Now it’s the Directors Guild of America’s turn to announce its batch of nominees. They just came down the wire:
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Greta Gerwig (Barbie)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Alexander Payne (The Holdovers)
This has got to hurt Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”) the most. If there’s one big snub here it’s him. Some were predicting he’d show up as a DGA nominee, but I never bought it — his film has become too divisive.
However, some good news for Cooper it rarely happens that all five directors nominated by the DGA go on to also nab a Best Director Oscar nom. Don’t get me wrong, it’s happened before, last time in 2010, but usually one falls through the cracks — this year, if it happens, it’ll either be Payne or Gerwig.
One look at the major snubs and any one of these could end up as the #5 come Oscar nominations morning: Celine Song (Past Lives), Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Justine Triet (Anatomy of A Fall), and Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest).
Out of this year’s nominees, only Scorsese has previously won the DGA or the Academy Award for Best Director, for 2006’s “The Departed.” I don’t think he’ll win again this time around, it’s probably Nolan’s to lose.
A quick note: in the First Time Feature Film category, the nominees are Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”), Manuela Martelli (“Chile ’76”), Noora Niasari (“Shayda”), A.V. Rockwell (“A Thousand and One”) and Celine Song (“Past Lives”).
The DGA Awards take place on February 10.