Directors Guild of America nominees

Well, if this race wasn't confusing enough, the DGA decides to announce their nominees for Best Director this year:

- Woody Allen; Midnight in Paris
- David Fincher; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Michael Hazavinicus; The Artist
- Alexander Payne; The Descendants
- Martin Scorsese; Hugo

Well, it's now a give in that Hazavinicus, Payne and Scorsese were going to be nominated, but it seems as if Woody Allen was able to able to hold onto that momentum from the Golden Globe nomination he received. If this carries over, it will be the first Best Director nomination he would have since 1994. The way that it's looking, it's more and more likely that he will be the fourth nominee.

David Fincher pulled the "out-of-nowhere" nomination today with a movie that failed to get the big nominees from the Broadcast Film Critics and Golden Globes. However, with back to back guild nominations (PGA & WGA), the movie is getting serious momentum to get nominated for Best Picture now. Whether or not he will carry over to his second Best Director nomination in two years will remain to be seen, but the odds have now increased in his favor.

Among the people who took the biggest hit this year were obviously Steven Spielberg, who was the front-runner for a long time, now has not only failed to be included here, but also failed to get a Best Director nomination from the Golden Globes. Doesn't bode well as he was able to get nominations from both back in 2005 with Munich, which was failing to make waves, then managed to sneak in for five Oscar nominations. He even scored both Golden Globe and DGA nominations for Amistad, a movie that failed to get nominated for Best Picture or Best Director. With War Horse's momentum apparently fading, it's likelihood of Best Picture and Director nominations are starting to fade with it.

Terrence Malick is also another person who took a hit here (YAAAYYYY!!!!!). His Tree of Life failed to make any notice in the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild and Writers Guild. Even his Thin Red Line, after failing to factor into those other guilds, managed to get a Directors Guild nomination. Most of his supporters say "he's not a guild type of director", but by this point, the movie's going to need more than critics supporting him (cause the rest of us hate his friggin' guts!!!)

So, the director's guild is good for predicting at least four nominations, sometimes five. So far, this year, I'm predicting:

- Woody Allen; Midnight in Paris
- Michael Hazavinicus; The Artist
- Alexander Payne; The Descendants
- Martin Scorsese; Hugo
- Steven Spielberg; War Horse

Spielberg and Allen I'm thinking are the two that have the slightest chances and either one of them could be bumped off for David Fincher. Come to think of it, I may replace Allen with Fincher, but I'm not sure at this point. Predicting this year's Oscars has just now officially become REALLY difficult...and fun. :)