Precursor Predictions: Directors Guild of America Nominations

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Precursor Predictions: Directors Guild of America Nominations

Posted

January 6, 2010

Wesley Lovell

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Tomorrow, the nominees for the Directors Guild of America awards will be announced. We took a poll of contributors and here are the results and our thoughts on them. First, we’ll list the films we 100% agreed on. Then we’ll list the ones we didn’t.

Best Director @ The DGA

Full Agreement

Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Disagreements

Neill Blomkamp – District 9 (Wesley Lovell)
Lee Daniels – Precious (Tripp Burton, Wes Huizar)
Joel & Ethan Coen – A Serious Man (Peter Patrick)

Commentary

Tripp Burton – The Coens: With four nominees seemingly locked into place, this fifth place is completely up for grabs. I can think of at least 10 names that all seem as likely/unlikely to make it in, so I am going with the Coens, banking on the DGA going for respectable, proven auteurs in a film absolutely loved in many corners over shakier newcomers.
Wes Huizar – Precious has been one of the front-runners throughout the year and seems a sure bet for a Best Picture nomination. I’m not sure that Daniels will be nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, but the film would probably still be nominated with a slate of 5 nominees and he seems a stronger candidate right now than Clint Eastwood, who I see as his biggest threat. Also, even though his film isn’t as big or as visually spectacular as Cameron’s or Bigelow’s films, or as elegant as Tarantino’s work, he can direct actors very well, which will undoubtedly impress a lot of his peers.
Peter Patrick – Lee Daniels was an early favorite for Precious but the film has not performed as well as expected at the box office which some might say diminishes his chances. On the other hand, none of the big year-end films other than Avatar has produced a viable candidate so I still see him as a possibility.
Wesley Lovell – Performing more strongly than we had expected, District 9 is a director’s movie above all else. Blomkamp’s work has been praised nearly universally and the DGA does love to acknowledge the underdog and is far more willing to nominate new directors than the Academy.

Comments

4 responses to “Precursor Predictions: Directors Guild of America Nominations”

Tree

January 6, 2010

I would go with Blomkamp…..though Eastwood would not be a suprise with the respect hollywood has for him.

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Nathan Donarum

January 6, 2010

I’m in complete agreement about those four as well, and I think they’re probably my top four choices for Best Director if I had to choose.

I honestly don’t know what the fifth nominee will be, but I think I’m going to go with Wesley and District 9. The movie has been picking up more momentum in the past couple weeks, and I don’t see that momentum dissipating.

I don’t think Lee Daniels deserves a nomination. True, he knows how to direct actors, but the film felt amateurishly directed, and not in a good way. It was uneven in a number of places, and though it was powerfully acted, if it had been more tightly directed that would have only increased the overall power of the film.

I don’t know about Clint Eastwood. Invictus will most likely get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, but the film has been losing more and more momentum since its release, and Eastwood hasn’t been getting the kind of praise for his directing like he did for other films where he was nominated, such as Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven (both of which he actually won for).

And as for the Coens, I think they have a decent shot of getting nominated. I wouldn’t put it past the DGA to go with them at all.

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Peter J Patrick

January 6, 2010

Tarantino’s not a member of the DGA but that didn’t stop them from nominating him for Pulp Fiction.

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Hollywood Z

January 6, 2010

Is Quentin Tarantino in good standing with the Director’s Guild of America still? Last I heard, him and Robert Rodriguez had a falling out with them over their requirements on director collaborations. Also, I thought Tarantino wasn’t a member, which is what prevented him from guest directing an episode of The X-Files. That being said, I think Lee Daniels has a chance of sneaking in as does Clint Eastwood if this is the case for Tarantino.

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