Two days after they dropped the nominations for feature film directors, the DGA has revealed their choices for the documentary category, and there are some pretty interesting choices and one glaringly huge omission.
For the most part, the nominees are the safe obvious choices we probably would have guessed months ago with Lixin Fan (“Last Train Home”), Charles Ferguson (“Inside Job”), Alex Gibney (“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”), Davis Guggenheim (“Waiting for ‘Superman’”), and Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger (“Restrepo”) all getting recognition from their peers. But there is one huge, glaring omission.
Where is “Exit Through the Gift Shop“? The film, a critical favorite and one that got audiences talking, has been snubbed by the DGA, likely because they’d rather tip their hat to a fellow director rather than mysterious media punking street artist. Guess that means our dreams of Banksy tagging the Kodak Theater are diminishing. The rest of the choices are safe and pretty underwhelming. “Waiting For ‘Superman'” was fine but we preferred “The Lottery,” which tackled the same subject matter — the education system in America and charter schools — and put a much more human face on it. Also, no love for “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” a solid film that for whatever reason never got the foothold it should have.
The winners will be announced during ceremonies held on Saturday, January 29th and these names will likely appear as Oscar contenders when those noms are revealed later this month.
I wouldn\’t completely agree that Lixin Fan is safe and obvious, especially after Last Train Home was left out of the Oscar shortlist. The rest, sure.