LOS ANGELES (AP) — While the annual Directors Guild of America Awards can herald the eventual Oscar winners in the best director and picture categories, Saturday’s ceremony also offers a telling look at who’s working behind the camera in Hollywood amid the industry’s ongoing discussion about diversity.
Women comprise about 28 percent of nominees for the awards that recognize achievement in directing in various formats, from commercials to TV shows to feature films. There are 13 women and eight non-white nominees among the slate of 47 directors.
The DGA’s top category — feature film directing — is exclusively male this year, as is usually the case. Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu (last year’s winner for “Birdman”) is again nominated, this time for “The Revenant.” He’s competing against Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”), Adam McKay (“The Big Short”), George Miller (“Mad Max: Fury Road”) and Ridley Scott (“The Martian”).
Women, who represented just over 4 percent of directors of the top-grossing films from 2002 to 2013, have better representation in the television categories. Of the six nominees for directing a TV miniseries or movie, three are women — Angela Bassett (“Whitney”), Laurie Collyer (“The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe”) and Dee Rees (“Bessie”) — the most of any DGA Awards category. They face Kenny Leon and Matthew Diamond (“The Wiz Live!”) and Paul Haggis (“Show Me a Hero”).
Amy Schumer is nominated for co-directing her Comedy Central show, and Chris Rock is nominated for directing Schumer’s “Live at the Apollo” HBO special.
The Directors Guild also added a new category to its awards this year: Outstanding achievement by a first-time feature film director. The nominees are Fernando Coimbra (“A Wolf at the Door”), Joel Edgerton (“The Gift”), Alex Garland (“Ex-Machina”), Marielle Heller (“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”) and Laslo Nemes (“Son of Saul”).
Awards in all categories will be presented Saturday night during a dinner ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles.
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Online:
www.dga.org
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