The Hollywood guilds are weighing in as Oscar nominations loom ever closer. The other day, theProducers Guild of AmericagaveDeadpoolan awards boostby including it on their Best Picture nominations list, and today it’s the Directors Guild of America’s turn to weigh in. The nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film are as follows:
Damien Chazelle–La La Land
Garth Davis–Lion
Barry Jenkins–Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan–Manchester by the Sea
Denis Villeneuve–Arrival
And the nominees for First-Time Feature Film are:
Kelly Fremon Craig–The Edge of Seventeen
Tim Miller–Deadpool
Nate Parker–The Birth of a Nation
Dan Trachtenberg–10 Cloverfield Lane
With regards to the main category, this is about what folks expected, although Davis getting in overMartin ScorseseforSilenceorMel GibsonforHacksaw Ridgeis a tad surprising. It’s hard to argue with the achievements here, and it sure is nice to see Villeneuve recognized after being left off the shortlist last year for his stunning work onSicario. As for the First-Time Feature nominees, this is a relatively new category but a wholly welcome one. Craig did a tremendous job of bringing a refreshing POV to the teen coming-of-age genre, while Trachtenberg’s10 Cloverfield Laneis a stellar debut.
But you may be asking, what does this mean for the Oscars? The winner of the DGA Award has gone on to win the corresponding Best Director Oscar 14 of the last 15 times, so when it comes to the winner, it’s averystrong indicator of who might win the Oscar. But as far as the nominees go, it’s not always a 1:1 match up. Last year,Ridley Scottlanded a DGA nod forThe Martian, but lost out on the Oscar nomination toLenny AbrahamsonforRoom. The year before,Clint Eastwoodscored the DGA nom forAmerican Sniperbut was left off the Oscar ballot in favor ofBennett MillerforFoxcatcher. In fact, for the past three years n a row there’s only been one DGA nominee who didn’t go on to get an Oscar nomination, but of coursefouryears ago we had a big shakeup where DGA nomineesBen AffleckandKathryn Bigelowwere snubbed for the corresponding Oscar nominations.
So if you’re looking at this list and thinking which of these makes the Best Director Oscar cut, statistically it could be four of the five, although it’s tricky to suss out which doesn’t get in and who gets in instead. Could the Director’s branch of the Academy have enough support to get Scorsese in? Who drops out? Davis would’ve been a solid pick for an Oscar nominee thatwasn’ta DGA nominee, but he scored the DGA nod instead. Is Villeneuve in danger of being left out, or will it shockingly be one of the year’s three biggest frontrunners,La La Land,Moonlight, orManchester by the Sea? Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a total match up with Oscar when those nominations are announced on January 24th.
For now, kudos to the DGA for this diverse lineup in both categories. The awards will be handed out on February 4th. For more on the Oscar race,click hereto catch up on my Oscar Beat columns and peruse my predictions below.
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
