DGA Nominations – Fincher in!

WOODY ALLEN
Midnight in Paris
(Sony Pictures Classics)

DAVID FINCHER
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
(Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS
The Artist
(The Weinstein Company)

ALEXANDER PAYNE
The Descendants
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

MARTIN SCORSESE
Hugo
(Paramount Pictures)

WOW!

EARLIER: The year feels so wide open, with three locks at this point: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, Martin Scorsese for Hugo and Alexander Payne for The Descendants.  From there, you have three or four more possible: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, Tate Taylor for The Help, Steven Spielberg for War Horse and Bennett Miller for Moneyball.  Throw in Terrence Malick for Tree of Life.  But guessing Malick for director now still isn’t really a No Guts, No Glory.  Predicting Tomas Alfredson for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive would be.

My official predictions are:
Hazanavicius
Scorsese
Payne
Allen
Taylor
Spielberg is my alternate — having a tough time between Spielberg and Taylor – kind of think it’s going to be Spielberg but the stats don’t lie.  SAG + PGA + Best Picture = DGA nom (in all but one year since the PGA began). But the only one to miss the WGA is War Horse (The Artist wasn’t eligible but wouldn’t have missed had it been).  Munich missed out on the WGA and the ADG too but got an Eddie nod and eventually a Best Pic/Best Director nod. So essentially, since Steven Spielberg kind of rules this town, thinking he’ll get snubbed is a No Guts, No Glory in and of itself. But I have to have some excitement in my life. You should all predict Spielberg in the contest, however, as he’s the MOST LIKELY to get in.

No Guts, No Glory: Just for the fun of it, I’ll say Paul Feig gets in for Bridesmaids, throw a whole kink in the works.