Hello and welcome back to the Directors Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.

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In honor of the 70th annual DGA Awards, we're bringing back our annual series devoted to our popular Meet the Nominees Feature Film Symposium.

Now in its 27th year, the event is a roundtable discussion with the directors nominated for the Guild's Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

This year's nominees include Guillermo del Toro, the director of the shape of water,

Greta Gerwig, the director of Lady Bird, Martin McDonough, the director of three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri,

Christopher Nolan, the director of Dunkirk, and Jordan Peel, the director of Get Out.

Each of these talented directors

were gathered on February 3rd at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles to discuss the craft

of directing and the making of their films with moderator Jeremy Kagan. So please enjoy

part one of our Meet the nominees special, and listen to the five nominees share their thoughts

on being

writer-directors on their films and their different approaches to opening their films.

Highlights include Greta Gerwig discussing how having been an actor she likes to position herself

next to the camera, why Guillermo del Toro likes to put little heads made of tape at the bottom

of the monitor while watching takes,

and how Jordan Peel made Race the monster in his horror film.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the five nominees for Outstanding Director of a Feature Film by the Directors Guild of America. Here are some remarkable filmmakers.

Please welcome them.

As you know, this is an audience of people who are themselves part of the director royal team.

So hopefully our conversations will stimulate some of the things that make it a little different from the conversations you have to have about your film all these last number of months.

But let me introduce you first, just in case we don't know. To my right is Martin McDonough of three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri.

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