DGA Award Winners!!!

DGA Award Winners

DGA Award Winners announced in television categories

This year’s crop of nominees for the Directors’ Guild of America look nothing like your traditional directing nominees. Across the array of television categories, the nominees include women. The nominees are people of color. The nominees come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. As in recent years, the DGA Award winners reflect the larger culture. They have the potential to look very different from their cousins in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

But in the end, only Dee Rees, director of HBO’s Bessie, and Kenny Ortega (Descendants) were able to spin their nominations into wins.

“There’s a million reasons I shouldn’t be in this room,” Rees said during her acceptance speech.

Last year was a complete anomaly. The 67th annual DGA Award winners included three women, two of whom are nominated this year. Both Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland) and Jill Soloway (Transparent) had the opportunity to repeat tonight for acclaimed continuations of their award-winning series (Veep‘s Chris Addison prevailed in the Comedy race). Gail Mancuso (Modern Family) competed against Soloway again. But nothing can touch the diversity of the Television and Mini-Series category, which includes two women of color, one man of color, and one white woman. Kind of shocking, isn’t it?

Farther down the list, such names as Sofia Coppola, Chris Rock, and Kenny Ortega (winner for Disney’s Descendants) are recognized with nominations. For a complete list of DGA Award nominees, click here.

It’s not just a breath of fresh air to see different faces get their fair shake at career-changing awards. It’s also pretty fantastic that this diversity results in a broader array of storytelling. The rules on television are different than with feature films, and it shows. Studios are taking greater risks on the smaller screen, leaving the audience to revel in the quality.

The DGA Award winners, announced in a ceremony hosted by Jane Lynch, are listed below (updated as announced):

Dramatic Series – David Nutter, Game of Thrones, “Mother’s Mercy”

Comedy Series – Chris Addison, Veep “Election Night”

Movies for Television and Mini-Series – Dee Rees, Bessie

Reality Programs – Adam Vetri, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge, “Gods of War”

Children’s Programs – Kenny Ortega, Descendants 

Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regular – Dave Diomedi, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “Episode #325”

Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials – Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special

Commercials – Andreas Nilsson, “Emily’s Oz,” Comcast; “Time Upon A Once,” General Electric; “Dad Song,” Old Spice

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