DGA nominees match the Globe lineup *exactly*
Tuesday, January 8, 2019 at 2:20PM by Nathaniel R
This awards season keeps throwing us unpleasant curveballs. First Bohemian Rhapsody took the top prize at the Globes and now, the Director's Guild of America has decided to up and agree with the Globes exactly on the Best Director list.
Their nominations and statistical hand-wringing after the jump...
BEST DIRECTOR, DGA
- Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
- Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born (double nominated this year - also for first time director)
- Peter Farrelly, Greenbook
- Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
- Adam McKay, Vice (double nominated this year - also for tv work)
We don't understand what Peter Farrelly and Adam McKay are doing in there. Even if you love Green Book it isn't a directorial feat in any traditional sense like so many movies selected for this honor are. Vice is tonally all over the place and has relatively poor reviews, things that would normally doom a director in the Oscar race. The only solace we're taking in this nomination lineup is that Oscar's directing branch is (generally speaking) slightly more sophisticated than the wider voting membership of the DGA. If this year's Oscar lineup follows statistical tradition it will include 4 but not 5 of these men. But there's a few other mitigating factors to consider.
- Oscar's lineup generally differs from the Globe lineup even more than it differs from the DGAs (sometimes as few as 2 people transfer like last year!) . But since the DGA & Globes match this year what does that mean?
- Bradley Cooper could be a surprise exclusion, especially if the Directors resist him muscling in on their territory. They've done that before you know (see Ben Affleck in Argo). We confess: if a snub here would guarantee him the Best Actor prize we'd be all for that snub to happen! Otherwise that's just mean! It's one of the definitive films of the year and he wrote, directed, produced and starred in it, and did his best acting ever!
- You can't vote AGAINST a movie when nominating people so helming a divisive film doesn't necessarily harm you; you only need the passionate fans to rally... which one assumes is how Vice and Green Book (both generally divisive) still made it in there.
- Part of the problem in more traditional "auteurs" showing up to replace anyone on this list this year is that the votes are undoubtedly spread out, as is opinion. We've found over our long years of Oscar-watching that the better a film year is the more likely you are to end up with mediocre nominees. It's almost as if, if you give people too many brilliant choices, they all glom on to easiest films from indecision or no momentum for any one piece of brilliance given all the other remarkable choices.
- There's always the chance that the directors branch within the Academy will throw a real curveball this year like they did in 2012 when the DGA and Oscar list were MUCH different and perceived frontrunning films were shoved aside. The DGAs nominated Ben Affleck (Argo), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Tom Hooper (Les Miserables) but the Academy chucked all of them for Austria's master Michael Haneke (Amour), newcomer Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), and then hot David O. Russell (Silver Lining's Playbook). The only transfers were two previous Oscar & DGA winners Ang Lee (Life of Pi) and Steven Spielberg (Lincoln). If we have a year like that again in Best Director all bets are off as to who falls though in this scenario I guess we could expect Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) to be the holdovers since they're the closest thing to legends among this lineup like Lee & Spielberg were.
Yorgos Lanthimos
- It's impossible to know if the Directors branch is feeling restless this year but if they are there are so many alternate possibilities, chief among them: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite), Debra Granik (Leave No Trace), Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War), and Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk). If Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) couldn't make it to the nominations from the more populist leaning DGA he doesn't have a clear shot at an Oscar nomination.
- But with opinions so widespread about the more arthouse-leaning fare this year, that might be good news for Farrelly and McKay. Aside from arguably Lanthimos and maybe Granik do any of the others have anything like momentum in the conversation at this point?
CURRENT BEST DIRECTOR CHART - yes, we'll be updating very soon.
THE REST OF THE DGA'S AWARDS
First Time Feature Film
- Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
- Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
- Carlos Lopez Estrada, Blindspotting
- Matthew Heineman, A Private War
- Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You
Not pleased that Ari Aster isn't here for Hereditary but otherwise it's a good list.
Documentary
- Morgan Neville, Won't You Be My Neighbor?
- Ramell Ross, Hale County This Morning, This Evening
- Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chan, Free Solo
- Tim Wardle, Three Identical Strangers
- Betsy West & Julie Cohen, RBG
Dramatic Series
- Jason Bateman, Ozark "Reparations"
- Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland "Paean to the People"
- Chris Long, The Americans "START"
- Adam McKay, Succession, "Celebration"
- Daina Reid, The Handmaid's Tale "Holly"
Homeland is still on AND being nominated for awards? Whoa!
Comedy Series
- Donald Glover, Atlanta "FUBU"
- Bill Hader, Barry "Chapter One: Make Your Mark"
- Hiro Murai, Atlanta "Teddy Perkins"
- Daniel Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel "We're Going to the Catskills!"
- Amy Sherman-Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel "All Alone"
Movies for Television or Limited Series
- Cary Joji Fukunaga, Maniac
- David Leveau & Alex Rudzinski, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
- Barry Levinson, Paterno
- Ben Stiller, Escape at Dannemora
- Jean-Marc Vallee, Sharp Objects
Variety/Talk/News/Sports (Regular)
- Paul G Casey, Real Time with Bill Maher "#1633"
- Sacha Baron Cohen, Nathan Fielder, Daniel Gray Longing, and Dan Mazer, Who is America? "Episode 102"
- Jim Hoskinson, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert "#480"
- Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live "Adam Driver; Kanye West"
- Paul Pennolino, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, "Episode 502 -Italian Election"
Variety/Talk/News/Sports (Specials)
- Louis Horvitz, 60th Grammy Awards
- Timn Macinelli, Glenn Clements, The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special 2018
- Beth McCarthy-Miller, Bill Maher: Live From Oklahoma
- Marcus Raboy, Steve Martin & Martin Short: "An Evening You Will Forget For the Rest of Your Life"
- Glenn Weiss, 72nd Annual Tony Awards
Reality Programs
- Neil P DeGroot, Better Late Than Never "How Do You Say Roots in German?"
- Eytan Keller, Iron Chef Gauntlet "Episode 201"
- Patrick McManus, American Ninja Warrior, "Miami City Qualifiers"
- Russell Norman, The Final Table "Japan"
- Bertram Van Munster, The Amazing Race, "It's Just a Million Dollars, No Pressure"
Children's Programs
- Allan Arkush, A Series of Unfortunate Events "Hostile Hospital: Pt 1
- Jack Jameson, Sesame Street "When You Wish Upon a Pickle"
- Greg Mottola, The Dangerous Book for Boys, "How to Walk on the Moon"
- Barry Sonnenfeld, A Series of Unfortunate Events "The Vile Village: Pt 1
- Bo Welch, A Series of Unfortunate Events "The Ersatz Elevator: Pt 1
So... the DGA reallllly likes A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Commercial
- Steve Ayson
- Fredrick Bond
- Martin de Thurah
- Spike Jonze
- David Shane
Reader Comments (60)
I just keep reminding myself that the DGA usually aligns more closely with the Top 5 of the race for the Best Picture Oscar than the Top 5 of the race for the Best Director Oscar.
(If Bohemian Rhapsody didn't have a disgraced director, I suspect it'd have been nominated by DGA over McKay.)
Also, I know this is his first fiction feature film, but Matthew Heineman has done features before. Oscar-nominated feature documentaries, no less. Weird that they counted him as a first-time feature filmmaker.
I see Lanthimos or Jenkins gettingin over McKay
Why are you mentioning Granik? Did I miss something? I think Bo Burnham and Chloe Zao have more of a chance than her in terms of precursor attention.
@TOM
I'm Italian and I approve of those meatball-eating stereotypes. For one, they're fucking true.
That's ur final five. Done. No Lanthimos or Coogler. Fuck.
You guys cry a lot.
But yes, the kitchen sink is actually visible a few times in Vice.
finally watched VICE
and OMG, it's almost a trainwreck, isn't it? I feel like I almost hated the movie.
McKay being in for Best Director is scandalous to say the least
if Amy Adams wins Supporting Actress for this trash I'll sue the Oscars (that's why you reward actors for their best work (Arrival, Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter)!
Anything but Bale must win Best Actor
The Academy definitely has a large enough built in fan base for Lanthimos to get nominated for Best Director. I just keep swinging back to Dogtooth of all films getting a Foreign Language nomination flllkeed by The Lobster surprising with the screenplay nomination.
I also think the conversation around Granik has peaked at the right time for her to also get in for Director.
Farrelly seems likely because Green Book is the kind of film the Academy loves to go for whether it’s great or mediocre.
McKay feels more in the bubble for me since Vice has not been received as well by critics and didn’t exactly light up the box office. Cooper could also miss out because of the actor turned director angle and the outswell of love for Gaga and the music. It doesn’t matter how well the film is directed if the conversation focuses on the acting and songs.
There's a lot to like in Vice. For one, I got to watch 9 movies for the price of 1.
I get but I don't get the wolf. Seems so obvious that I don't know, plus it was a bit much. Don't get that random burning puzzle piece in every other shot of that flashback montage early in the film. What was that?
The film immediately gets your attention, then suddenly changes. The early argument with Lynne, when she has her own vision of her Parents is well done, but shouldn't be done.
There is so much. The tones all make sense (so I get the poster who said he's clear in what he wants as a director) but it's a lot to cram in.
It's a borderline like or don't like movie. The issue is with the screenplay, which tries for too much. Not that McKay doesn't do too much as a director, but given what he wrote it's hard to argue with his approach as a director. And all in all, it was well done.
The scene after the credits really pissed me off.