Director Sam Mendes won the top prize at the 72nd annual Directors Guild of America Awards for “1917,” solidifying the World War I drama as the film to beat at the Academy Awards.
“I was fortunate enough to win this award two decades ago,” Mendes said in his acceptance speech, referencing his DGA Awards win for 1999’s “American Beauty.” “And I think if I’m honest with myself, I didn’t feel ultimately like I really knew what I was doing. I feel a little bit more like I do now.”
Mendes also used his speech to praise his fellow nominees — Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite,” Martin Scorsese for “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and Taika Waititi for “Jojo Rabbit” — and laud the chance to get to know them better.
“To hear other directors think and talk — it’s a little like being an alcoholic,” he said. “You realize that everyone else goes through the same problems. It was really inspiring.”
The DGAs are one of the most reliable bellwethers for the Academy Awards — all but seven directors who won the feature film award at the DGAs went on to win the corresponding Oscar, including last year’s winner Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma.” (The last time the two awards diverged, it was when Ben Affleck won the DGAs for “Argo” but wasn’t nominated for the Oscar.)
“Honey Boy” director Alma Har’el won the first-time feature award. After noting that her father was an alcoholic, she thanked star and screenwriter Shia LaBeouf for affording her the opportunity to make a film about the children of alcoholics. Har’el then gave a shout out to Jessica Dimmock, who is spearheading the effort to change the guild’s policy for new and expectant parents.
“We’re counting on the DGA to fight for parents so they can birth the new generation of audiences and filmmakers,” she said.
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert won the documentary award for their film “American Factory,” over “The Cave,” “Maiden,” “Honeyland,” and “One Child Nation.”
HBO’s “Watchmen” won its first major award when Nicole Kassell took home the medallion for dramatic series, over fellow “Watchmen” director Stephen Williams, “Game of Thrones” directors David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik, and “Succession” director Mark Mylod.
Bill Hader took home the comedy series award for “Barry,” winning over three directors for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Dan Attias, Daniel Palladino, and Amy Sherman-Palladino) and David Mandel for the series finale of “Veep.” Johan Renck continued the near unbroken awards season run for HBO’s “Chernobyl,” winning the prize for TV movie and limited series, over three directors for “Fosse/Verdon” (Thomas Kail, Minkie Spiro, and Jessica Yu), Vince Gilligan for “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie,” and Ava DuVernay for “When They See Us.”
“Saturday Night Live” director Don Roy King won his fifth consecutive DGA award for variety/talk/news/sports series. James Burrows and Andy Fisher won the variety/talk/news/sports specials award for ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” special featuring episodes of “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons.” In his speech, Burrows thanked “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” creator, the 97-year-old Norman Lear.
(Excerpt) Read more and see a list of winners in: Variety