DGA Awards honor Chloé Zhao and Nomadland

By Sam Barsanti | April 11, 2021 | 5:01pm

Film Features Nomadland

DGA Awards honor Chloé Zhao and Nomadland

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Chloé Zhao Photo: Amy Sussman

Nomadland director Chloé Zhao’s impressive run through awards season is continuing this weekend, with the Directors Guild Of America Awards giving her the top prize for theatrical feature film directing—beating out David Fincher for Mank, Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and Aaron Sorkin for The Trial Of The Chicago 7. Zhao is only the second woman ever to win this award in the DGA’s 73 years of handing out awards like this, with the other being Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2009, which also makes Zhao the first woman of color to ever win the top prize from the DGA.

Elsewhere in the awards, Darius Marder’s good weekend went on, with Sound Of Metal’s BAFTA win setting up a win for First-Time Feature at the DGAs. On the TV side of things, Lesli Linka Glatter won in the dramatic category for Homeland’s “Prisoners Of War” and Susanna Fogel won on in comedy for The Flight Attendant’s “In Case Of Emergency” (the only nominee that wasn’t either Ted Lasso or Curb Your Enthusiasm). There’s also the TV movies and limited series category, which went to Scott Frank for The Queen’s Gambit. The full list of winners and nominees can be found at this Variety link.