Awards Season: No Dark Horses for DGA

January 12, 2011

The Directors Guild of America spreads out the nomination process, but the last of the theatrical categories were announced today. The guild hands out awards in nearly a dozen categories, but only two for theatrical release. Two categories, ten nominations, and only one that wasn't completely foreseen.

The categories and nominations are...

OUSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM

• Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
• David Fincher for The Social Network
• Tom Hooper for The King's Speech
• Christopher Nolan for Inception
• David O. Russell for The Fighter

• Lixin Fan for Last Train Home
• Charles Ferguson for Inside Job
• Alex Gibney for Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
• Davis Guggernhein for Waiting for Superman
• Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger for Restrepo

• No real surprises when it came to the feature films, as all five were the same as the Golden Globes, and all five earned nominations from the PGA, while four earned WGA awards. (The one that didn't, The King's Speech, was ruled ineligible.)
• With these five films appearing as nominees over and over again, it seems very, very likely that they will all be major players when the Oscar nominations are announced.
• I think The Fighter is the underdog here with none of the rest really truly a favorite over any of the others.
• As for the documentary list, only Lixin Fan for Last Train Home can be seen as somewhat of a surprise. And this is not because it isn't worthy, it is. It's because it had the least amount of buzz going into its release.
• On the other, unlike the Feature Film category, the Documentary category does have a favorite, Inside Job. It might have a better shot at winning than the rest of the field combined.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Awards Season, Inception, The Fighter, The Social Network, Restrepo, Waiting for Superman, Black Swan, Inside Job, Last Train Home, The King’s Speech, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer