The Directors Guild of America has announced their nominations for “Outstanding Direction in Feature Film” for the 65th Annual DGA Awards. This years nominees are:
- Ben Affleck for Argo
- Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
- Tom Hooper for Les Miserables
- Ang Lee for Life of Pi
- Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
It’s interesting to note that Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook have been shafted for this years DGA awards. The DGA has a pretty strict guidelines when nominating directors and only five may be nominated. If nothing else this renews the spark for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. Hopefully, their marketing team picks up and this news and uses it to their advantage. That being said its been a three-horse race all along and it would be surprising if Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow, or Steven Spielberg didn’t win this years coveted award.
Here’s the press release from the DGA:
LOS ANGELES, CA: On January 8, 2013, DGA President Taylor Hackford announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2012.
“DGA members have chosen an incredibly rich and varied group of filmmakers to nominate for this year’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award. These directors represent the highest standard of filmmaking, and their films are a testament to artistic achievement, innovative storytelling and the passion that filmmakers share with their audiences,” said Hackford. “Being nominated by their peers is what makes this award particularly meaningful for directors, and I congratulate all of the nominees for their outstanding work.”
The winner will be named at the 65th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 2, 2013, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.
The nominees are (in alphabetical order):
- Ben Affleck for Argo
- Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
- Tom Hooper for Les Miserables
- Ang Lee for Life of Pi
- Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award. Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award.
The six exceptions are as follows:
- 1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!
- 1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA’s nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
- 1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
- 1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
- 2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
- 2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.
The winner in the Feature Film category will be announced at the 65th Annual DGA Awards dinner and ceremony on Saturday evening, February 2, 2013, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The DGA Awards will be hosted by director/actor/producer Kelsey Grammer.
