Has this year’s Best Picture race just gotten really boring or what? Three days after the Producers Guild listed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire as its award nominees, the Directors Guild has just cited the same five films in its nomination announcement for best director of the year. So now that David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant, and Danny Boyle have made the DGA shortlist, can any film break this quintet’s hold on the five Best Picture slots at the Oscars? A surprise nomination by another film isn’t completely out of the question: Last year The Diving Bell and the Butterfly landed on the DGA and PGA lists but was knocked out of the Oscar race by a film with virually no major guild-award support: Atonement. But there’s no other film this year that even comes close when it comes to across-the-board Academy appeal: Doubt has strong support from the actors branch but doesn’t seem to have gained any traction among below-the-line voters. Some Academy members have been responding strongly to Gran Torino, but the movie was shunned by every major guild. And sorry, Wall-E fans, but your baby seems destined for a Best Animated Feature win.
Directors Guild nominations announced
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Comments (1-30) of 34 Add your comment
Why do you think or mind if its boring? The race is still wide open amongst the five top contenders since they all have their merits, but none have a definite lock. And what a coup for The Dark Knight which was arguably the best and definitely the most successful film of 2008! I’m definitely rooting for it!
Yay Chris Nolan! I hope this is the beginning of the tide that pushes ‘The Dark Knight’ to the most nods come 1/22, and (crossing my fingers) a Best Picture award.
Ok, so the only change I can see the Academy make is to drop Ron Howard and nom Mike Leigh.
Ok, so the only change I can see the Academy make is to drop Ron Howard and nom Mike Leigh.
wow what a list! i’m fans of 3 out of the 5 directors and the othe 2 made great films so good for them- still sad that Darren Aronofsky does not get any love from ANY award site
Actually, after months and months of deafening buzz about whether or not “The Dark Knight” deserves an Oscarn nomination for Best Picture (and Nolan for “Best Director), I think this is the opposite of boring – this is exciting.
I like that “The Dark Knight” has officially (with these two Guild nominations) broken the summer blockbuster mold to also become an end-of-the-year award contender.
Yay for The Dark Knight! A Best Pic/Director nod is now almost certain.
As for Wall-E, I wouldn’t count it out yet, since it was not eligible for the PGA, WGA, OR the DGA. It could still sneak in there. Here’s hoping, though, that if any film from this list of 5 gets cut, it’s Frost/Nixon.
Aronofsky or Eastwood would be much more deserving of this nomination than Van Sant.
If WallE doesn’t get (at least) nominated for best picture it’ll be the biggest blow to (what’s left of) the Academy’s credability since the Crash fiasco.
I’m not giving up hope for Wall-E. As someone else pointed out, it wasn’t eligible for any of these guild awards.
Duh.. The Dark Knight was the absolute best movie of 2008!!! The BEst!!
I hope that the five Pics nominees line up with the five Director nominees. Really weakens the race when they throw in a director or two who’s pics are not nominated. Turns it into a three- or four-horse race and THAT is boring.
I saw both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Wall-E…And Wall-E is by far a superior movie!!!
If the cast was not made of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (who I both love) and if the director was not David Fincher, Benjamin Button would be considered an average movie, nothing more!
I like movies and the awards season too much to ever refer to them as BORING–no matter how many times the same movies pop up. Bad beginning sentence, Mr. Karger.
Yes Karger is remiss in implying Wall-E was eligible for these guild nominations. It wasn’t for DGA or WGA, and PGA put it in a separate race. So the stage is set for a WALL-E shock on Jan. 22.
I just hope Button doesn’t win. I liked it a lot, but it’s just too obvious a pick in my opinion for me to want it to win. If Slumdog wins I’ll have to watch it again, because I was not that moved or excited by it. I love the Dark Knight, and would be pleasantly surprised if it got the win, but I’m not sure if it deserves that title. I have yet to see Frost/Nixon or Milk, but they both seem to be more provocative, interesting choices for Best Picture.
Really happy to see Christopher Nolan here. Hopefully the nods from the PGA, WGA, and DGA will push The Dark Knight and Nolan into their deserved nominations for the Oscars. But I’m hoping that a different movie and director can sneak past Frost/Nixon and Ron Howard and get into the Oscar race. WALL-E or Revolutionary Road perhaps? Doubtful though.
And Rachel Getting Married?. What?. Out!. That’s ridiculous!. It’s a nonsense!.
The first hour of Wall-E was amazing. The Second hour was okay. It’s a very good film but not worthy of a best picture nomination.
In my opinion Best Picture Noms should go to…
Gran Torino
The Wrestler
Slumdog Millionaire
The Dark Knight
In Bruges
Sounds about right to me, with Milk getting the win. Would the producers of Wall-E really rather have a Best Pic nom with no win (I doubt the Academy would vote en masse for any animated film) or a sure-thing Animated Film Oscar??
Well, I guess with The Dark Knight being nominated by all the major guilds and Wall-E wasn’t eligible for any of them…it pretty much secures TDK’s spot in the Best Picture category and Wall-E is getting snubbed. Oh well. The Dark Knight is extremely deserving.
I too must shout out the praises for Christopher Nolan! I fell in love with him after Memento, one of the most brilliant movies I have ever seen (he and brother Jonathan are genius together) So I’m so happy for the nod for him! And I hope this is the list for best picture. If Doubt, or a big surprise, knocks out any of these 5, I will be very ticked.
Actually, I think WALL-E could (in theory) be nominated in both the Best Picture and Best Animated categories. That’s how it has worked with Foreign Lang. films, like LIfe is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger. No matter how deserving, however, I think it will be relegated to the Animation ghetto. It’s not fair, and one of the reasons why I hate this category at all (I think it downgrades the value of animation films, making them “less than” other films). Still, the fact that The Dark Knight is in the thick of things is VERY exciting, and I can’t wait to see if the Academy honors it or snubs it on Jan. 22.
I think just that The Dark Knight is getting all this awards attention is exciting in itself!
Of couarse Heath Ledger was a major part of making The Dark Knight what it is but come on Christopher Nolan desearves some credit. To me it looks like Christopher Nolan has a good chance of winning Best Director and Heath Ledger has Best Supporting Actor in the bag. But I am not so sure that the The Dark Knight has can pull off with Best Picture. Nominated definently. Winning not so sure yet. But of couarse there is always a chance.
Let’s be clear here. Darren Aronofsky who directed “The Wrestler” is a great director.
His recent movie proves it as well as the movies “Requiem For A Dream” and “Pi” which directed as well. My familiar beef is that only picking 5 people is so limited. When will 10 be the new 5?
Let’s be clear here. Darren Aronofsky who directed “The Wrestler” is a great director. His recent movie proves it as well as the movies “Requiem For A Dream” and “Pi” which he directed as well. My familiar beef is that only picking 5 people is so limited. When will 10 be the new 5?
Everyone’s ranting about how animated films are always relegated to a separate category. But what about documentaries? They suffer the same fate. Some of the best movies this year were documentaries (American Teen, Man on Wire, Standard Operating Procedure etc.) and no one seems to care that they are also ignored.
All movies for men. What about “Rachel Getting Married” or “Revolutionary Road?” How can anyone see Benjamin Button and find any depth – weak acting by Brad, forced story. Ugh. It was so TRYING to be Forrest Gump and way missing the mark.
Relieved to see Wall-E out of contention. Doubt absolutely deserves to be included…BUT not necessarily at the expense of the Dark Knight (not better than Doubt in my opinion, but not the weakest either). In my perfect world, the top five would be (without having seen the Wrestler, Gran Torino, and Frost/Nixon yet…)
1. Milk
2. Doubt
3. Changeling
4. The Reader
5. Slumdog Millionaire
–
6. Rachel Getting Married
7. The Dark Knight
8. Australia
9. Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road and Wall-E were very disappointing films. Well, OK, Wall-E was adorable and entertaining, but not anything close to a Best Picture nomination in ANY recent year, for me. I was unbelievably underwhelmed by it given the slew of raging comments that it must get a Best Picture nod. How? Why?