Yesterday’s Directors Guild of America Awards coverage was dominated by one major (and painful) snub: that of Ava DuVernay for the entirely deserving Selma.
But we should also talk about some of women directors whose work was nominated, including Jodie Foster, Lisa Cholodenko, Jill Soloway, Laura Poitras, Leslie Linka Glatter, and Gail Mancuso.
All the above nominees (except Poitras) were recognized for their work on the small screen. The percentage of women directors working in TV is laughably low (13%), but that’s still nearly double the rate of women directors working in film (7%). And if we’re keeping that 13% in mind, women directors are probably slightly overrepresented by the DGA nominations, especially in a category like Comedy Series, where three women (Foster, Soloway, and Mancuso) comprise the majority of nominees.
The highest-profile of these directors is probably Poitras, whose Citizenfour is a frontrunner for the Best Documentary Oscar. Foster received two directing nods — one in drama for House of Cards and one in comedy for Orange is the New Black. Directing vets Glatter and Mancuso made the cut for Homeland and Modern Family, as did first-time nominee Soloway for Transparent. Cholodenko received a nod as well for her largely overlooked work on HBO’s Olive Kitteridge.
Still, there were two TV categories (Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Regularly Scheduled Programming, Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Special) that had no female nominees — a reminder that we still have awhile to go.
Below are the DGA Awards’ TV and Documentary nominees.
DRAMATIC SERIES
JODIE FOSTER — House of Cards, “Chapter 22″ (Netflix)
LESLI LINKA GLATTER — Homeland, “From A to B and Back Again” (Showtime)
COMEDY SERIES
JODIE FOSTER — Orange is the New Black, “Thirsty Bird” (Netflix)
GAIL MANCUSO — Modern Family, “Vegas” (ABC)
JILL SOLOWAY — Transparent, “Best New Girl” (Amazon Prime)
MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI SERIES
LISA CHOLODENKO — Olive Kitteridge (HBO)
REALITY PROGRAMS
The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs for 2014 are (in alphabetical order):
BERTRAM van MUNSTER, JACK CANNON, ELISE DOGANIERI — The Quest, “One True Hero” (ABC)
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
AMY SCHATZ
Saving My Tomorrow, “Part 1 and 2″
(HBO)
This is Ms. Schatz’s ninth DGA Award nomination. She won in this category five times for An Apology to Elephants in 2013, A Child’s Garden of Poetry in 2011, Classical Baby (I’m Grown Up Now), “The Poetry Show” in 2008, ’Twas the Night in 2001, and Goodnight Moon & Other Sleepy Time Tales in 1999. She was also nominated an additional three times for Don’t Divorce Me! Kids’ Rules for Parents on Divorce in 2012, Hard Times for an American Girl: The Great Depression in 2009, and Through a Child’s Eyes: September 11, 2001 in 2002.
COMMERCIALS
LAUREN GREENFIELD (Chelsea Pictures) — Always #LikeAGirl, Always — Leo Burnett
DANIEL MERCADANTE and KATINA HUBBARD (Epoch Films) — Sports Matter, Dick’s Sporting Goods Anomaly
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DOCUMENTARY
LAURA POITRAS — Citizenfour
