The Directors Guild of America has announced their nominees:
Danny Boyle – “Slumdog Millionaire”
David Fincher – “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Ron Howard – “Frost/Nixon”
Christopher Nolan – “The Dark Knight”
Gus Van Sant – “Milk”
If you are looking for snubs, you could count John Patrick Shanley’s work on “Doubt,” Sam Mendes for “Revolutionary Road,” or Woody Allen for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Other possible contenders were Darren Aronofsky for “The Wrestler” and Stephen Daldry’s “The Reader.”
Really, though, the expected five were nominated, and since the DGA’s are such a strong predictor of the Academy, it sure seems a safe bet that this will be the same group receiving Oscar nominations in a few weeks. A little boring and predictable maybe, but they’re not here to rock the boat or make people tired of seeing the same picks happy. All are very deserving frankly.
Speaking of an Oscar barometer…since the DGA began in 1948, only six times as the winner of it not aligned with the Oscar winner! And I’m not going to bitch anymore about Fincher and The Boring Case of Benjamin Button (see what I did there), but let it be known I’d rather see Sam Mendes in this spot, and will, save for makeup and art direction, disagree with all noms it receives. Personally, I think Danny Boyle really deserves this award and the Oscar. He’s the star of Slumdog Millionaire, and the film wouldn’t have been close to the same without him. That, and it’s about time he gets some fucking due credit!
1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar for Oliver!
1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA’s nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.