La La Land's Damien Chazelle victorious at Directors Guild of America Awards 2017

The Directors Guild of America have named their most highly regarded film director of the year – and at this point, it doesn’t take a film scholar to guess who came out on top.

Yes, Damien Chazelle was awarded the most coveted award of the night, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film at the 69th annual DGA Awards, for his widely acclaimed musical drama ‘La La Land.’

The 32-year old filmmaker won out over fellow nominees Dennis Villeneuve for ‘Arrival,’ Barry Jenkins for ‘Moonlight’, Kenneth Lonergan for ‘Manchester By The Sea’ and Garth Davis for ‘Lion’ – although Davis did pick up the award for best first-time feature director.

This was Chazelle’s first DGA award nomination, for what is only his third feature film (after 2009’s ‘Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,’ and most notably 2014’s ‘Whiplash’), and it’s the latest in a long line of accolades bestowed upon the director for ‘La La Land,’ including a Golden Globe, a Critic’s Choice Movie award and many more. Given the level of buzz around the film, it would at this point be one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Academy Awards if Chazelle doesn’t wind up getting the Best Director Oscar.

But of course, the DGA Awards wasn’t all about ‘La La Land.’ Other winners included Miguel Sapochnik, who received the TV drama directing award for ‘Game of Thrones’ episode ‘Battle of the Bastards;’ Becky Martin, who won the TV comedy award for ‘Veep’ episode ‘Inauguration;’ and Steve Zaillian, for mini-series ‘The Night Of’ episode ‘The Beach.’

The ceremony also honoured Sir Ridley Scott, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Feature Film.

Read the list of nominees and winners in full at the DGA Awards site. And to see if Chazelle can also scoop the Oscar, look out for the 89th Academy Awards ceremony on 26 February.

Read More:
Zootropolis wins big at the 2017 Annie Awards
Formula for predicting Oscar success
Full list of 2017 Oscar nominations