Ava DuVernay, Melina Matsoukas score prestigious Directors Guild of America nominations

The Directors Guild of America has announced its nominations for the 2019-20 awards season and they include Ava DuVernay for "When They See Us" and Melina Matsoukas for "Queen & Slim."

Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, and Melina MatsoukasQueen & Slim have both been nominated in categories for the prestigious 2020 Directors Guild of America Awards.

DuVernay will compete in the “Best movies for TV and limited series” category against Vince Gilligan’s El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Johan Renck for Chernobyl and three directors for Fosse/Verdon, Thomas Kail, Minkie Spiro and Jessica Yu, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the “Debut feature-film directing” category, Matsoukas’ Queen & Slim is up against AtlanticsMati Diop, Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy‘s, The Peanut Butter Falcon‘s Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz and Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

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Noticeably missing from the DGA Awards’ female director category is Harriet‘s Kasi Lemmons, as well as Lula Wang’s The Farewell, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and HustlersLorene Scafaria.

The Directors Guild of America announced on Tuesday the feature-film and first-time director nominees for the 2020 DGA Awards. The DGA still has to unveil its nominees for specials categories, including Best Comedy Series, Dramatic Series and the Variety/Talk/News/Sports categories, which it will do on Friday. The holdup was reportedly “due to a re-vote related to a newly implemented electronic entry submissions process,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The 72nd annual DGA awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Los Angeles.

Nominated in the category for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Theatrical Feature Film for 2019 are Bong Jo Ho for Parasite, Sam Mendes for 1917, Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood, and Taiki Waititi for JoJo Rabbit.

DGA President Thomas Schlamme called the five nominees an “extraordinary group of filmmakers.”

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“In a year full of excellent films, DGA members have chosen an extraordinary group of filmmakers to nominate for this year’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film Award,” Schlamme said in a press release posted to DGA’s web site.

“These directors represent the highest standard of filmmaking, and their films are a testament to innovative storytelling, artistic achievement, and the passion that filmmakers share with their audiences. Being nominated by their peers is what makes this award particularly meaningful for directors, and I congratulate all of the nominees for their outstanding work.”

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