Oscar nominees Sally Hawkins and Richard Jenkins with DGA winner Guillermo del Toro
As expected, Guillermo del Toro tonight won the coveted Directors Guild prize for feature film, cruising his way to Best Director at the Oscars next month. The DGA used to be the strongest indicator for Best Picture as well, but these days, with the wacky preferential ballot in play for Best Picture, it's much less predictable in that category. With The Shape of Water having won the PGA and DGA awards, we used to be able to say that was it, a done deal that the film would go on to win Best Picture. But La La Land won both of those awards last year and famously lost on Oscar night. So it's not a done deal yet, but The Shape of Water is definitely in the running. Guillermo del Toro will likely become the third Mexican director to win Best Director in just four years, with his good friends Alfonso Cuaron having won for 2013's Gravity and Alejandro Inarritu winning back to back for 2014's Birdman and 2015's The Revenant. I kinda hope they have the both of them present to him onstage, even if it would make it super obvious who the winner is.
DGA AWARD WINNERS
- Best Director: Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
- Best First-Time Director: Jordan Peele, Get Out
