The Directors Guild of America has appointed one of its most celebrated members as its new president.
Christopher Nolan was elected during the union’s biennial national convention, with results released Saturday. Nolan, who ran for the top office unopposed, will take over for outgoing president Lesli Linka Glatter, who led the 19,500-member union of directors, associate and assistant directors, unit production managers and stage managers through the 2023 actors and writers strikes.
“To be elected President of the Directors Guild of America is one of the greatest honors of my career,” the director of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight said in a statement. “Our industry is experiencing tremendous change, and I thank the Guild’s membership for entrusting me with this responsibility. I also want to thank President Glatter for her leadership over the past four years. I look forward to collaborating with her and the newly elected Board to achieve important creative and economic protections for our members.”
It’s a major development for the DGA, given that Nolan is one of the best-known directors of his generation, associated with puzzle box-like stories that play with themes of time and memory. 2000’s Memento, starring Guy Pearce, made him a director to watch in Hollywood, while Nolan’s take on the Batman franchise, starting with 2005’s Batman Begins, earned him a cult following. In the years since, as Nolan has proven to be a box office draw, he has leveraged his celebrity to celebrate seeing films in theaters — and championed the use of the 70mm format.
Film fans outside the thirty-mile zone may be less familiar, however, with Nolan’s union service, even as it has ramped up in the last decade. A DGA member since 2001, Nolan has served on the union’s national board and Western directors council since 2015. He is currently the chair of the union’s theatrical creative rights committee and its artificial intelligence committee.
During the convention, the union’s 167 delegates additionally re-elected veteran television directors Laura Belsey (The Walking Dead) as the group’s national vice president and Paris Barclay (Doctor Odyssey) as its secretary-treasurer.
CBS associate director Joyce Thomas was elected assistant secretary treasurer, Malcom in the Middle director Todd Holland was elected first vice president, Apollo 13 helmer Ron Howard was elected second vice president and The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood was elected third vice president.
The guild’s freshly elected leaders will soon be put to the test as the DGA enters its latest negotiations over its basic agreement with studios and streamers next year. On Saturday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which bargains on behalf of these major employers — released a statement congratulating Nolan.
The group said, “We look forward to partnering with President Nolan to address the issues most important to DGA members while ensuring our member companies remain competitive in a rapidly changing industry.”