Taika Waititi makes it into the DGA nominations for Jojo Rabbit
Now here’s a nice surprise! Just as I was getting irritated by too much Joker love all over awards season, the DGA apparently agrees with me and goes with Taika Waititi instead of Todd Phillips! That’s a big deal, because as historically the most important guild for Best Picture (it’s taken a backseat in recent years to the PGA), that means these five movies are your strongest Best Picture nominees within the industry. I’m not surprised by any of them, except that it was looking like Joker was pretty strong in the run-up to this, and now since Todd Philips didn’t make it, that means Jojo Rabbit is actually the one that did a clean sweep of the guilds with the SAG/PGA/DGA/WGA combo. That doesn’t mean it’s more likely to win necessarily, just that it’s very popular in the industry. Usually the Oscar nominees for director don’t match DGA 5/5 though- the directors branch of the Academy is much smaller, more eclectic and more international, so Waititi could still miss that for someone else. But whoever wins this award on January 25th does become the frontrunner for Best Director.
2020 DGA FEATURE NOMINEES
Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
Sam Mendes, 1917
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit
FIRST-TIME FEATURE NOMINEES
Mati Diop, Atlantics
Alma Har’el, Honey Boy
Melina Matsoukas, Queen & Slim
Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwatrz, The Peanut Butter Falcon
Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
