Well, at this point, it looks like nothing can ground the soaring contender that is Birdman. Alejandro G. Inarritu’s dramedy won the Directors Guild of America’s 67th DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — aka the DGA Award — on Saturday night, which, on the heels of the film winning the top prizes of the Producers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild, suggests that it will take something of a miracle to stop the film from winning the best picture Oscar on Feb. 22.
Over the 66 years in which the DGA Award was previously presented, its winner went on to win the best director Oscar on all but seven occasions (most recently two years ago when Argo’s Ben Affleck won the DGA Award but was not even nominated for the Oscar), and his or her film went on to win the best picture Oscar on all but 13 occasions (most recently last year when Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave beat Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity). And over the 21 years in which the PGA, SAG and DGA awards were all presented, only one film that claimed the top prizes of each of those guilds did not go on to win the best picture Oscar — that was Apollo 13, 19 years ago.
