DGA Announces Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominees

by Carla Pisarro | Published January 9, 2008

The Directors Guild of America announced the 2007 nominees for its annual award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Directing. This year’s nominees are Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Sean Penn (Into the Wild) and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Anderson, Ethan Coen, Gilroy, Penn and Schnabel are first-time nominees; Joel Coen previously garnered a nomination for Fargo in 1996. This year’s winner will be announced at the 60th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on January 26th.

DGA President Michael Apted said that the DGA Award is especially significant for those recognized since fellow directors determine the nominees. “What makes this award truly meaningful to directors is the knowledge that only this one is decided by their peers—the men and women who know firsthand the passion, sweat and fear that go into each production,” said Apted.

The DGA Award has long been an accurate bellwether for the Best Director Academy Award. Since the DGA Award’s inception in 1948, all but six winners of the DGA Award also received that year’s Oscar.

Visit www.dga.org for more information.