Nominees for the 2012 Directors Guild Awards include Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, David Fincher for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Michel Hazanavicious for The Artist, Alexander Payne for The Descendants and Martin Scorsese for Hugo. The DGA's are an incredibly accurate barometer for who will win the Best Director Academy Award. I'm happy with all of the choices except for David Fincher. I never thought I'd be saying that. Terrence Malnick (Tree of Life) and Lars Von Trier (Melancholia) are far more worthy for giving us beautiful, original films. Below is the full press release.

LOS ANGELES, CA: On January 9, 2012, DGA President Taylor Hackford announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011.

“The directors nominated this year for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award have each demonstrated an inspired command of the medium. The fact that their prodigious talents have been recognized by their peers is the highest honor a director can achieve,” said Hackford. “I offer my most sincere congratulations to each of the nominees.”

The winner will be named at the 64th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the Grand Ballroom of Hollywood and Highland.

The nominees are (in alphabetical order):


Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Michel Hazanavicious, The Artist

Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Martin Scorsese, Hugo


Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award.

The six exceptions are as follows:

1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!
1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA's nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.
The winner in the Feature Film category will be announced at the 64th Annual DGA Awards dinner and ceremony on Saturday evening, January 28, 2012, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The DGA Awards will be hosted by director/actor/producer Kelsey Grammer.