In February on the same night, Sean Baker took home two of the top guild trophies, from the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America, for Anora. The rare double victory was seen as significantly boosting his film’s chances of winning the coveted best picture Oscar — which it eventually did — after it also captured the top prize from the Writers Guild of America for which it was eligible, best original screenplay.
Anora‘s sweep of the guilds and the top Oscar signified strong industry consensus about the indie darling.
Clean sweeps like this don’t happen often: In the past 15 years (since the Academy expanded its best picture category from five to as many as 10 nominees, just like the PGA Awards, which also has a similar preferential ballot voting style), it has occurred only four times— in 2010 with Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, in 2013 with Ben Affleck’s Argo, in 2023 with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once and in 2025 with Baker’s Anora.
Other films came close. Take, for example, The Shape of Water, which won the DGA, the PGA and the best picture Oscar in 2018 but didn’t prevail at the WGA Awards, where Jordan Peele’s Get Out took home the original screenplay trophy.
In 2022, CODA collected the PGA prize, the WGA adapted screenplay accolade and the top Oscar, but the DGA honored Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog instead of Sian Heder.
And in 2024, Oppenheimer almost had it all, save for the WGA adapted screenplay award, which went to American Fiction.
WGA eligibility rules dictate that the guild considers only titles by writers who are members or are under contract from an affiliate guild or titles that are written under the WGA’s basic agreement. There were four features during the past 15 years that were denied a possible sweep because of those WGA eligibility rules: The King’s Speech in 2011, The Artist in 2012, Birdman in 2015 and Nomadland in 2021.
Will we see a four-peat this season? And who will do it? Well, there are few contenders that could win the three top guild honors and the best picture Oscar as well, with One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Frankenstein among the possibilities. We’ll just have to wait and see how awards season plays out once the 78th annual DGA Awards kick things off Feb. 7.
The Clean Sweep
A WGA, PGA and DGA win, followed by a best picture Oscar trophy: Only four films in the past 15 years have been able to pull off this feat.
The Hurt Locker (2010)
Kathryn Bigelow’s film won the top DGA, PGA and WGA awards (the latter for original, while Up in the Air earned best adapted screenplay) and then went on to receive the best picture Academy Award.
Argo (2013)
Ben Affleck’s Argo also swept the three guilds (Zero Dark Thirty won the WGA’s best original screenplay award), and nabbed best picture at the Oscars.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023)
It was no surprise that after this film from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won all the guild awards (with Women Talking in adapted), it also nabbed best picture, along with six other Academy Awards.
Anora (2025)
Sean Baker won the PGA and DGA awards on the same night last awards season, then went on to take the WGA’s original screenplay prize, while Nickel Boys won adapted.
Short of the Complete Set
Four films came close to snagging all four awards, but WGA membership requirements derailed their chances.
The King’s Speech (2011)
The King’s Speech won the DGA and PGA awards and Oscars for original screenplay and best picture, but it was ineligible for the WGA award. Inception and The Social Network took home the statues.
The Artist (2012)
The Artist almost had it but was deemed ineligible at the WGA. Midnight in Paris and The Descendants took home the honors for original and adapted screenplay, respectively.
Birdman (2015)
It was a yes from the PGA, DGA and the Academy, but because Birdman’s writers were not guild members, the WGA went with The Grand Budapest Hotel (original) and The Imitation Game (adapted).
Nomadland (2021)
Due to guild regulations, Nomadland was not eligible for the WGA Award (Promising Young Woman and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm won original and adapted, respectively). Nomadland took the three others.
This story appeared in the Dec. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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