DGA assembles usual suspects and first-time offenders for Directors Guild Awards nominations

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and awards season is in full bloom. The Critics have made their choice, but the guilds are just ramping up. Earlier today, the DGA announced its nominations for the Directors Guild Awards, and apparently, the best-directed films came from Warner Bros. and A24 last year. Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler received nominations for One Battle After Another and Sinners, as did Josh Safdie, representing A24, with Marty Supreme. But the really interesting picks were in the “Michael Apted First-Time Theatrical Feature Film” category, where Harry Lighton’s Pillion and Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby nabbed nominations among Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake and Charlie Polinger’s The Plague.

Last year’s award ceremony was a good indicator of what would be honored and ignored by Oscar voters in 2025. Sean Baker won for Anora, while RaMell Ross won the first-time feature for the tragically underseen Nickel Boys. Check out the nominations below.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Directorial Team: Unit Production Manager: Will Weiske

First Assistant Director: Adam Somner

Second Assistant Director: Trevor Tavares, Ian Stone

Second Second Assistant Director: Dominic Pacitti, Rafael Sanz-Jimenez

Additional Second Assistant Director: Nuekellar Hardy, Chunning Chang, Kit Conners, Kasia Trojak, Tyler Young

Ryan Coogler, Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Will Greenfield, Kenneth Yu First Assistant

Director: Marvin Williams Second Assistant

Director: Amir R. Khan

Additional Second Assistant Director: Gregg Carr, Desiree Stevenson

Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein (Netflix)

Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: J. Miles Dale

First Assistant Director: Walter Gasparovic

Second Assistant Director: Chad Belair

Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme (A24)

Directorial Team:

Unit Production Manager: Anthony Katagas, Joe Guest

First Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks

Second Assistant Director: Zach Citarella

Second Second Assistant Director: Kailyn Dabkowski

Assistant Unit Production Manager: Max Samu, Suk Yi Mar, Samson Jacobson Location Manager: Matthew Kania, Ross Brodar

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet (Focus Features)

Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film

Hasan Hadi, The President’s Cake (Sony Pictures Classics)

Harry Lighton, Pillion (A24)

Charlie Polinger, The Plague (Independent Film Company)

Alex Russell, Lurker (MUBI)

Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby (A24)

The 78th annual DGA Awards will take place on February 7 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills (ooh, la la).

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