Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film

The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures is one of the annual awards given by Directors Guild of America. With 3 wins out of 11 nominations, Steven Spielberg is both the most awarded and most nominated director for this category in the history of DGA. Additionally, Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the only director to win consecutive awards. He was awarded in 2015 and 2016 for his directorial work in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant, respectively.

The Directors Guild of America Award for Feature Film has traditionally been a near perfect barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director. Only seven times since the DGA Award's inception has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award; in 1968 (Carol Reed won the Oscar for directing Oliver!); 1972 (Bob Fosse won the Oscar for directing Cabaret); 1985 (Sydney Pollack won the Oscar for directing Out of Africa, as Steven Spielberg was not nominated for directing The Color Purple); 1995 (Mel Gibson won for directing Braveheart, as Ron Howard was not nominated for directing Apollo 13); 2000 (Steven Soderbergh won the Oscar for directing Traffic); 2002 (Roman Polanski won the Oscar for directing The Pianist); and 2012 (Ang Lee won the Oscar for directing Life of Pi as Ben Affleck was not nominated for directing Argo). This does not count 1948–49, when the DGA used a non-calendar award year (unlike the Academy Awards); both 1948 and 1949 DGA winners competed for the 1949 Academy Award for Best Director, which went to the 1948 DGA winner (Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives).