The oldest and most important guild announced its nominees today:
- Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
- Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
- Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
- David O. Russell, American Hustle
- Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Historically speaking, the winner of the DGA almost always wins Best Picture at the Oscars, even if the directing Oscar goes to someone else. Last year Ben Affleck was famously snubbed by the Academy, but won the DGA and Argo of course went on to win Best Picture. The DGA usually doesn't line up 5 for 5 with the Academy's best director nominees, with two or sometimes even three left off. That's because the director's branch of the Academy is a much smaller, more exclusive group (only about 400 members compared to the DGA's 14,000) that often prefers arthouse, foreign and visionary directors. But looking at this list, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this was one of the years where it lined up perfectly. My only guess would be that Paul Greengrass might fall out for someone like Spike Jonze. As for a winner here, it's still up for grabs. My feeling is that Alfonso Cuaron is out front, but with American Hustle gaining steam in the Best Picture race, this could be Russell's as well. The DGA presents its winners on Jan 25th.
