Well, the Directors Guild has spoken and here are their choices for the best directors of the year.
- Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Clint Eastwood, American Sniper
- Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman
- Richard Linklator, Boyhood
- Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
The thing to remember about the DGA nominees is that they're a much better indicator of Oscar Best Picture than Oscar Best Director. They've often matched 3/5 or 4/5 with the Oscar nominees, sometimes even 2/5. But it does tell you what movies are strong for Best Picture. So the question is, who gets left out on Thursday morning? To me, there are still just two locks- Inarritu and Linklator. Grand Budapest is very strong, but I have no idea what the exclusive, elitist directors branch actually thinks of Wes Anderson, and I could easily see him being snubbed there (the DGA has 15,000 members and includes TV and commercial directors, while the Academy directors branch has just under 400 and includes a lot of foreign membership). Same goes for Tyldum, who's an unknown, and even Eastwood, although being an old Academy favorite, his nomination looks pretty good there (all of his previous DGA nods have translated to Oscar). Ava DuVernay still has a shot, same for Damian Chazelle, who I think is the most likely person to break into the race, knocking off one of these other guys. But who? I would bet either Anderson or Tyldum. The other thing to note is that the Oscar nominations were turned in last week, while the DGA was still voting until yesterday- so this list in no way influences who they've already picked for Oscar. Come back Thursday to find out.
