The Directors Guild of America Thursday nominated Guillermo del Toro of “The Shape of Water,” Greta Gerwig of “Lady Bird,” Martin McDonagh of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Christopher Nolan of “Dunkirk” and Jordan Peele of “Get Out” for its award for feature film directing.
The nominations are career firsts for all but Nolan, who was previously nominated for “Inception,” “The Dark Knight” and “Memento.”
Peele is a double-nominee, with “Get Out” also earning him a nod in the first-time feature film category.
Also nominated in that category were Geremy Jasper for “Patti Cake$,” William Oldroyd for “Lady Macbeth,” Taylor Sheridan for “Wind River” and Aaron Sorkin for “Molly’s Game.”
Since 1948, there have only been seven times the winner of the DGA Award for feature film directing has not gone on to win the Academy Award for best director.
The most recent time was 2013, when Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for “Argo,” but wasn’t even nominated for a directing Academy Award, even though the film won the Oscar for best picture.
Damien Chazelle won both awards last year for “La La Land.”
The DGA Awards will be presented Feb. 3 at the Beverly Hilton.
–City News Service