The Directors Guild Awards (the most predictive guild award) gave the top honor to Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman, placing the movie in prime position to win at the Oscars. In the past 66 years, the Oscars have only deviated from the DGA winner for Best Director seven times and for Best Picture 14 times. (The most dramatic diversion happened in 2012 when Ben Affleck won the DGA for Argo after failing to get a nomination from the Academy.) Iñárritu’s win surprises at a time when many predicted Richard Linklater, who directed Boyhood, to take this. You still have time to change your Oscar pool.
Whereas the gender/race gap in direction is still very real, women swept other major awards Saturday night: Laura Poitras took Best Documentary for Citzenfour, Jill Soloway won for Transparent in TV Comedy, Lesli Linka Glatter won for Homeland in TV Drama, and Lisa Cholodenko took TV miniseries for Olive Kitteridge. Here’s a full list of winners below:
Feature Film: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
Dramatic Series: Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland, “From A to B and Back Againâ€
Comedy Series: Jill Soloway, Transparent, “Best New Girlâ€
Movies for Television and Mini Series: Lisa Cholodenko, Olive Kitteridge
Documentary: Laura Poitras, Citizenfour
Variety/Talk/News/Sports Specials: Glenn Weiss, The 68th Annual Tony Awards
Variety/Talk/News/Sports Regularly Scheduled: Dave Diomedi, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, “Episode #1â€
Reality Programs: Anthony B. Sacco, The Chair, “The Testâ€
Children’s Programs: Jonathan Judge, 100 Things To Do Before High School, “Pilotâ€
Commercials: Nicolai Fuglsig