Christopher Nolan & Celine Song Win 2024 Directors Guild Awards

by Alex Billington
February 11, 2024
Source: DGA

This weekend, the winners of the 76th Annual DGA Awards were announced at a big celebration in Los Angeles. We’re down to the last few weeks of the 2023 awards season, with the Oscars airing soon in early March. This year, champion of the theatrical experience Christopher Nolan won the top DGA prize for his film Oppenheimer, along with Past Lives director Celine Song winning for Best First Feature. These two are unquestionably two of the best filmmakers of 2023 and both of them deserve to win (both films were on my Top 10 of 2023). It’s a big relief and also immensely satisfying to see the DGA choose these two winners. I couldn’t be happier for the both of them! In addition, Mstyslav Chernov won the Documentary prize for his film 20 Days in Mariupol about the awful war in Ukraine (here’s a trailer). The Directors Guild Awards are one of the premiere prizes in Hollywood, honoring “Outstanding Directorial Achievement” in multiple categories including TV and commercials. Congrats to all of the great films and series nominated this year.

The winners of the Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2023 were announced on Saturday, February 10th, during the 76th Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, California. You can check out the full list of this year big’s winners, which also includes other honors for directing for TV and commercials, via the official DGA website. Congrats to Chris and Celine.

Directors Guild Awards

For the 76th annual DGA Awards honoring films from 2023, Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan won the prestigious prize over his fellow filmmaker nominees: Greta Gerwig for Barbie, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things, Alexander Payne for The Holdovers, and Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon. Can’t argue with any of these other nominees! All fantastic films! Perhaps Justine Triet and Jonathan Glazer could’ve also been in the mix. As for the Best First-Time Feature, Past Lives director Celine Song won over her fellow nominees: Cord Jefferson for American Fiction, Manuela Martelli for Chile ’76, Noora Niasari for Shayda, and A.V. Rockwell for A Thousand and One. All ten of the nominated films are worth seeing if you haven’t watched them yet. The set of nominees for First-Time Feature are amazing – I’m also a huge fan of Shayda and American Fiction and A Thousand and One. Congrats to all of the nominees and honorees from 2023. Up next, the Academy Awards are on March 10th finishing the 2023 awards season.

Also from this year: David Nutter was given the Lifetime Achievement Award in Television, and Janet G. Knutsen was given the Frank Capra Achievement Award for an Assistant Director or Unit Production Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry. The previous winners of the Directors Guild Award prize recently are: Alfonso Cuarón for Roma (2018), Sam Mendes for 1917 (2019), Chloe Zhao for Nomadland (2020), Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (2021), and Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). The annual DGA Awards have been given out since 1948.