DGA Monthly

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 6 I 5 2026 Council Nominations Are you an active working member interested in becoming a leader of your Guild or know of a member who should consider serving? Nominations for the Guild's annual Council elections will open soon. Pursuant to the DGA Constitution and Bylaws, each of the six Category Councils – Western Directors Council, Eastern Directors Council, Western AD/UPM Council, Eastern AD/UPM Council, Western AD/SM/PA Council and the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council will elect representatives to serve for the 2026 – 2028 term of office. All members eligible to vote will be sent an email or letter with more information and specific instructions regarding eligibility requirements, online nominations and voting. If you have any questions regarding the DGA Council Elections, please contact the Guild's Elections Office at (310) 289-5382 or email elections@dga.org. Council Elections Timeline 2026 • Council Nominations Process Opens Online: Thursday, February 12 • Deadline for Nominations: Thursday, March 5, 5:00 P.M. PT • Council Primary Elections Open Online: Tuesday, March 17 • Deadline for Primary Elections: Tuesday, April 7, 5:00 P.M. PT • Council Final Elections Open Online: Thursday, April 16 • Deadline for Final Elections: Thursday, May 7, 5:00 P.M. PT Know Your Rights: Late Scripts One of the most significant creative rights issues impacting episodic Directors has been the delivery of late scripts which affect every aspect of production for the Directors, directorial teams, cast and crews. For more than two decades the Guild has worked to address this issue through negotiations and the collection of script delivery data documenting the extent of the problem. Initial findings in the early 2000s proved that nearly half of the scripts in one-hour television were delivered late and 20% of late scripts were late by as many as seven to 15 days. Efforts by the DGA brought improvements to timely script delivery, reducing late scripts by nearly 50%, but the problem persisted and, in 2017 and 2018, the Guild again saw the percentage of late scripts rebound to over 20%. Across multiple bargaining cycles, the Creative Rights Committee has fought for and won significant penalties in an effort to remedy the problem of late scripts in television, including the following improvements: • Greater fines to be paid in real time if the production has a certain number of late scripts in a season, and • If the script is provided on the second day of prep or later for a half-hour episode, or the third day of prep or later on a one-hour episode, the Writer/Executive Producer must have a discussion with the Director, and a production or creative executive to discuss the script and plan to complete the episode despite the lateness of the script. These new enforcement standards have dramatically improved the delivery of timely scripts, reducing the delivery of late scripts by an additional 50%. In the years following the introduction of these new pre-production standards, the Guild has collected over $1.2 million in Late Script Fines, encompassing approximately 70 different seasons of television. Additionally, resources recently allocated by the DGA to enhance late script enforcement and fine collection has resulted in a nearly three-fold increase in late script fines collected. Half of this fee has gone to the DGA-Producer Pension & Health Plan, one third to the Director, and the remainder to the 1AD. The Director payments have ranged from $333 to $22,750 (with the average payment being approx. $2100) per episode. The 1AD payments have ranged from $166 to $11,375 (with the average payment being approx. $925) per episode. DGA Script Tracking Coordinator Robert Lee is responsible for enforcing late script violations and the levying of fines with the studios. If you have questions related to late scripts, please contact him at (310) 289-5351 or rlee@dga.org.

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