Tonight, the Directors Guild of America unveiled their choices for outstanding directorial achievement in 2013, and as expected, Alfonso Cuarón took home their top prize for his brilliant work on Gravity, making him the most likely winner of the Best Director Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards.
The question now becomes: Will this be enough to tip Best Picture in Gravity‘s favor? After all, how could you give a film so many Oscars (including Best Director and Best Film Editing) and NOT give it Best Picture? Granted, it’s happened before, but rarely to a film receiving this many awards. If the Academy should pass the film over for the top honor, it would become the most honored film not to win the big prize since Cabaret (1972), which won eight Oscars (including Best Director and Best Film Editing) before losing Best Picture to The Godfather.
You also have to factor in that it tied for the Producers Guild’s top prize last week, clearly marking it as a favorite film of the industry. It’s very rare for a film to take both prizes (PGA and DGA) and not win Best Picture. In fact, the last two times it happened were quite a shock (Crash and Shakespeare in Love were victorious over Brokeback Mountain and Saving Private Ryan, respectively). But you also have to consider that the film that it tied with, 12 Years a Slave, is extremely popular as well, having won the vast majority of Best Picture prizes throughout awards season.
Of course, a split is always possible, but with 6,000 members of the Academy voting, you would think that they would be able to match up the top two categories easier than smaller groups like the HFPA or BFCA. Will Cuarón being the Best Director of the year lead more people to put Gravity down for Best Picture as well, or will most still want to honor McQueen’s slavery drama as the top film of the year?
Either way, Gravity is still looking at taking home the most awards by far given that it’s currently in the lead for seven or eight of its nominations, whereas 12 Years a Slave is only in the lead for two or three of its own. Best Picture is still a little up in the air, which will make March 2nd a very exciting night.
See below for a complete list of tonight’s Directors Guild of American Award winners and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series: Steven Soderbergh, Behind the Candelabra (HBO)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Jehane Noujaim, The Square (Netflix)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Drama Series: Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, “Felina” (AMC)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series: Beth McCarthy-Miller, 30 Rock, “Hogcock!/Last Lunch” (NBC)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live with host Justin Timberlake (NBC)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials: Glenn Weiss, The 67th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)
Outstanding Directorial Achievements in Reality Programs: Neil P. DeGroot, 72 Hours, “The Lost Coast” (TNT)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs: Amy Schatz, An Apology to Elephants (HBO)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials: Martin de Thurah, The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down, Hennessy VS – Droga5 and Human Race, Acura MDX 2014 – Mullen