2012 DGA Nominations: Scorsese, Allen, Fincher In; Spielberg Snubbed
That unsubtle backhand slap you just heard was the sound of Steven Spielberg being whacked off his awards-season pedestal by the Directors Guild of America, which just announced Woody Allen, David Fincher, Michel Hazanavicius, Alexander Payne and Martin Scorsese as its 2012 Best Director nominees. This one has to hurt.
Other, less conspicuous snubs include Moneyball director Bennett Miller and The Help's Tate Taylor, the latter of whom who made his first Oscar Index appearance last week but seems likely to drop off by the next installment. As Steve Pond notes over at The Wrap, the DGA Awards are a significant Academy Awards precursor: "Typically, four of the five DGA nominees go on to receive Oscar nominations. In the last decade, the DGA has matched all five Oscar nominees twice, four out of five six times and three out of five twice."
Still! Ouch. For the record, here again are this year's nominees:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
[DGA]
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Comments
Is it possible that Spielberg's two well-received pictures split the vote?
It's certainly possible, though I don't know if Tintin was really much of a DGA needle mover. I'd say he was just straight-up edged out.
By saying "snubbed" you imply that he deserved to get nominated, which he did not.
#TeamFincher
He deserved it more than Allen, and I loved Midnight.
And Refn deserved it more than Fincher, yet here we are...
You mean you didn't enjoy Fincher's extended arthouse Law and Order: SVU episode?
I don't think so. Fincher has a proven track record. While Drive was my fav or 2011, I believe in my heart of hearts that Fincher is a much better director and that it took much more skill to make Dragon Tattoo. In say, 5 years, we'll regroup and see what Refn has given us and then we'll talk.
Track records are for the weak. If we're going by those, Refn's track record for the Pusher trilogy alone should boost him up over Hazanavicius. (Granted, OSS 113 movies are pretty outstanding, so respect).
But the point is the individual film, not the record. Sure, this isn't exactly how Oscars work these days (and this is why Al Pacino wins for Scent of a Woman and not anything else), but if we're talking Director's Guild and individual achievement, then I think that Refn deserves the slot over Fincher. (If only because Fincher's felt like well trod ground at this point in his career. And maybe I'm still smarting over the internet's collective pants creaming over that Facebook movie last year)
You all know the reason this is fucked up is the fact that Malick was ignored.
If these were the "Beautiful Shots of Nature With Booming Classical Music Guild of America Awards," you'd be right!
Oh, come on. I like a little visual/logistical ambition. For all its mawkishness, that movie has some of the year's most eye-popping sequences.
And again, I loved Paris! But the guy who made Devil Inside could have made that cast, that script and those locations work.
This coming from the guy pimping one of Fincher's more middling products. If that's all you saw when you watched the picture, it says a helluva lot more about you than anything else.
No Malik makes this a joke for me.