Zhao makes history with DGA win
The Directors Guild of America made history Saturday night, giving the group’s top prize for feature film directing to Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), the first woman of color to receive the award and only the second woman ever to win in the category, after Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”).
Zhao was considered the heavy favorite after a dominant awards-season run for her film that has also included top honors at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and Producers Guild Awards. She will now enter Oscar night as the prohibitive front-runner, since the DGA winner has won the best director Oscar 13 of the last 15 times.
A best picture victory for “Nomadland” appears increasingly likely too: Few films have gone on to take the Oscars’ top prize without first winning at the DGA or PGA. Still, one of those curveballs came just last year, when “Parasite” won best picture without either of those trophies but after netting a high-profile win at the Screen Actors Guild.
That may provide a path forward for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which also pulled off a SAG victory last week. But though that film’s director, Aaron Sorkin, was nominated alongside Zhao for the DGA award, he was snubbed for a directing nomination at the Oscars.
In her acceptance speech, Zhao offered fulsome praise for Sorkin — “I can feel my heart beating with yours when I watch your film,” she said — as well as for the other nominees, Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and David Fincher (“Mank”).
And though he didn’t win, Fincher may have gotten the line of the night when he was asked to sum up his career: “Directing,” Fincher said, “is a bit like trying to paint a watercolor from four blocks away through a telescope, over a walkie-talkie, and 85 people are holding the brush.”
In other news at the virtual ceremony, the award for first-time feature film directing went to Darius Marder for “Sound of Metal,” while the documentary prize went to Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw for “The Truffle Hunters,” which was snubbed by the Oscars.
Remembering DMX: In the wake of DMX’s death on Friday, social media quickly filled up with tributes to the legendary rapper from artists ranging from Missy Elliott to Viola Davis, as well as former business associates. But it wasn’t until the following days that longtime friends like Snoop Dogg, who performed a Verzuz battle with DMZ last summer, and Swizz Beatz, who was a fellow flagship artist on Ruff Ryders Records in the late 1990s, paid tribute.
Snoop posted a clip from the Verzuz on Saturday, with the note: “What they thought was a battle ended up being a family reunion. Of 2 Doggs who loved everything about each other thank. U. X for loving me back. C u when I get there.” He followed with more photos and brief video clips.
Swizz Beats posted a long spoken tribute, as well as video and some photos. “I’m truly beyond devastated !!!!!! ,” he wrote. “But I’m so happy my brother is no longer in pain . I watched him take everyone’s pain and make it his own. I send my love and support to his entire family. My brother we will never let them forget your name and you will live forever F.A.M.E. Long live King DMX THE GREAT.”
April 12 birthdays: Actor Jane Withers is 95. Musician Herbie Hancock is 81. Actor Ed O’Neill is 75. Talk show host David Letterman is 74. Country singer Vince Gill is 64. Actor Shannen Doherty is 50. Actor Claire Danes is 42. Singer-guitarist Brendon Urie is 34. Actor Saoirse Ronan is 27.