DGA Nominations

Christopher Nolan, second from right, with cast at The Dark Knight London premiere. If he had directed Bale in Newsies, I bet he would have gotten a DGA nomination.  

More nominations! I share these whenever they’re interesting, and I thought there was something of note in this pack from the Directors’ Guild of America. Here they are:

Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”

What’s interesting? The inclusion of Christopher Nolan. This isn’t his first go-round with the DGA noms–he was previously up for “Memento.” as Variety notes. But that was a tiny indie film and “The Dark Knight” is a huge, blockbuster hit superhero movie released months ago, not a nice prestigious, small to medium budgeted awards-aimed film released at the end of the year. Usually his spot on the list would go to Clint Eastwood, or someone, preferably British, directing a serious adaptation of a literary classic, for example, Sam Mendes.

(btw, interesting note–Danny Boyle is the only first-timer on the list. Ron Howard’s been nominated several times, Nolan and Van Sant once each, and Fincher’s been up in the commercial category. I’m afraid, though, that looking at this list, I would have to disqualify him for having a distractingly long title, especially compared to all those nice brief ones.)

But the Variety article notes that the DGA tends to be a little more open-minded in regards to big hits. It’s also a good predictor–it’s choice for best director has won the Oscar 54 out of the last 60 years.

Who do I think will win? Hmm…I think Nolan has a good shot, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he won. If I had money, though, I probably would throw it down on Fincher. Boyle’s the dark horse, though I’d like to see him win.