DGA Awards Victory Pushes ‘Nomadland’ Toward Oscar Wins

There was never any suspicion that Chloé Zhao would not win the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement for Direction of a Theatrical Feature Film for “Nomadland.” The Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and PGA winning film now heads to Sunday’s BAFTA Awards with seven chances to win again, followed by Oscar voting from April 15-20.

Zhao is the second woman to win the DGA award (after Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”) and the first Asian woman.When the movie did not land a SAG Ensemble nomination (given its cast of non-pros), that opened the way for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” to win that award, but the PGA and DGA wins for “Nomadland” give it a clear lead in the race for Best Picture and Director.

Overwhelmingly, the DGA winner wins the Best Director Oscar.

Only eight times in 72 years has that not happened.

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