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  • by Jeff Beck

Film nominations for the 72nd Annual Directors Guild of America Awards


Sam Mendes, 1917

The Directors Guild of America has just announced their film nominations for 2019, with one very big surprise in the mix.

The four fully-expected nominees are present: Sam Mendes ("1917"), Bong Joon Ho ("Parasite"), Quentin Tarantino ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"), and Martin Scorsese ("The Irishman"), but the one nobody was expecting to be here was Taika Waititi for "Jojo Rabbit," beating out several favorites including Noah Baumbach for "Marriage Story," Greta Gerwig for "Little Women," and Todd Phillips for "Joker."

Who will the big winner be? Just like with the Producers Guild, it's really hard to say. Bong Joon Ho has been dominating the critics awards for "Parasite," but Sam Mendes recently had an unexpected victory at the Golden Globes, and given how the latter seems like the more obvious choice for Best Director, he could very well win big here too. We'll just have to wait until the awards are handed out on the 25th to find out.

In the meantime, please see below for a list of today's DGA film nominations:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film

Bong Joon Ho, Parasite

Sam Mendes, 1917

Martin Scorsese, The Irishman

Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film

Mati Diop, Atlantics

Alma Har'el, Honey Boy

Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim

Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, The Peanut Butter Falcon

Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (Previously Announced)

Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory

Feras Fayyad, The Cave

Alex Holmes, Maiden

Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, Honeyland

Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, One Child Nation

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