Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment

Oscar season ramps up as DGA, PGA, & WGA nominations arrive

Jason Struss
By

The Oscars may be nearly two months away, but the anticipation for the annual celebration of cinema and celebrities is already heating up. On the heels of the SAG award nominations on January 12 and a plethora of craft guild nominations since then, the DGA (Directors Guild of America), PGA (Producers Guild of America), and WGA (Writers Guild of America) released their nominations for their respective specialties.

Aside from artists honoring their peers for their work, these nominations also serve as important bellwethers for the Academy Awards. For instance, the DGA winner has gone on to win the Best Director Academy Award 64 out of 72 years both groups have been in existence. The most recent divergence was 2019, when Sam Mendes, the DGA winner for 1917, lost out to Bong Joon-ho for Parasite. Similarly, the PGA and WGA winners usually dictate which film will triumph in those categories at the Oscars.

Related Videos
Two cowboys ride horses in a field in The Power of the Dog.

Directors Guild of America award nominations (Film)

Belfast (Kenneth Branagh)

Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)

The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)

West Side Story (Steven Spielberg)

The DGA is typically more friendly to foreign-language filmmakers than the Academy, so there was some speculation Ryusuke Hamaguchi, director of one of 2021’s most acclaimed films Drive My Car, could sneak in. Alas, the DGA stuck with the expected five nominees, all of whom have been nominated before (with Spielberg the only winner among them). Campion is a widely admired filmmaker, having helmed such modern classics as 1993’s The Piano and 2013’s Top of the Lake, so she’ll be the one to beat for this honor and the Best Director Oscar.

Anita dances with Bernardo on a crowded street in West Side Story.

Producers Guild of America award nominations (Film)

Being The Ricardos (Todd Black)

Belfast (Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, and Tamar Thomas)

CODA (Fabrice Gianfermi, Philippe Rousselet, and Patrick Wachsberger)

Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay and Kevin Messick)

Dune (Cale Boyter, Mary Parent, and Denis Villeneuve)

King Richard (Will Smith, Tim White, and Trevor White)

Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, and Adam Somner)

The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian, and Emile Sherman)

Tick, Tick…BOOM! (Lin-Manuel Miranda and Julie Oh)

West Side Story (Kristie Macosko Krieger and Steven Spielberg)

Expected nominees No Time to Die and Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t make the cut, which significantly dampens the possibility of those films earning a surprise Best Picture nomination. There’s no obvious front-runner among the nominees like last year’s Nomadland, with passionate support split between Belfast, CODA, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story.

Paul walks with his head down near a lake in the 2021 film Dune.

Writers Guild of America award nominations (Film)

Best Original Screenplay:

Being the Ricardos (Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin)

Don’t Look Up (Story by Adam McKay and David Sirota; Screenplay by Adam McKay)

The French Dispatch (Story by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman; Screenplay by Wes Anderson)

King Richard (Screenplay by Zach Baylin)

Licorice Pizza (Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Best Adapted Screenplay:

CODA (Screenplay by Sian Heder)

Dune (Screenplay by Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve)

Nightmare Alley (Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan)

Tick, Tick…BOOM! (Screenplay by Steven Levenson)

West Side Story (Screenplay by Tony Kushner)

While most of these nominations were expected, three Oscar front-runners (Belfast, The Lost Daughter, and The Power of the Dog) were ineligible due to the guild’s complicated guidelines for award consideration. As a result, the writing categories are less reliable predictors than other guilds, allowing under-the-radar movies like Nightmare Alley and Tick, Tick…BOOM! to be recognized.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Streaming movies dominate Oscar nominations in Hollywood’s pandemic year
The Trial of the Chicago 7

After a year upended by a devastating global pandemic, it was reasonable to expect some surprises when the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony Monday morning. That prediction proved true, with plenty of firsts and snubs, and the biggest showing to date for films produced by Netflix and other streaming services.

Scheduled to take place April 25, the 2021 edition of the Oscars will happen two months later than last year's ceremony, and will feature a wide range of films that were produced by streaming services or made available to stream early on due to widespread theater closures over the last 12 months.

Read more
Is there going to be a John Wick: Chapter 5? Here’s what we want to see happen
John looks at Akira in John Wick: Chapter 4.

Now that John Wick: Chapter 4 has premiered in theaters, audiences have been left wondering what's next for the iconic action movie franchise. This fourth film has established the perfect conclusion for John Wick's story, but a fifth John Wick movie received the green light all the way back in 2020.

Will it happen? Who knows, but with all the new characters, superb action scenes, and complex world-building in Chapter 4, it would be a crime not to make more movies in the Wick universe. Should John Wick: Chapter 5 come to fruition, here are the five things I want to see happen in the movie.

Read more
Ireland vs France live stream: How to watch for free online
Massive open air soccer stadium with a game in play.

Looking to watch the Ireland vs France live stream online? If you've been keeping up with how to watch Euro 2024 qualifying online, you'll know there are different options for different games. In the case of Ireland vs France, the same is on Fox Sports 1 giving you more options on how to live stream it. Let's take a look including how to watch the Ireland vs France live stream for free.
Watch Ireland vs France live stream on FuboTV

FuboTV is a reliable destination for sports fans and, crucially, offers Fox Sports 1 for Ireland vs France. It also has other stations like NBC and USA Network so it's perfect for watching the Premier League, while there's also MLB Network, NHL Network, and a host of other sporting options. Ranking highly among the best live TV streaming services for sports fans, there's even a FuboTV free trial if you simply want to try it out. The best way to watch Ireland vs France for free, you get seven days worth of access without needing to pay a thing. After the free trial expires, it costs from $75 per month.

Read more