Guillermo del Toro has emerged as the frontrunner for the best director Oscar after scooping the best feature film award from the Directors Guild of America for The Shape of Water.
The Mexican director won in a shortlist including Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk, Jordan Peele for Get Out and Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
The DGA award is seen as the key indicator as to the Academy Awards in March, with the winner of the feature film award often going on to take the Oscar for best director. (Only once since 2002 – when Ben Affleck won the award for Argo in 2012 – has the DGA not matched the Academy award.) The Shape of Water has been the subject of controversy over its possible source, after claims emerged that it used material from Paul Zindel’s 1969 play Let Me Hear You Whisper.
Del Toro may now also expect a serious challenge at the Oscars from Peele, who took the DGA award for best first-time feature for his racially charged horror film. Matthew Heineman won best documentary for City of Ghosts, his film about the anti-Isis journalism collective in the Syrian city of Raqqa. However, despite this being Heineman’s second DGA award (after Cartel Land in 2015), City of Ghosts did not make the final Oscar shortlist.
In the TV sections, Reed Morano won best dramatic series for dystopian sci-fi The Handmaid’s Tale, Beth McCarthy-Miller won best comedy series for Veep, and Jean-Marc Vallée won best TV movie or mini-series for Big Little Lies.
