistant Director: Lucas Isabella
Additional Second Second Assistant Director: Alice Johnson

This is Mr. Jasper’s first DGA Award nomination.

William Oldroyd – Lady Macbeth

Mr. Oldroyd’s Directorial Team:

Production Manager: Robert K. Harm
Unit Manager: Eugene Galbrath
First Assistant Director: George Every
Second Assistant Director: Richard Stanley Jan Harris

This is Mr. Oldroyd’s first DGA Award nomination.

Jordan Peele – Get Out

Mr. Peele’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Marcei A. Brown, Rick A. Osako (Fairhope Unit)
First Assistant Director: Gerard DiNardi
Second Assistant Directors: Ram Paul Silbey, Marc Newland (Fairhope Unit), Jack McKenna (New York Unit)
Second Second Assistant Director: Maggie Ballard
Location Manager: Kurt Engler (New York Unit)

This is one of two DGA Award nominations this year for Mr. Peele. He is also nominated in the Feature Film category for Get Out.

Taylor Sheridan – Wind River

Mr. Sheridan’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Christopher H. Warner
First Assistant Director: Nicolas Harvard
Second Assistant Director: Jason Altieri
Second Second Assistant Director: Kristina Massie

This is Mr. Sheridan’s first DGA Award nomination.

Aaron Sorkin – Molly’s Game

Mr. Sorkin’s Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Lyn Lucibello-Brancatella, Stuart M. Besser, Michael Beugg (Los Angeles Unit)
Assistant Unit Production Manager: Bart Lipton (Los Angeles Unit)
First Assistant Director: Walter Gasparovic
Second Assistant Directors: Penny Charter, Travis Rehwaldt (New York Unit), Paula Case (Los Angeles Unit)
Second Second Assistant Directors: Conor Griff (New York Unit), Drew Ritson (New York Unit), Bryan Snodgrass (Los Angeles Unit)
Location Manager: Dena Ghieth (New York Unit)

This is Mr. Sorkin’s first DGA Award nomination.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.