Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović is nominated for her fiction feature debut Murina, in the category of Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-time Theatrical Feature Film, alongside for other female directors: Alice Diop (Saint Omer), Audrey Diwan (Happening), Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and one male director – John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal). 

The Directors Guild of America has nominated six directors for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film: Todd Field (Tár), Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans).

The full list of nominations in all the categories may be found on the official website of the Directors Guild of America. 

The winners will be announced at the gala awards ceremony held on 18th February at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

In 2023, the Directors Guild of America, which counts over 18,000 members, will present the awards for the best directorial achievements for the 75th time. The DGA Awards are one of the most prestigious awards of the so-called “awards season” in the run up to the Oscars in March. Based on the information on the DGA website, only seven times since the DGA Award’s inception has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award for Best Director.

For Murina, this is the sixth award nomination from American professional film associations. It was nominated in as many as three categories for the Independent Spirit Awards – offered by the Los Angeles based non-profit arts organisation, Film Independent, namely for Best First Feature, Best Breakthrough Performance (Gracija Filipović) and Best Cinematograph (Hélène Louvart). 

Murina was also nominated in two categories for a Gotham Award, presented to independent film and media creators by the Gotham Film & Media Institute – the Breakthrough Director Award (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović), and Best Breakthrough Performer (Gracija Filipović). The latter nomination was a successful one, Gracija Filipović having won the award competing alongside Frankie Corio, Kali Reis, Anna Diop and Anna Cobb).

Murina had its world premiere in 2021 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it immediately scooped up the Golden Camera (Camera d'Or) for best first feature in one of Cannes’ selections. To date, it has screened at over 60 festivals winning more than 20 awards and recognitions. Along with the prestigious accolade from Cannes, it took home Best Narrative Feature from the Hamptons, while Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was honoured with the Femme Du Cinema award for best newcomer at the Les Arcs Film Festival in France. At home, Kusijanović received the Vladimir Nazor Award of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media presented each year for best artistic achievement, as well as the Breza Award for best debutant, the Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actress (Danica Ćurčić), and the Golden Gate of Pula Award, the Pula FF audience award.

Lead actress Gracija Filipović was also selected for the Berlinale Shooting Stars programme, organized by the European Film Promotion (EFP), the European network of national film agencies.

The film’s producers are Danijel Pek (Antitalent) and Rodrigo Teixeira (RT Features), with co-producers Zdenka Gold (Spiritus Movens), Jožko Rutar (SPOK Films) and Miha Černec (Staragara). The film’s distributor for the territory of North America is Kino Lorber.