The DGA revealed its winners for 2023 in a Judd Apatow-hosted ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles Saturday night.

Lesli Linka Glatter, the DGA’s president, offered welcome remarks before introducing Apatow, who has previously hosted the annual show three times.

During his opening monologue, the comedian delivered some punches, mocking the fact that the show was only being livestreamed “to the back of this room. This show is so irrelevant, it’s shocking Elon Musk hasn’t bought it yet.” His joke about “honoring the directors who didn’t feel a need to make a Pinocchio movie this year” received a big reaction from the audience, and he also nodded to the fact that there were no female filmmakers nominated in the top director category this year.

However, female directors fared much better in the first-time director category, with women picking up four of the five nominations: Saint Omer‘s Alice Diop, Happening‘s Audrey Diwan, Murina‘s Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic and Aftersun‘s Charlotte Wells. Emily the Criminal helmer John Patton Ford was also nominated in the category.

“Some people are complaining this year that all five of the best director nominees are men, but that’s not true,” Apatow said. “One of the nominees is two men (cut to the Daniels). … It must be tough for James Cameron to have made yet another one of the most technically innovative films of all time and then lose out on a DGA nomination to two guys who made a movie with a dildo fight.”

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (known as the Daniels) took home the biggest award of the night, coming on stage with their AD team. “This has been an incredible year for our little film that somehow keeps going,” Kwan told the crowd, noting they wouldn’t be anywhere without Michelle Yeoh. He also gave a shoutout to A24 for saying “yes when many did not, thank you so much. Films like this oftentimes do not get a launch pad and you’re just the craziest studio and always do somehow take risks on movies like ours.” Scheinert thanked Kwan for “putting up with me when I asked to make our movie weirder and thank you for making our movie so much braver and more vulnerable,” adding, “holy shit, this is crazy!”

Jason Bateman, nominated for one episode of Ozark in the dramatic series, presented the first award for best documentary. Fire of Love’s Sara Dosa won in the category, telling the audience, “Katia and Maurice literally died for their filmmaking. “Fire of Love is not about their deaths, it’s about how they lived, and they lived for their love and volcanoes. … I believe they died a meaningful death.”

Kumail Nanjiani presented the Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials and Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming awards. Glenn Weiss won the award for the 75th annual Tony Awards in the former category, telling the crowd that he and his wife, Jan Svendsen, finally eloped after he publicly proposed following his Emmy win for directing the Oscars in 2018, while Liz Patrick won for Saturday Night Live in the latter. Patrick was not in attendance, so Nanjiani accepted the award on her behalf.

“What the fuck am I doing here?” Simms joked when he took the stage to accept the award.

Aubrey Plaza took the stage to present the award for directorial achievement in movies for television and limited series, but not before she could tell the audience, “I was put at the FBoy Island table and I like it! It’s where I belong!” Earlier in the evening, Apatow had made a comment about how Plaza had been seated at that table. Helen Shaver won for her work on Station Eleven’s episode “Who’s There?”

Mike Newell (director of Four Weddings and a Funeral) presented the first-time theatrical feature film director award. Charlotte Wells won for her film Aftersun, but was not in attendance to accept.

Regina Hall and James Marsden presented the commercials and comedy series categories, and joked that them presenting together does not mean they are dating, but that they instead met on a matchmaking app for presenters. Kim Gehrig won the commercial award, while Bill Hader won for Barry’s episode “710N”. Hader was not in attendance to accept the award.

Anna Kendrick presented the award for directorial achievement in a dramatic series, which went to Sam Levinson for Euphoria.

In terms of TV nominations, Severance and Station Eleven received two nominations each, and shows like Ozark, Barry, and The White Lotus also scored nods. Nominated documentary directors include Sara Dosa for Fire of Love, Matthew Heineman for Retrograde, Laura Poitras for All The Beauty and the Bloodshed, Daniel Roher for Navalny and Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes.