Awards Season: DGA Nominees Solidify Claims of the Leading Contenders

January 25, 2010

The Directors Guild of America release their nominations over three days stretched out over a week. Only two of the nominations are for theatrical releases, but at least the documentary category had some interesting nominees. On the other hand, Feature Film merely enforces the trends we've seen throughout Awards Season.

The categories and nominations are...

OUSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM

• Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron for Avatar
• Lee Daniels for Precious
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds

• Sacha Gervasi for Anvil! The Story of Anvil
• Mia Iskander for Garbage Dreams
• Robert Kenner for Food, Inc.
• Louie Psihoyos for The Cove
• Geoffrey Smith for The English Surgeon
• Agnes Varda for The Beaches of Agnes

• Again, little in the way of surprises when it comes to Feature Film with four of the five earning a Golden Globe nomination as well. (Lee Daniels is the only exception here, and a worthy one.)
• 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 next week.
• The documentary list has a few more surprises, welcome ones, including Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which has been passed over most of the time this season. That said, The Cove is the heavy favorite for this award and for the Oscar.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Awards Season, Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, Food, Inc., The Cove, Les plages d'Agnès, Up in the Air, Precious (Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire), Avatar, Anvil! The Story of Anvil