The awards season steamroller trundles on as the guilds announce their nominations. Today it was the turn of the Directors Guild Of America, which has announced its film category. Among the possible winners? First-time nominee Ben Affleck and 11-time veteran Steven Spielberg.
As usual, this year’s DGA nomination list is a short one, featuring just the Argo director, the Lincoln legend, **Zero Dark Thirty’**s Kathryn Bigelow (who was nominated – and won – for The Hurt Locker back in 2009, and went on to take Best Director at the Oscars), Ang Lee for Life Of Pi, scooping his fourth nomination, and Les Miserables’ Tom Hooper, also a previous winner for 2010’s The King’s Speech.
But perhaps more interesting are the names left off the list, with Django Unchained filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and David O Russell the most notable omissions. Tarantino, of course, hasn’t been a member of the guild until this year, though he has been nominated for the award for both Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds.
As for Russell, it seems an unusual blip in a year that has seen him score huge success for Silver Linings Playbook. The awards will be announced on February 2.