Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have been nominated for the top honour at the 2020 Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards.
The veteran filmmaker has received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2019 for his gangster epic The Irishman and faces competition from Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bong Joon-Ho for South Korean thriller Parasite, Sam Mendes for one-take war movie 1917, and Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit.
Four of the nominees were also nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, while Joker filmmaker Todd Phillips, who received recognition from BAFTA and the Globes, is surprisingly absent from the shortlist and has been replaced by Waititi. Mendes took home the directing prize at the Globes on Sunday.
The five DGA nominees don't always line up with the five Oscar nominees for Best Director, but the last six winners of the main DGA prize - most recently, Roma's Alfonso Cuaron and The Shape of Water's Guillermo del Toro - have gone on to win the Academy Award.
During the DGA ceremony, which takes place on 25 January, a first-time film director will also receive an award. The nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director for 2019 include Mati Diop, who became the first black woman to direct a film featured In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year with Atlantics, Alma Har'el for Shia LaBeouf's biopic Honey Boy, Melina Matsoukas for Queen & Slim, Joe Talbot for The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz for The Peanut Butter Falcon.
On Tuesday, the Producers Guild of America (PGA) also announced their nominations. The Irishman, 1917, Parasite, Jojo Rabbit, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are all up for The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, alongside Ford v Ferrari, Joker, Knives Out, Little Women, and Marriage Story.
The winner will be announced on 18 January.
