The Directors Guild have announced their 2011 nominees and there really isn’t much in the way of a surprise nominee although if you were to compare these to my current Oscar prediction Danny Boyle (127 Hours) isn’t among the five listed while Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) is. This, however, isn’t as much a surprise as it seems to be another sign of the dwindling star that was 127 Hours as its chances at a Best Picture nomination takes another blow. I’m sure some of you may also be surprised the Coen brothers didn’t make the list either for True Grit.
As the Guild also loves to always point out, the DGA Award has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award. Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. The last time the winner differed was 2002 when Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago and Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the nominees can’t differ, though I’m really beginning to think this list is a pretty accurate account of who will be nominated at this point.
I’ve listed the nominees below in alphabetical order by last name. The Directors Guild will announce their winners on January 29.
- Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
- David Fincher, The Social Network
- Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
- Christopher Nolan, Inception
- David O. Russell, The Fighter
