As distinguished a group as the PGA + DGA “haves” is, the PGA “have nots” are by no means a lesser list.
Those with only PGA nods are Aaron Sorkin’s BEING THE RICARDOS (pictured with Nicole Kidman); Sian Heder’s CODA; Adam Mckay’s DON’T LOOKUP; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s KING RICHARD; & Lin-Manuel Miranda’s TICK, TICK…BOOM!
Three of those DGA “have nots” are “haves” if we look back to January’s SAG noms where CODA, DON’T & KING were Outstanding Cast Performance nominees. Having PGA + DGA nods may be best, but with actors making up the Academy’s largest voting branch — 1,336 (about 14%) of Oscar’s 9,487 voters –, it’s definitely good to be in SAG’s best picture race.
Only 7 times since the DGA started giving awards in 1948 has its winner failed to win the directing Oscar. Over the years, a few films managed to win Oscar’s best picture without even having a directing nom. DRIVING MISS DAISY won in 1990 without Bruce Beresford having DGA or Academy nods. People called it “the picture that directed itself.” ARGO won in 2013 without Ben Affleck being Oscar-nominated. He did, however, get a DGA nom & won the DGA Award. Speculation was that the Academy directors’ branch wouldn’t vote for an actor directing only his second theatrical feature.