The Directors Guild of America decided to make themselves the subject of a popular meme today. In a move nobody saw coming or thought was necessary, the DGA has decided to ban any film with a “day and date” release from qualifying for its top honor, the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film (formerly known as Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film). This would seemingly be a blow to streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Studios and Hulu, except it isn’t.
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In a statement, DGA president Thomas Schlamme noted, “The DGA proudly affirms that a first-run theatrical release is a distinctive element of our feature film award. We celebrate the important role that theatrical cinema has played in bringing together audiences as they collectively experience films as the filmmakers intended them to be viewed. We also take great pride in recognizing all of the work created by our members through the many categories and formats that are part of the DGA Awards.”
It should be noted in the 71-year history of this honor there is not one nominee let alone winner that was from a day and date release in theaters and television, cable or streaming. Why the DGA thought this was necessary is particularly strange. Did the membership clamor for some statement against streamers trying to avoid theatrical releases? It’s unclear, but this announcement seems highly unnecessary for an industry that is already well aware that members in guilds and the Academy will not consider a contender seriously without a true theatrical release. Last year’s winner, Alfonso Cuaron, saw his film “Roma” in theaters three weeks before its streaming date on Netflix.
The First Feature honor, on the other hand, is “still” open to day and date releases. That creates a much wider berth of nominees for that particular category.
Usually held in February, the 2020 DGA Awards will take place on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020 due to the shortened awards season calendar.