DGA Picks Its Top Five Doc Directors

The Director’s Guild of America has chosen the top five directors of documentary feature films for 2013 and they feature first-timers and old hats. The five finalists are also among the 15 shortlisted docs eligible for an Oscar nomination on Thursday.

“The five documentary filmmakers nominated today have made powerful films exploring humanity in all its complications,” said DGA president Paris Barclay. “From intricate family portrayals to lives caught in political upheaval, these works are intimate, heartbreaking and triumphant. My congratulations to each of the nominees.”

The nominees are (in alphabetical order):

ZACHARY HEINZERLING
“Cutie and the Boxer”
Radius TWC
Ex Lion Tamer
Cine Mosaic

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

JEHANE NOUJAIM
“The Square”
Netflix
Participant Media
Noujaim Films
Maktube Productions
WorldView
Roast Beef Productions

This is Ms. Noujaim’s third DGA Award nomination. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for Startup.com in 2001 (together with Chris Hegedus) and was also nominated in this category in 2004 for Control Room.

JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER
“The Act of Killing”
Final Cut for Real APS
Drafthouse Films
Piraya Films
Novaya Zemlya Ltd.
Spring Films Ltd.

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

SARAH POLLEY
“Stories We Tell”
Roadside Attractions
The National Film Board of Canada

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

LUCY WALKER
“The Crash Reel”
HBO Documentary Films
KP Rides Again, LLC
Impact Partners
Tree Tree Tree Production

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

The winner will be named at the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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.

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