Directors Guild Likes Boyle, Nolan, Van Sant, Fincher, and Howard

by Eric D. Snider Jan 8th 2009 // 4:02PM

The Oscar race is starting to come into focus now, with the Directors Guild of America nominations giving us a pretty good idea of which filmmakers are going to get Academy Award nominations. The nominees for the 61st annual DGA Awards are:

Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire. This is his first DGA nomination.

Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight. Nolan was previously nominated for Memento.

Gus Van Sant, Milk. Van Sant got a nod for Good Will Hunting, too.

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher actually won a DGA Award in 2004 -- not for a film, but for his TV commercials.

Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon. Howard won DGA Awards for A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13, and was nominated for Cocoon.

The DGA nominees are a good indicator of the Oscars. Since 1970, 140 of the 190 DGA nominees (73%) have also gotten Oscar nods. And once the DGA winner is announced, on Jan. 31, we'll have an even clearer picture: The DGA winner has gone on to win the Oscar 54 out of 60 times.

5 Comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-08-2009 @ 5:11PM

Ellen Kimbal said...

Hi Eric,

Thanks for posting all of this information. I've seen all of the films (except for Frost/Nixon). I consider all of them good choices, although I do believe it would be good if someone who hasn't won before would walk away with the award. It will be interesting to see who wins on January 31.

I have a link to this website on my blog:

http://ellenkimball.blogspot.com

See you at the movies.

EK

1-08-2009 @ 5:14PM

Ellen Kimball said...

Dear Cinematical:

I guess I missed the second "L" in my last name.

Sorry about that...

EK

1-08-2009 @ 5:19PM

Erik Davis said...

Dear Ellen,

We forgive you.

Regards,

Cinematical

2-03-2009 @ 10:39PM

Ellen Kimball said...

Bless you, Erik.

You'd be surprised how many people wonder if I am David Janssen in drag! I don't know if you remember him in "The Fugitive" on TV, playing Dr. Richard KIMBLE.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056757/

Ellen

1-09-2009 @ 8:42AM

NP said...

This certainly does bring the Oscar race a bit more into focus. I could actually see the Academy giving Nolan the Best Director award and passing on DK for Best Picture in favor of something more stereotypically awardsy.

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