In a ceremony that traditionally signals Oscar-night glory, the Directors Guild of America Awards were held Saturday evening, and Christopher Nolan won the Theatrical Feature Film award for “Oppenheimer.”
Nolan had already collected Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards for his direction of the film. The DGA nomination this year was his fifth, having been previously nominated for “Dunkirk,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight” and “Memento.”
The DGA Award is historically a solid predictor of who will take home the Academy Award for best director. Since 1948, there have only been eight times that the winner of the DGA award for feature film directing has not gone on to win the Oscar for best director. The most recent time was in 2020, when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for “1917,” but the Oscar went to Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite.”
On the TV side of the Directors Guild Awards, HBO’s recently concluded series “Succession” had four of the five nominations for drama series directing, but it was another HBO series, “The Last of us,” that snagged the prize.
The DGA Awards were presented at the Beverly Hilton in a ceremony hosted for the fifth time by Judd Apatow.
Also during the ceremony, Unit Production Manager Janet Knutsen received the Frank Capra Achievement Award for lengthy career as an assistant manager, while stage manager Gary Natoli received the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award.
Director David Nutter received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television Directing. His credits include “Game of Thrones,” “The Sopranos,” “Entourage,” “The X-Files” and “Band of Brothers.”
Here is a complete list of winners:
Theatrical Feature Film
— Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
First-Time Theatrical Feature Film
— Celine Song, “Past Lives”
Drama Series
— Peter Hoar, “The Last of Us – Long, Long Time,” HBO
Comedy Series
— Christopher Storer, “The Bear – Fishes,” FX
TV Movies/Limited Series
— Sarah Adina Smith, “Lessons in Chemistry – Her and Him,” Apple TV+
Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming
— Michael Mancini and Liz Patrick, “Saturday Night Live – Pedro Pascal/Coldplay,” NBC
Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials
— Paul Miller, “Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love,” NBC
Reality Programs
— Niharika Desai, “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss – Happiness is a Bottle of Cod Liver Oil,” Peacock
Children’s Programs
— Amy Schatz, “Stand Up & Shout: Songs from a Philly High School,” HBO
Commercials
— Kim Gehrig, Apple, Expedia
Documentary
— Mstyslav Chernov, “20 Days in Mariupol,” PBS Distribution