DGA Awards 2025: Anora's Sean Baker wins top prize while Emilia Perez director gives shock Karla Sofia Gascon shout-out

Anora director Sean Baker accepted the top prize at the 77th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards, held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on Saturday.

Baker's, 53, independent film continued to gain Oscar momentum as it won the DGA Award for Theatrical Feature.

'I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to be able to do thing I knew I wanted to do since I was 5 years old,' he told the crowd as he accepted the award, as per Variety.

Baker, whose film recently secured a surprise win at the Critics Choice Award, beat out Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez), Edward Berger (Conclave), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown) for the prize. 

Anora stars Mikey Madison as an adult dancer who impetuously marries the son of a Russian oligarch, only to have his handlers go to shocking ends to annul the marriage. 

Meanwhile Emilia Pérez director Jacques, 72, gave a surprise shout-out to under-fire star Karla Sofía Gascon, 52, as he accepted the DGA medallion for his nomination in the top prize category.

Audiard thanked 'his beloved actresses' despite Gascon's recent controversy, as her offensive tweets, that have been described as Islamophobic and racist, have threatened to derail the film's awards hopes.

The French filmmaker said, via translator, 'The last word is for my wonderful cast, my beloved actresses, Karla, Zoë, Selena, Adriana and Edgar, who is not an actress.' 

The mention of Gascon was particularly surprising in light of his recent interview with Deadline, where he stated, 'I haven’t spoken to her, and I don’t want to.'

On Friday, Gascon vowed to remain silent for the rest of the awards season after skeletons from her past emerged, all but tanking her chance to become the first transgender person to win an Academy Award. 

In a post on Instagram, the Emilia Perez star wrote: 'I decided, for the film, for Jacques, for the cast, for the incredible crew who deserves it, for the beautiful adventure we all had together, to let the work talk for itself, hoping my silence will allow the film to be appreciated for what it is, a beautiful ode to love and difference.'

'I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been hurt along the way.'

Emilia Perez, which also stars Selena Gomez, is a musical crime comedy about a cartel leader (Gascon) in Mexico who undergoes a gender transition to escape the law and start a new life. 

It comes after neither Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldana or the film's composers mentioned Gascon in their victory speeches at the 2025 Critics' Choice Awards on Friday.

Saldana starred opposite Gascon in the Netflix film, and earned the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress while El Mal - a track featuring the vocals of both Saldana and Gascon - won Best Song. 

Gascon was plunged into controversy last month after her past offensive tweets surfaced, and Audiard as well as Netflix publicly distanced themselves from the transgender actress. 

The controversy surrounding Gascon broke just weeks before the Oscars, where Emilia Perez is up for multiple awards, including Best Actress for Karla.

Recently Audiard condemned Gascon and accused her of hurting the cast and crew of Emilia Perez by refusing to stay silent in the wake of her social media scandal.

'I haven't spoken to her, and I don't want to. She is in a self-destructive approach that I can't interfere in, and I really don't understand why she's continuing. Why is she harming herself? Why?' he told Deadline.

'I'm thinking in this thing of how hurting others, of how she's hurting the crew and all these people who worked so incredibly hard on this film. I'm thinking of myself, I'm thinking of Zoe [Saldaña] and Selena [Gomez]. I just don't understand why she's continuing to harm us,' he continued.

'I'm not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions.'

Despite his harsh words, Audiard admitted that he had a great relationship with Gascon up until her old social media posts came to light.

'It's very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía. The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust,' he said.

'And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It's as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.' 

He also accused the actress of 'playing the victim' in the wake of the scandal.

Variety has also reported that Gascon's image has been scrubbed from a lot of the Emilia Perez promotional material, as Netflix shifts their focus to centering their campaign around Zoe, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

The Directors Guild of America Awards are annual awards presented by the Directors Guild of America to recognize outstanding achievement in film and television direction. 

Elsewhere at the DGA's, RaMell Ross took the Michael Apted First-Time Theatrical Feature Film award for Nickel Boys. 

The Brutalist star Adrien Brody took the stage, looking sharp in a black suit. 

The Brutalist director, Brady Corbet, also accepted the DGA medallion at the awards show. 

Colman Domingo presented the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Award for Shōgun to Frederick E.O. Toye. 

Michelle Yeoh presented Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee with the guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award. 

James Mangold accepted a Directors Guild of America Feature Film Medallion for A Complete Unknown, which stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. 

Elle Fanning was also present, and looked chic in a cream blouse. Meanwhile Sebastian Stan looked sharp in a suit. 

The Bear's Ayo Edebiri and SNL star Bowen Yang were on hand to present an award as well.

They presented the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs Award for Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted to Neil DeGroot and Jeff Simms.

Liz Patrick posed in the press room with the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports Regularly Scheduled Programming for Saturday Night Live: John Mulaney/Chapell Roan. 

Thomas J. Whelan received the Frank Capra Achievement Award. 

Meanwhile the Robert B. Aldrich Service Award went to Mary Rae Thewlis. 

Others present at the show included Maude Apatow, Taylor Tomlinson, Ike Barinholtz, Paul W. Downs, Amber Sealey, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, and DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter.

Judd Apatow served as host of the DGAs for the sixth time.