Christopher Nolan clinches Best Director honour for ‘Oppenheimer’ at Directors Guild of America Awards

Auteur Christopher Nolan took home the top prize at the Directors Guild of America Awards, earning his first DGA Award for the historical epic Oppenheimer.

DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter opened the 2024 DGA Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday with an acknowledgment of last year’s historic double strike. “I struggle to find words to address the pain everyone faced in our industry in our collective fight to get what we all deserve,” said Glatter. Actor Cillian Murphy honoured his frequent collaborator Christopher Nolan, whose Oppenheimer marked their sixth film together. The actor said, “It’s the same each time: The scripts are always truly extraordinary, the worlds are challenging, they are intelligent and consequential …”

Nolan called the DGA recognition particularly special because “nobody gets up here on their own.” Nolan thanked his cast, crew and wife Emma Thomas, whom he described as the “lead producer on all these films and lead parent of four kids.”

Meanwhile, veteran director David Nutter was feted with the lifetime achievement award for television direction.