Directors Guild (DGA) feature nominations are an all-boys club but first-time director category finds female representation

The Directors Guild of America (DGA), hot off the PGA nominations this morning, have nominated Bong Joon Ho, Sam Mendes, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi as the top directors of feature film for 2019, marking another year of all male nominees.

Todd Phillips (Joker) was highly predicted to make this lineup after earning Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, but it was Jojo Rabbit’s Taika Waititi who came in and swooped that 5th spot despite no real precursor mentions so far. The DGA often matches with Oscar 4/5 but rarely line up exactly. Last year they went 3/5 with DGA nominees Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) and Peter Farrelly (Green Book) missing out to Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite and Paweł Pawlikowski for Cold War.

Once again, however, the lineup for Feature Film were all male nominees in a year of incredible female directed films from Greta Gerwig, Lorene Scafaria and more. On a positive note, the First Time Feature Director category has three women directors up for the prize. Mati Diop for Atlantics, Alma Ha’rel for Honey Boy, and Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim will go up against first-timers Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man in San Francisco) and Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz for The Peanut Butter Falcon. Curiously missing from that list is Olivia Wilde for Booksmart, who has earned the most critics awards a first time director. Last year’s winner here was Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade.

The Directors Guild of America will announce its winners on January 25th. Here is the full list of nominations.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film

Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Sam Mendes, 1917
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director

Mati Diop, Atlantics
Alma Har’el, Honey Boy
Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim
Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, The Peanut Butter Falcon

• 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), 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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• Trailer Watch: ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ ‘Thunderbolts*,’ ’28 Years Later,’ ‘The Roses,’ ‘The Life of Chuck’ - April 18, 2025
• Alice Rohrwacher Named President of the Caméra d’or Jury of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival - April 18, 2025
• 85th Peabody Awards: ‘Hacks,’ ‘Ripley,’ ‘Say Nothing,’ Among Entertainment Nominees - April 17, 2025