Today, the Directors Guild revealed their nominations for Best Director for their 65th annual awards ceremony. The five are Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, Steven Spielberg for Lincoln, Ang Lee for Life of Pi, Ben Affleck for Argo and Tom Hooper for Les Miserables.
All of the directors nominated, minus Affleck, have been nominated before. And all of them have won DGA nods. The notables left off the list are Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook and Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master.
As THR notes in their analysis, the Directors Guild is the most accurate predictor of the winners of the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars. The Oscars tend to nominate four of the DGA noms at least, and the DGA winner has gone on to win the Best Director winner all but six times. In fact, the DGA winner has gone on to win Best Picture all but 13 times. That’s incredible accuracy when it comes to awards.
Of course, there’s still a chance that Tarantino, Thomas Anderson or Russell could get the Best Director nomination but it’s highly unlikely they win at this point. So that means that you hopers of Django Unchained, The Master or Silver Linings to win Best Picture aren’t gong to be satisfied. The potential odd man out? Hooper.
Les Miserables is an enjoyable movie, but the direction, although bold, isn’t as good as the three that were snubbed by the DGA. So if you want to show off to your friends and predict Best Picture, pay attention to who wins the Directors Guild award. [Directors Guild]
