Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma wins at 2019 DGA Awards
David Farnor | On 03, Feb 2019
Alfonso Cuaron took home the top prize at this weekend’s DGA Awards, once again putting Netflix’s Roma near the front of this year’s awards race.
The director, who last won the prize five years ago for Gravity, accepted his second DGA trophy with a big thank you for the streaming service for their “glorious stupidity” in releasing the black-and-white Spanish-language movie. Indeed, this is only the second time that the DGA has handed its top feature prize to a film not in the English language – the last was Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, almost two decades ago.
Cuaron also thanked his two lead stars Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira for their contributions to the film. With both nominated for Academy Awards, Cuaron’s win sees Roma build serious momentum going into the final stretch. In terms of the directing prize alone, he also won the Golden Globe for helming Roma, beating the same group of filmmakers nominated by the DGA – Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born, Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman, Peter Farrelly for Green Book and Adam McKay for Vice.
The DGA Award, though, is only one of the industry’s indicators for Oscar victory, with the PGA and SAG Awards also representing their professions’ votes: the PGA suggests that Green Book will be the likely Best Picture winner on the big night, while the SAG Awards suggest Black Panther could be in the running. At present, though, Netflix’s presence in the annual speculation highlights how big a success Roma has become, with 10 Academy Award nods to its name, tied with The Favourite. (You can read our five-star review of Roma here.)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film went to Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade, while Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary went to Tim Wardle for Three Identical Strangers.
On the small screen, Ben Stiller won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for Showtime’s Escape at Dannemora, while Adam McKay won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for HBO’s Succession. Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series went to Bill Hader for HBO’s Barry, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs went to Russell Norman for the Japan episode of Netflix’s The Final Table.