As expected, Guillermo del Toro has won the Directors Guild of America’s top feature award for the fantasy drama The Shape of Water.
The other nominees were: Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Christopher Nolan (“Dunkirk”) and Jordan Peele (“Get Out”).
“Inclusion is necessary if for no other reason than we’re not hearing all the stories that need to be heard,” he said in his acceptance speech at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Mexican Talent Invasion
It’s the fourth time in recent years that a Mexican director has won the DGA award. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu won the trophies for “Birdman” and “The Revenant” and Alfonso Cuaron won for “Gravity.”
The DGA award is one of the top indicators of Oscar sentiment with all but seven of the DGA winners since 1948 going on to take the Best Director Oscar.
The last divergence came in 2013 when Ben Affleck won the DGA award for “Argo” even though he did not receive an Oscar nomination