The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Director Richie Keen discusses his film Fist Fight with fellow director Seth Gordon. The film follows Andy (by Charlie Day), a high school teacher who is challenged to a fight by another high school teacher Ron (played by Ice Cube) after Andy inadvertently gets Ron fired.

Director James Mangold discusses his new film, Logan, with Director Gavin O'Connor. The film tells the story of Logan as he cares for his ailing friend, Professor X. They are approached by a young mutant who is being pursued by a villain connected to Logan's past and must rise again to protect an innocent.

James Moll moderates the Meet the Nominees: Documentary Symposium featuring Otto Bell, Ezra Edelman, Josh Kriegman, and Roger Ross Williams on their nominated films. Nominees Raoul Peck, the director of I Am Not Your Negro and Elyse Steinberg, the co-director of Weiner were not available to participate. The discussion covers a variety of topics including editing and interacting with the subjects o...

Jeremy Kagan moderates the 26th Annual DGA Meet the Nominees: Feature Film Symposium featuring Damien Chazelle, Garth Davis, Barry Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan, and Denis Villeneuve on their nominated films. Topics for part three include the nominees' approach to pivotal scenes within each film and how they deal with the pressures of directing.

Jeremy Kagan moderates the 26th Annual DGA Meet the Nominees: Feature Film Symposium featuring Damien Chazelle, Garth Davis, Barry Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan, and Denis Villeneuve on their nominated films. Topics for part two include how the nominees' approach casting and found the right actor for each films' pivotal roles.

Jeremy Kagan moderates the 26th Annual DGA Meet the Nominees: Feature Film Symposium featuring Damien Chazelle, Garth Davis, Barry Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan, and Denis Villeneuve on their nominated films. Topics for part one include the nominees' thoughts on the challenging stage of editing and how each of their films portray time.

Director Asghar Farhadi discusses his new film, The Salesman, with fellow director Victoria Hochberg. The film follows a young couple as they rent a new apartment from a fellow performer in a local production of Death of a Salesman, unaware that the previous tenant allegedly pursued a career in prostitution. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film of 2017.

Director Mike Mills discusses his new film, 20th Century Women, with Marc Webb. Loosely based on his own childhood, the film follows Dorothea, a single mother raising her adolescent son in Santa Barbara, CA during the cultural revolution of late 1970s. To help steer him through the chaos, Dorothea calls on the help of a punk photographer, a mellow handyman, and her son's best friend to serve as ro...

Director Peter Berg discusses his new film, Patriots Day, with Edward Zwick. The film tells the story of the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15, 2013. The film weaves together the stories of the heroic first responders and investigators who raced against the clock to hunt down the bombers before they could strike again.

Director John Lee Hancock discusses his new film, The Founder, with Jonathan Mostow. The film tells the story of Ray Kroc, a floundering Illinois salesman, who connects with Mac and Dick McDonald, two brothers running a burger operation in southern California in the 1950s. When Kroc realizes the franchise possibilities, he maneuvers himself into a position to buy them out and create a fast-food em...

Director Garth Davis discusses his new film, Lion, with James Ponsoldt. Based on the nonfiction book A Long Way Home, Lion tells the incredible story of Saroo Brierly, a five-year-old boy who gets lost on a train hundreds of miles away from his family. After surviving on the streets of Calcutta, he is eventually adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, Saroo uses Google Earth to r...

Director Theodore Melfi discusses his new film, Hidden Figures, with John Patrick Shanley. Based on the nonfiction book of the same name, the film tells the story of Katharine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan, three African-American female mathematicians who were the brains behind the launch that sent astronaut John Glenn into orbit around the Earth and safely back home.

Director Martin Scorsese discusses his new film, Silence, with Alexander Payne. Based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, the film follows two Jesuit missionaries who travel to Japan, where Christianity is outlawed, in search of their missing mentor.

Director Taylor Hackford discusses his new film, The Comedian, with fellow director David O. Russell. The film stars Robert De Niro as Jackie Burke, a comedian on the downside of his career whose efforts at reinvention are stymied because his fans only want to see him as the television character he once played. After an incident with an audience members gets him sentenced to community service, he...

Director Damien Chazelle discusses his new film, La La Land, with fellow director Jon Favreau. Set in modern-day Los Angeles, the film tells the story of an aspiring actress and a jazz musician who embark on a whirlwind romance as they struggle to make ends meet and find success in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts. Mr. Chazelle was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Dir...

Director Stephen Gaghan discusses his new film, Gold, with fellow director Sam Esmail. Based on true events, the film tells the story of a businessman who teams up with a geologist to search for gold deep in the uncharted jungles of Indonesia. After making the find of the century, their operation draws the unwanted attention of both the FBI and the Indonesian military.

Director Gareth Edwards discusses his new film and the latest installment in the Star Wars saga, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The film takes place just before the first Star Wars film (Episode IV: A New Hope), and tells the story of a small group of rebel soldiers and their desperate gambit to capture the plans for the under-construction Death Star.

Famed Spanish Director Pedro Almodóvar discusses his newest film, Julieta. The film tells the story of a middle-aged woman who tries to reconnect with her estranged daughter who deserted her 12 years earlier after the death of their respective husband and father. Almodóvar’s 20th feature explores the complexity of fate, guilt, the mystery that leads us to erase people we love from our lives as if...

Director Warren Beatty discusses his new film, Rules Don't Apply, with Robert Benjamin. Set during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the film tells the story a young, aspiring actress under contract by Howard Hughes who develops an attraction for her driver. Their mutual attraction violates Hughes' rule that no employee may have a relationship with a contract actress.

Director Ang Lee discusses his new film, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, with Robert Weide. The film tells the story of Billy Lynn, a 19-year-old Army Private who is hailed as a hero in the US after a battle in Iraq. Brought home for a victory tour culminating in a spectacular halftime show at the Thanksgiving Day football game, Lynn experiences a series of flashbacks that reveal what really happ...

Director Tom Ford discusses his new film, Nocturnal Animals, with Lee Daniels. A Los Angeles art dealer whose seemingly idyllic life is disturbed by the arrival of a manuscript written and dedicated to her by her ex-husband. As Susan reads and is drawn deeper into the story, its themes force her to examine her past and confront disturbing truths about her present.

Director John Madden discusses his new film, Miss Sloane, with Jeremy Kagan. Elizabeth Sloane, a brilliant and ruthless lobbyist, is put to the test when she comes against one of the most influential powers in Washington D.C.

Director Denzel Washington discusses his new film, Fences, with Bennett Miller. Set in the 1950s, Fences follows the story of a former baseball player who struggles to come to grips with his current situation and hold his family together when events threaten to tear it apart.

Director Ben Younger discusses his new film, Bleed for This, with Tod Williams. Based on a true story, the film stars Miles Teller as Vinny Pazienza, a junior champion boxer forced to relinquish his title after breaking his neck in a serious accident. Determined to regain his crown, he and his trainer defied medical orders to make a return to the sport he loved.

Director Jeff Nichols discusses his new film, Loving, with James Gray. The film tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who marry in Washington, D.C. in the late 1950s. When they are arrested and imprisoned in their hometown in Virginia, where their marriage was illegal at the time, they pursue a civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, which is ultimately decided b...