Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“One Battle After Another”), Chloé Zhao (“Hamnet”), Josh Safdie (“Marty Supreme”) and Guillermo del Toro have been nominated as the best feature film directors of 2025 by the Directors Guild of America, which announced its movie nominations on Thursday.
Del Toro and Zhao are previous winners of the DGA award. Del Toro won for “The Shape of Water” and Zhao for “Nomadland,” both of which won Best Picture and Director at the Oscars. Anderson received his third nomination (after “There Will Be Blood” and “Licorice Pizza”), while Coogler and Safdie are debut nominees.
In the category honoring first-time filmmakers, the DGA nominated Hasan Hadi
(“The President’s Cake”), Harry Lighton (“Pillion”), Charlie Polinger (“The Plague”), Alex Russell (“Lurker”) and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”).
The nominees were largely expected, with Anderson, Coogler, del Toro and Zhao all considered virtual locks and Safdie a likely nominee over “Sentimental Value” director Joachim Trier.
DGA nominations have historically been among the most accurate guild noms for predicting what Oscar voters will do. On the average, four of the five DGA nominees go on to receive Best Director nods from the Academy.
Still, the two groups haven’t matched up five-for-five since 2010. Since then, the Academy’s Directors Branch has gotten increasingly idiosyncratic and global. Discrepancies between the guild and the Academy have predominantly come when the DGA has nominated directors of English-language films, while the branch goes for international ones, with eight of the last nine directors to be nominated by the DGA but not the Academy replaced by international directors.
Last year, the Academy chose “The Substance” director Coralie Fargeat over DGA nominee Edward Berger for “Conclave.” Two years ago, the Oscar voters selected French director Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall” and British director Jonathan Glazer for “The Zone of Interest” over American DGA nominees Greta Gerwig for “Barbie” and Alexander Payne for “The Holdovers.”
In previous years, the Academy chose Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) over DGA nominee Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) over Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”), Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) over Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite”) and Pawel Pawlikowski (“Cold War”) over Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”) and Bobby Farrelly (“Green Book”).
This year, the marked Academy trend toward global filmmakers could be heartening news for Trier, and maybe even “It Was Just an Accident” director Jafar Panahi.
Winners will be announced at the 78th annual DGA Awards on Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Here are the lists of DGA nominees and their directing teams:
THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
The nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2025 are (in alphabetical order):
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
One Battle After Another
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Directorial Team:
- Unit Production Manager: Will Weiske
- First Assistant Director: Adam Somner
- Second Assistant Director: Trevor Tavares, Ian Stone
- Second Second Assistant Director: Dominic Pacitti, Rafael Sanz-Jimenez
- Additional Second Assistant Director: Nuekellar Hardy, Chunning Chang, Kit Conners, Kasia Trojak, Tyler Young
RYAN COOGLER
Sinners
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Directorial Team:
- Unit Production Manager: Will Greenfield, Kenneth Yu
- First Assistant Director: Marvin Williams
- Second Assistant Director: Amir R. Khan
- Additional Second Assistant Director: Gregg Carr, Desiree Stevenson
GUILLERMO DEL TORO
Frankenstein
(Netflix)
Directorial Team:
- Unit Production Manager: J. Miles Dale
- First Assistant Director: Walter Gasparovic
- Second Assistant Director: Chad Belair
JOSH SAFDIE
Marty Supreme
(A24)
Directorial Team:
- Unit Production Manager: Anthony Katagas, Joe Guest
- First Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks
- Second Assistant Director: Zach Citarella
- Second Second Assistant Director: Kailyn Dabkowski
- Assistant Unit Production Manager: Max Samu, Suk Yi Mar, Samson Jacobson
- Location Manager: Matthew Kania, Ross Brodar
CHLOÉ ZHAO
Hamnet
(Focus Features)
MICHAEL APTED FIRST-TIME THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
The nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film for 2025 are (in alphabetical order).
HASAN HADI
The President’s Cake
(Sony Pictures Classics)
HARRY LIGHTON
Pillion
(A24)
CHARLIE POLINGER
The Plague
(Independent Film Company)
ALEX RUSSELL
Lurker
(MUBI)
EVA VICTOR
Sorry, Baby
(A24)
Steve Pond contributed to this report.