Directors Guild members ratify 3-year agreement with producers

The Directors Guild of America has ratified a new three-year contract agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter said 87% of guild members who voted approved the deal, with 6,728 members voting out of 16,321 eligible voters, or 41% of guild membership. The turnout level exceeded any prior DGA ratification vote, she added.

“I’m proud to report that DGA members have joined together to ratify a new contract that will allow every director, assistant director, unit production manager, associate director and stage manager to share in the success of what we create,” Glatter said in a statement Friday. “Our new contract secures gains on wages, global streaming residuals, safety, diversity and creative rights that build for the future and impact every category of member in our Guild. The strength of our new contract is a testament to our Negotiations Committee Chair Jon Avnet, Negotiations Co-chairs Karen Gaviola and Todd Holland, National Executive Director Russell Hollander and our outstanding professional staff.”

The agreement, which was reached on June 3 after more than three weeks of negotiations between the DGA’s 80-member Negotiations Committee and the AMPTP, includes a 12.5% salary increase over the three-year period, a “substantial” increase in residuals for streaming content — including a 76% increase in foreign residuals for the largest platforms — and mutual confirmation that artificial intelligence is not a person and cannot replace the duties performed by DGA members.

The AMPTP did not immediately offer a comment on the new deal.

The contract’s term will take effect on July 1 and will run through June 30, 2026.

The deal comes amid an ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America that has reached its eighth week with no end in sight, and has shut down scripted productions and left thousands of other behind-the-scenes workers without a livelihood.

The WGA and the AMPTP are at odds over the same issues that were worked out in the DGA’s new contract. The producers are also in contract talks with the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

“I also want to acknowledge that the DGA didn’t bargain in a vacuum. We stand united with writers, actors and all crew members in our shared fight to move our industry forward,” Glatter said. “We support the actors who are in negotiations and the writers who remain on strike, and we will stand with the IA and Teamsters when they negotiate their agreement next year. We won’t be satisfied until we all have fair contracts that reward us for our creative work — we must create a vibrant, sustainable industry that fairly values us all.”

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