The Directors Guild of America Awards were first held in 1949. The first woman to be nominated in the Feature Film category was Lina Wertmüller in 1977. Another woman, Barbra Streisand, wasn’t nominated until 1992. Only four other women have been nominated since with Kathryn Bigelow winning for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010. Over four decades after Wertmüller crashed the party the DGA finally showed a sliver of equity as “Nomadland’s” Chloe Zhao and “Promising Young Woman’s” Emerald Fennell were both nominated in the same year. Frankly, an embarrassing first for Hollywood and the DGA.
READ MORE: “Nomadland,” “Minari” and “I May Destroy You” among 2021 PGA Awards nominees [Full List]
Zhao and Fennell were joined by “Minari’s” Lee Isaac Chung, “Mank’s” David Fincher and “The Trial of the Chicago 7’s” Aaron Sorkin.
Usually, only four of the five DGA nominees earn Oscar nods in the Best Director category. Which of these five won’t make the cut? Ponder.
The First Time Feature nominees included “I’m No Longer Here’s” Fernando Frías de la Parra, “The 40-Year-Old Version’s” Radha Blank, “Sound of Metal’s” Darius Marder, “One Night in Miami’s” Regina King and “The Father’s” Florian Zeller.
The DGA Awards will be handed out during a virtual ceremony on Saturday, April 10.
This year’s film nominees are as follows:
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2020
Lee Isaac Chung
Minari
(A24)
Emerald Fennell
Promising Young Woman
(Focus Features)
David Fincher
Mank
(Netflix)
Aaron Sorkin
The Trial of the Chicago 7
(Netflix; DreamWorks Pictures)
Chloé Zhao
Nomadland
(Searchlight Pictures)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director for 2020
Radha Blank
The Forty-Year-Old Version
(Netflix)
Fernando Frías de la Parra
I’m No Longer Here
(Netflix)
Regina King
One Night in Miami
(Amazon Studios)
Darius Marder
Sound of Metal
(Amazon Studios)
Florian Zeller
The Father
(Sony Pictures Classics)