directing

The Directors Guild of America announced its nominations Thursday for outstanding directorial achievement in theatrical feature film, offering one of the clearest snapshots yet of the Oscar race for director as guild voters begin to weigh in.

Nominated for the DGA’s top film award are Paul Thomas Anderson for “One Battle After Another,” Ryan Coogler for “Sinners,” Guillermo del Toro for “Frankenstein,” Josh Safdie for “Marty Supreme” and Chloé Zhao for “Hamnet.”

Winners will be announced at the 78th annual DGA Awards on Feb. 7 at the Beverly Hilton.

The DGA award remains one of the strongest predictors of Oscar success. Twenty of the last 23 recipients of the guild’s top directing prize have gone on to win the Academy Award for best director. Last year’s DGA winner, “Anora” director Sean Baker, went on to repeat at the Oscars.

Several of this year’s nominees are familiar figures to the guild. Anderson’s nod for “One Battle After Another” marks his third time being recognized by the DGA in the top film category, following his earlier nominations for “There Will Be Blood” and “Licorice Pizza.” Zhao, who won both the DGA Award and the Oscar for “Nomadland,” receives her second nomination for the wrenching period drama “Hamnet,” making her one of a small group of women — including Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow and Greta Gerwig — to be recognized more than once by the guild.

Del Toro, who won the DGA Award for “The Shape of Water,” earns his second career nomination in the category for his long-gestating “Frankenstein” adaptation, while Safdie receives his first DGA nomination for theatrical feature film for his gonzo sports drama “Marty Supreme.”

The DGA nominations often track closely with the Oscars in part because of overlapping membership: most directors in the Academy are also members of the guild. While the groups vote independently, that shared base has made the DGA one of the most reliable bellwethers in the Oscar directing race.

This year’s DGA nominations overlap significantly with the Golden Globe nominations for directing, which also included Anderson, Coogler, del Toro and Zhao. The Globes additionally recognized Jafar Panahi for “It Was Just an Accident” and Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value,” two filmmakers who didn’t appear in the DGA lineup. The differences highlight the contrasting makeup of the Globes’ voting body of international critics and the DGA’s more industry-focused membership.

The guild also announced nominees for the Michael Apted Award for outstanding directorial achievement in a first-time theatrical feature film, a category that has increasingly served as a spotlight for emerging talent. This year’s nominees are Hasan Hadi for “The President’s Cake,” Harry Lighton for “Pillion,” Charlie Polinger for “The Plague,” Alex Russell for “Lurker” and Eva Victor for “Sorry, Baby.” Last year’s Apted Award winner, RaMell Ross, went on to earn a best picture Oscar nomination for “Nickel Boys.”

Television, documentary and other DGA nominations were announced earlier this week, recognizing directing work across drama, comedy, limited series and nonfiction programming. In dramatic series, nominees included “Severance,” “Andor,” “The Diplomat” and HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” while comedy series nominees included “The Bear,” “Hacks,” “The White Lotus” and Apple TV+’s “The Studio.”

The academy has recognized “One Battle After Another” filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s prodigious talents with plenty of nominations over the years. But Oscar voters seem to have been waiting for frogs to rain from the sky to give him an award. The most successful film of his career could change that.

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Anderson’s nominations total so far includes five for writing, three for directing and three for best picture, all without winning.

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Anderson’s rough contemporary and fellow Angeleno, Quentin Tarantino, has received fewer nominations but won twice, both for writing.

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Years between Anderson’s first nomination, for writing “Boogie Nights,” and finally winning an Oscar, if he does, in March.

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Years between Martin Scorsese’s first nomination, for directing “Raging Bull,” and finally winning an Oscar, for directing “The Departed.”

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Anderson’s directing, writing and best picture nominations for 2021’s “Licorice Pizza” suggest the academy understands he is overdue.

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Anderson winning for “One Battle After Another” would not be a “makeup” victory but that rare instance of justice arriving via a career-highlight film.

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Only nine performances from Anderson’s movies have been nominated to date, a total that fails to reflect his gifts as a director of actors (or love of ensemble casts).

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Of those nine, only Daniel Day-Lewis won, for his lead performance in “There Will Be Blood.”

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Cinematographer Robert Elswit’s statuette for “There Will Be Blood” and costume designer Mark Bridges’ prize for “Phantom Thread” bring the Oscar total for Anderson’s movies to three.

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Leonardo DiCaprio (lead actor), Sean Penn (supporting actor) and Teyana Taylor (supporting actress), at least, look like locks for acting nominations for “One Battle After Another,” with Chase Infiniti (lead actress), Benicio Del Toro (supporting actor) and Regina Hall (supporting actress) also contenders.