The DGA Awards celebrates outstanding directorial achievement and we welcome your entry. Here are the Awards guidelines and entry form for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials. You must agree to these rules at the bottom of the page in order to go to the Entry Form.

Entry Criteria:

1. Director Eligibility:
   • Entries must be directed by a DGA member under a DGA Agreement. A Director may enter one or more commercials as part of one entry in this category.
   
   
   • Entries are accepted only from the Director of the program. An entry found to be submitted without the Director’s knowledge will be immediately disqualified.


2. Eligibility:
   • Only Commercials that have originally aired on television or streaming services during the period of January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 are eligible.
   
   
   • The DGA Commercial Award will include all entries directed by members under a DGA Agreement.
   
   
   • Foreign commercials and commercials produced for the internet and other forms of new media, made under a DGA Agreement, are eligible.


3. Length:
   • The total length of the entry submission must not exceed three minutes of principal photography (this does not include the 5 seconds of pre-roll in addition to bars and tone).


4. Credit:
   • The director must have exercised all traditional directorial functions in connection with original photography.


5. Entry Requirements:
   
   • The Director must submit a completed DGA Awards entry form. A confirmation e-mail will be sent upon receipt of the entry form.
   
   
   • All entries produced under the DGA National Commercials Agreement must be accompanied by each Commercial’s corresponding DGA Commercial Project Listing Form (CPLF) or applicable deal memorandum if produced under another DGA agreement.
   
   
   • The Director must provide a HD link of the Commercial(s) with the following specifications: QuickTime Movie in Apple ProRes, 1920 x 1080 and include 5 seconds of pre-roll in addition to bars and tone. The submission may be one commercial or multiple commercials, as long as the additional commercials are not versions or lifts of the first commercial submitted. Commercials may not be re-edited for jury consideration and "director's cuts" are not eligible if they were not the version that was first distributed.

Entry Deadline:

• All entries must be received in the Awards office by 6:00 p.m. PT on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2023. No entries will be accepted after the deadline

Judging Process:

• Commercials entries will be viewed by a Director-Member Nomination Panel that votes by secret ballot. The five entries that receive the highest number of votes will be announced as the 2023 DGA Commercials Nominees on Tuesday, January 9, 2024.


• These five will then be viewed by a Director-Member Blue Ribbon Panel that will, by secret ballot, select the winner of the 2023 DGA Commercials Award. The winner will be announced at the 76th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 10, 2024.

Should you have any questions, please contact Brandon Goco in the DGA Awards Office at Awards@dga.org or (310) 289-2038.