The Directors Guild of America has just announced their nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2013. The nominees are hardly a surprise (these are actually the five I predicted) and include some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) and David O. Russell (American Hustle).
Other highly predictable nominees include Alfonso Cuaron for his brilliant work on Gravity (the best film of the year) and Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave. It’s interesting to note that this is where most of the competition has centered throughout awards season, with these two taking a vast majority of the awards. However, while favor started out in McQueen’s corner, the awards over the past month have shown that Cuaron is the clear favorite, making this award his to lose.
The nominations were somewhat interesting to predict this year. Cuaron, McQueen, Scorsese, and Russell all appeared to be locks, leaving that fifth slot a bit of a mystery. Greengrass seemed the most likely candidate for his work on Captain Phillips (and indeed he did end up taking the slot as predicted), but I was hoping that Spike Jonze would sneak in for his outstanding film Her. The Coen Bros. also couldn’t be disounted, but given their failure to get nominations from the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild, it didn’t seem likely that they would make a showing here either.
As most of you already know, this award is a great prognosticator for who will end up taking home the Best Director Oscar. There have only been seven instances where the DGA and the Academy have not agreed. You may recall last year’s bizarre circumstances that had Ben Affleck nominated for (and winning) the DGA, but getting snubbed for the Oscar nomination, an occurrence that has only happened twice before (Steven Spielberg for The Color Purple and Ron Howard for Apollo 13). However, I doubt we’ll be seeing such a thing happen again this year as the top two contenders (Cuaron and McQueen) are almost certain to get their nominations.
The winner of the Directors Guild of America‘s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film will be announced on January 25th.
Check out a complete list of the nominees below (including their directorial teams) and let us know what you think in the comments!
(Source: DGA)
ALFONSO CUARÓN
Gravity
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Mr. Cuarón’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: David Siegel (Arizona Unit)
First Assistant Directors: Josh Robertson, Stephen Hagen (Arizona Unit)
Second Assistant Director: Ben HowardThis is Mr. Cuarón’s first DGA Feature Film Award nomination.
PAUL GREENGRASS
Captain Phillips
(Columbia Pictures)
Mr. Greengrass’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: Todd Lewis, Gregory Goodman
First Assistant Director: Chris Carreras
Second Assistant Directors: Nick Shuttleworth, Mark S. ConstanceThis is Mr. Greengrass’s first DGA Award nomination.
STEVE McQUEEN
12 Years A Slave
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Mr. McQueen’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Anthony Katagas
First Assistant Director: Doug Torres
Second Assistant Director: James Roque Jr.
Second Second Assistant Director: Sherman Shelton Jr.
Additional Second Assistant Director: Nathan ParkerThis is Mr. McQueen’s first DGA Award nomination.
DAVID O. RUSSELL
American Hustle
(Columbia Pictures)
Mr. Russell’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: Shea Kammer, Mark Kamine
First Assistant Director: Michele ‘Shelley’ Ziegler
Second Assistant Director: Xanthus Valan
Second Second Assistant Director: Jason Fesel
Location Managers: David Velasco, Guy Efrat (New York Unit)This is Mr. Russell’s second DGA Award nomination. He was previously nominated in this category for The Fighter in 2010.
MARTIN SCORSESE
The Wolf of Wall Street
(Paramount Pictures)
Mr. Scorsese’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Richard Baratta
First Assistant Director: Adam Somner
Second Assistant Director: Francisco Oritz
Second Second Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks
Additional Second Assistant Director: Scott Koche
Location Manager: Nils WidboomThis is Mr. Scorsese’s eleventh DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 2006 for The Departed, and has also been nominated in that category for Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004) and Hugo (2011). Mr. Scorsese also won the DGA Award in 2010 for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Television for Boardwalk Empire and he was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for George Harrison: Living in the Material World in 2011. In 1999, Mr. Scorsese was presented with the Filmmaker Award at the inaugural DGA Honors Gala, and he was honored with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
