Directors Guild Awards (DGA): Cuarón takes top film prize, Bo Burnham shocks, Ben Stiller and Bill Hader TV winners

Alfonso Cuarón has won his second Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Feature Film. His sweeping personal epic Roma won him the guild’s top prize. He previously won for 2013’s Gravity, which also won him the Best Director Oscar. With BAFTA next weekend, Cuarón is ready to make a clean sweep.

89% of DGA winners go on to win the Oscar for Best Director. 77% of DGA winners translate that win to the Oscar for Best Picture.

Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade) shocked by winning the First-Time Feature Director award, upsetting favorite Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born). Cooper becomes the first person to be nominated for both Feature Film and First-Time Director and lose the latter. Burnham came in with a dozen critics’ wins for his debut film.

Last year, Guillermo del Toro won the DGA for The Shape of Water before winning the Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture.

Only seven times since the DGA Award’s inception has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award; in 1968 (Carol Reed won the Oscar for directing Oliver!); 1972 (Bob Fosse won the Oscar for directing Cabaret); 1985 (Sydney Pollack won the Oscar for directing Out of Africa, as Steven Spielberg was not nominated for directing The Color Purple); 1995 (Mel Gibson won for directing Braveheart, as Ron Howard was not nominated for directing Apollo 13); 2000 (Steven Soderbergh won the Oscar for directing Traffic); 2002 (Roman Polanski won the Oscar for directing The Pianist); and 2012 (Ang Lee won the Oscar for directing Life of Pi as Ben Affleck was not nominated for directing Argo).

In television, Adam McKay won Drama Series for the pilot of Showtime’s Succession. He was also nominated in Feature Film for Vice. Bill Hader won in Comedy Series for the first episode of his HBO hit hitman series Barry. Another actor-turned-director found himself a winner; Ben Stiller took home the DGA award for Movies for Television or Limited Series for Escape at Dannemora. 

Here is the full list of nominees, winners will be highlighted in bold.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film

BRADLEY COOPER, A Star is Born (Warner Bros. Pictures)
ALFONSO CUARÓN, Roma (Netflix) – WINNER
PETER FARRELLY, Green Book (Universal Pictures)
SPIKE LEE, BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)
ADAM MCKAY, Vice (Annapurna Pictures)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director

BO BURNHAM, Eighth Grade (A24) – WINNER
BRADLEY COOPER, A Star is Born (Warner Bros. Pictures)
CARLOS LÓPEZ ESTRADA, Blindspotting (Summit Entertainment)
MATTHEW HEINEMAN, A Private War (Aviron Pictures)
BOOTS RILEY, Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

MORGAN NEVILLE Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features)
RAMELL ROSS Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Idiom Film and Louverture Films)
ELIZABETH CHAI VASARHELYI & JIMMY CHIN Free Solo (National Geographic Documentary Films)
TIM WARDLE Three Identical Strangers (Neon and CNN Films) – WINNER
BETSY WEST & JULIE COHEN RBG (Magnolia Pictures)

TELEVISION

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series

JASON BATEMAN Ozark, “Reparations” (Netflix)
LESLI LINKA GLATTER Homeland, “Paean to the People” (Showtime)
CHRIS LONG The Americans, “START” (FX)
ADAM McKAY Succession, “Celebration” (HBO) – WINNER
DAINA REID The Handmaid’s Tale, “Holly” (Hulu)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series

DONALD GLOVER Atlanta, “FUBU” (FX)
BILL HADER Barry, “Chapter One: Make Your Mark” (HBO) – WINNER
HIRO MURAI Atlanta, “Teddy Perkins”(FX)
DANIEL PALLADINO The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “We’re Going to the Catskills!” (Amazon)
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “All Alone” (Amazon)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series

CARY JOJI FUKUNAGA Maniac (Netflix)
DAVID LEVEAUX (Directed by) ALEX RUDZINSKI (Live Television Direction by) Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (NBC)
BARRY LEVINSON Paterno (HBO)
BEN STILLER Escape at Dannemora (Showtime) – WINNER
JEAN-MARC VALLÉE Sharp Objects (HBO)

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

PAUL G. CASEY Real Time with Bill Maher, “#1633”(HBO)
SACHA BARON COHEN, NATHAN FIELDER, DANIEL GRAY LONGINO, DAN MAZER Who Is America?, “Episode 102” (Showtime)
JIM HOSKINSON The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “#480” (CBS)
DON ROY KING Saturday Night Live, “Adam Driver; Kanye West” (NBC) – WINNER
PAUL PENNOLINO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “Episode 502 – Italian Election” (HBO)

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

LOUIS J. HORVITZ The 60th Grammy Awards (CBS) – WINNER
TIM MANCINELLI, GLENN CLEMENTS The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special 2018 (CBS)
BETH McCARTHY-MILLER Bill Maher: Live from Oklahoma (HBO)
MARCUS RABOY Steve Martin & Martin Short “An Evening You Will Forget For the Rest of Your Life” (Netflix)
GLENN WEISS The 72nd Annual Tony Awards (CBS)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs

NEIL P. DeGROOT Better Late Than Never, “How Do You Say Roots in German?”(NBC)
EYTAN KELLER Iron Chef Gauntlet, “Episode 201” (Food Network)
PATRICK McMANUS American Ninja Warrior, “Miami City Qualifiers” (NBC)
RUSSELL NORMAN The Final Table, “Japan” (Netflix) – WINNER
BERTRAM van MUNSTER The Amazing Race, “It’s Just a Million Dollars, No Pressure” (CBS)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs

ALLAN ARKUSH A Series of Unfortunate Events, “Hostile Hospital: Part 1”(Netflix)
JACK JAMESON Sesame Street, “When You Wish Upon a Pickle: A Sesame Street Special” (HBO) – WINNER
GREG MOTTOLA The Dangerous Book for Boys, “How to Walk on the Moon” (Amazon)
BARRY SONNENFELD A Series of Unfortunate Events, “The Vile Village: Part 1” (Netflix)
BO WELCH A Series of Unfortunate Events, “The Ersatz Elevator: Part 1” (Netflix)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials

STEVE AYSON (MJZ) Getting Ready, Dollar Shave Club – (client direct)
FREDRIK BOND (MJZ) Harmony, Virgin TV– BBH Take Them All On, BT Sport– AMV BBDO
MARTIN de THURAH (Epoch Films) Final Breath, Audi RS 5 Coupe– Venables, Bell & Partners
SPIKE JONZE (MJZ) Welcome Home, Apple Homepod– TBWA \ Media Arts Lab – WINNER
DAVID SHANE (O Positive) An Alien Abroad, Babbel– Wieden + Kennedy London

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2024 North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA) Nominations - December 21, 2024
• 2024 Philadelphia Film Critics Circle (PFCC) Winners: ‘Anora’ Named Best Film Among its Six Awards - December 21, 2024
• 2024 Utah Film Critics Association (UFCA) Nominations - December 21, 2024