The danger of the information age! The DGA nominations have not been completed yet which means that, in all likelihood, these predictions by pundits (I don’t know what else to call this thing we do except to give the standard disclaimer that, though we can all take a look at history, there is no such thing as an expert at this stuff – it’s just a guessing game) will likely be flipped on their ear. It’s a bit like playing the stock market when there is no “there” there. If they see how many people are predicting the general consensus right now:
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant, Milk
You can almost guarantee that the final DGA list will not look like that. Why? Because the voters will want to resist the urge to be predictable. It may sound like psychobabble to you but to me, it’s just human nature. Voting will close a day before the nominations are announced, so that would be Wednesday. Nominations are announced Thursday. Tom O’Neil has assembled a variety of predictions, and you can see them here and here. These are directors I would watch out for: Mike Leigh, Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Stanton, Stephen Daldry, Sam Mendes and of course, Clint Eastwood – always a threat.