Directors Guild of America Reaches ‘Truly Historic’ Deal With Hollywood Studios

The Directors Guild of America reached a new three-year deal with Hollywood studios on Saturday night that increases salaries, streaming residuals, reduced hours and more.

“We have reached a truly historic agreement,” said the chairman of the DGA’s 80-member negotiating committee, Jon Avnet, in a statement posted on the DGA’s website. “[The deal] brings meaningful improvements to every director, assistant director, unit production manager, associate director, and stage manager in our guild.”

The DGA entered negotiations with the studios last month, amid the ongoing Writers Guild strike, which could continue until the end of the summer. The current contract is due to end on June 30. It’s unclear what effect, if any, the tentative new deal will have on striking writers.

Highlights of the deal include “breakthrough gains” in wages and benefits, a “substantial increase” in residuals for dramas made for subscription video on demand, and an “unprecedented reduction in duration of the assistant director’s day of one hour”.

Moreover, the contract promises that administrators cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence – a point of contention for the strikers.

The agreement confirms that “AI is not a person and that generative AI cannot replace functions performed by members,” the statement said.

The agreement also made strides in greater transparency around residuals and “diversity and inclusion enhancements,” including the addition of Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of black Americans from the labor force. slavery, as a paid holiday for members of the DGA.

“This agreement recognizes that the future of our industry is global and respects the unique and essential role of directors and their teams as we move toward that future,” said Lesli Linka Glatter, Chairman of DGA.

“With each new technology leading to major changes, this operation ensures that each of the 19,000 members of the DGA can share in the success that we are all creating together.”

According to the release, the tentative agreement will be submitted to the Guild’s National Council for approval at its June 6 meeting. Further details of the agreement will be available at that time.