The Directors Guild of America announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2012. The winner will be named at the 65th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 2, 2013.
The nominees are (in alphabetical order):
BEN AFFLECK
Argo
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
This is Mr. Affleck’s first DGA Feature Film Award nomination.
KATHRYN BIGELOW
Zero Dark Thirty
(Columbia Pictures)
This is Ms. Bigelow’s second DGA Feature Film Award nomination. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The Hurt Locker in 2009.
TOM HOOPER
Les Misérables
(Universal Pictures)
This is Mr. Hooper’s second DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The King’s Speech (2010) and was previously nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Mini-Series for John Adams in 2008.
ANG LEE
Life of Pi
(Twentieth Century Fox)
This is Mr. Lee’s fourth DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and was nominated for Sense and Sensibility in 1995.
STEVEN SPIELBERG
Lincoln
(Dreamworks Pictures/Twentieth Century Fox)
This is Mr. Spielberg’s eleventh DGA Feature Film Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film three times for Saving Private Ryan (1998),Schindler’s List (1993) and The Color Purple (1985). He was also nominated in this category for Munich(2005), Amistad (1997), Empire of the Sun (1987), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Jaws (1975). Mr. Spielberg was honored with the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award.
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 65th Annual DGA Awards dinner and ceremony on Saturday evening, February 2, 2013, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The DGA Awards will be hosted by director/actor/producer Kelsey Grammer.