By Creative Media Times

The Directors Guild of America has weighed in on the race for best director, and giving 1917’s Sam Mendes the top honor for best feature film.

“I was fortunate enough to win this award two decades ago,” Mendes recalling his DGA Awards win for “American Beauty” in 2000. “And I think if I’m honest with myself, I didn’t feel ultimately like I really knew what I was doing. I feel a little bit more like I do now.”

The win is Mendes’ second major guild win of the awards season, making him a solid frontrunner for best director at next month’s Academy Awards. The DGA Awards are often a strong bellwether for the Academy Awards: since DGA started handing out trophies in 1949, the winner has only lost seven times at the Oscars. Additionally, Mendes won best director at the Golden Globes earlier this month.

Other nominees for feature film were Bong Joon Ho for Parasite, Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit.

See below for the full list of winners:

Film

Feature Film
Sam Mendes – 1917

Documentaries
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert – American Factory

First-Time Feature Film
Alma Har’el – Honey Boy

Television

Drama Series
Nicole Kassell – Watchmen for “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”

Comedy Series
Bill Hader – Barry for “ronny/lily”

Movies for Television and Limited Series
Johan Renck – Chernobyl

Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming
Don Roy King – Saturday Night Live for “Eddie Murphy/Lizzo”

Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials
James Burrows and Andy Fisher – Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons

Reality Programs
Jason Cohen – Encore! for “Annie”

Children’s Programs
Amy Schatz – Song of Parkland

Commercials

Commercials
Spike Jonze – Squarespace’s “Dream It” and MedMen’s “The New Normal”