The Directors Guild Of America award has often been seen as a bellwether for which of this year’s crop of megaphone handlers will go on to score the Oscar. It’s not always the case, but this year’s list is an unsurprising mix of names that have already cropped up in awards contention.
Wes Anderson, who has enjoyed one of his biggest successes with The Grand Budapest Hotel, will go up against the big main competition: Richard Linklater, whose Boyhood has been on a healthy kudos run so far this awards season and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, with Birdman, another critical favourite and sure to keep picking up hardware in the coming weeks.
Morten Tyldum, who was more of a surprise choice after Headhunters to make The Imitation Game, nevertheless turned out a film that has been scoring a lot of praise, while Clint Eastwood is a later entry for his American Sniper, the true-life tale of US military veteran Chris Kyle, played in the drama by Bradley Cooper.
We were slightly surprise to see Selma’s Ava DuVernay missing from the list, along with The Theory Of Everything’s James Marsh, Gone Girl’s David Fincher and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle. Still, the DGA list doesn’t always tally with the Oscar nominations, so we’ll see what happens on Thursday morning when the Academy Award announces its choices.