2023 Directors Guild of America Awards Winners

On 18 February 2023, the Directors Guild of America hosted the 75th rendition of its annual awards show in Los Angeles. Presented by Judd Apatow and introduced by Lesli Linka Glatter, the ceremony brought various sectors of the American film and television industries together to celebrate directorial achievements from 2022.

Historically, the director-driven ceremony has found itself dwarfed in popularity by the Academy Awards, whose 95th instalment will take place on March 13 2023. However, the DGAs remain a prestigious ceremony that have often predicted the big winners of its Academy counterpart. 

This year’s ceremony includes a few meaningful winners. In the stacked list for Theatrical Feature Film, Everything Everywhere All at Once’s The Daniels came out on top, beating Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Todd Field (Tár), and Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans). As well as being newcomers to the DGA Awards, the Daniels are notably distinct in their win as dual-directors.

Following her sweeping victories at the British Independent Film Awards, Charlotte Wells has continued in a similar vein, winning Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Theatrical Film for Aftersun.  Establishing itself as a firm critical favourite, Aftersun has the potential to enjoy similar success in future ceremonies, including the Oscars, where it holds various nominations. 

Another critical darling has arisen within the documentary genre, with Fire of Love’s Sara Dosa awarded Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. Distributed by National Geographic, the French-Canadian production follows two daring volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft. With its awe-inspiring subject matter and gorgeous archival footage, Fire of Love appears to be a standout within its genre category, with DGA awards success continuing this trend.  

Beyond cinema, the Awards ceremony has historically branched out and comprised a variety of industries, mediums, and recognitions.

The comprehensive list of winners at the 75th Directors Guild of America Awards (2023):

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)
Todd Field (Tár)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Theatrical Film – Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)
Alice Diop (Saint Omer)
John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal)
Audrey Diwan (Happening)
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović – Murina

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary – Sara Dosa (Fire of Love)
Matthew Heineman (Retrograde)
Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed)
Daniel Roher (Navalny)
Shaunak Sen (All That Breathes)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series – Sam Levinson (Euphoria) for “Stand Still Like a Hummingbird”
Jason Bateman (Ozark) for “A Hard Way To Go” 
Vince Gilligan (Better Call Saul) for “Waterworks” 
Aoife McArdle (Severance) for “Hide and Seek”
Ben Stiller (Severance) for “The We We Are” 

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series – Bill Hader (Barry) for “710N”
Tim Burton (Wednesday) for “Wednesday’s Child is Full of Woe” (Netflix)
Amy Sherman-Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) for “How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?”
Christopher Storer (The Bear) for “Review”
Mike White (The White Lotus) for “BYG” 

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series – Helen Shaver (Station Eleven) for “Who’s There”
Eric Appel (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Deborah Chow (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
Jeremy Podeswa (Station Eleven) for “Unbroken Circle”
Tom Verica (Inventing Anna) for “The Devil Wore Anna” 

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Liz Patrick (Saturday Night Live) for “Jack Harlow”
Paul G. Casey (Real Time with Bill Maher) for “#2010”
Jim Hoskinson (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) for “#1333”
David Paul Meyer (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah) for “Brandi Carlile Discusses Her New Deluxe Album and Performs ‘You and Me on the Rock'”
Paul Pennolino (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) for “Afghanistan”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials – Glenn Weiss for The 75th Annual Tony Awards
Ian Berger (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents) for “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse – Hungary for Democracy” 
Hamish Hamilton for “Super Bowl LVI halftime show”
James Merryman for “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter”
Marcus Raboy for “Mark Twain Prize 2022: Celebrating Jon Stewart”

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs – Ben Simms (Running Wild with Bear Grylls) for “Florence Pugh in the Volcanic Rainforests of Costa Rica”
Joseph Guidry (The Big Brunch) for “Carb Loading Brunch”
Carrie Havel (The Go-Big Show) for “Only One Can Win”
Rich Kim (Lego Masters) for “Jurass-brick World” 
Michael Shea (FBOY Island) for “Do You Like Cats?” (HBO Max)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs – Anne Renton (Best Foot Forward) for “Halloween” 
Tim Federle (Better Nate Than Ever
Bonnie Hunt (Amber Brown) for “I, Amber Brown”
Dean Israelite (Are You Afraid of the Dark?) for “The Tale of Room 13”
Michael Lembeck (Snow Day)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials – Kim Gehrig for Apple’s “Accessibility” and “Run Baby Run”
Juan Cabral for John Lewis & Partners‘ “For All Life’s Moments” and Apple’s “Share the Joy”
Craig Gillespie for Apple’s “Hard Knocks”, Jimmy John’s’ “Problem”, and Nissan’s “Thrill Driver”
David Shane for Apple’s “Detectives”, ITVX’s “Smile”, and Procter & Gamble’s “Traffic Stop”
Ivan Zachariáš for Apple’s “Data Auction” and Upwork’s “This Is How We Work Now”

Lifetime Achievement Award in Television 
Robert Fishman

Frank Capra Achievement Award 
Mark Hansson

Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award 
Valdez Flagg

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Written by Kyle Boulton


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