Lion’s Garth Davis Scores DGA Nomination

By Erin Free

Back in 2014, FilmInk included director, Garth Davis on our “It List”, which ranked the fifty hottest Australian creatives in the global film industry at that time. Without wanting to break our arm while patting ourselves on the back, it looks like we were on the money. And it all started on the small screen.

Remember that beer commercial with the tongue that everyone was talking about a few years back? Well, that was just one of the many award-winning and highly cinematic commercials made by Garth Davis (who also helmed the stunningly gut-wrenching eighteen-minute short, Alice) before he got a big step-up by directing a large chunk of the TV mini-series, Top Of The Lake, alongside Jane Campion.

Garth Davis on the set of Lion. — Garth Davis on the set of *Lion*.

But now thanks to Lion, based on the Saroo Brierley book, A Long Way Home, Davis is making a name all for himself. The film has been scoring raves (as well as a few Golden Globes nominations), and now Davis has got the nod from the prestigious Directors’ Guild Of America Awards. For the coveted Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Feature Film gong, Davis will face off against Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester By The Sea), and Denis Villeneuve (Arrival). Davis has also been nominated in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film category, which will see him head off Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge Of Seventeen), Tim Miller (Deadpool), Nate Parker (The Birth Of A Nation), and Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane). Already an exciting announcement, the news gets better for Garth Davis: The Directors’ Guild Of America Awards historically point to which filmmakers will eventually get Oscar nominations.