The 2018 DGA film nominations have been announced, with Guillermo del Toro gaining the chance for another win. The Golden Globe Awards, which took place Sunday, are often thought of as the last big awards season shoe to drop prior to the nomination announcement for the Academy Awards. This year, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Lady Bird won the two Best Picture awards at the Globes and cemented their places as Oscar frontrunners. However, the race for Best Picture – according to most observers – remains wide open, with The Shape of Water, Get Out, The Post, and Lady Bird also seen as potential contenders.
One of the later Oscar precursors is the Directors Guild of America awards, which traditionally announce nominations in mid-January and winners in early February. The 2018 nominees were announced Thursday, giving us an ever-so-clearer picture of Oscar season.
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The annual Directors Guild of America nominations were revealed Thursday morning, Variety reported, with top feature film nominations going to Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Martin McDonaugh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), and Jordan Peele (Get Out.)
Peele was also nominated for the DGA’s first-time director award, joining Geremy Jasper (Patti Cake$), William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth), Taylor Sheridan (Wind River), and Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game). While Lady Bird has often been described as her directorial debut, Gerwig was deemed ineligible for the first-time award, due to her having co-directed the 2008 indie film Nights and Weekends, along with Joe Swanberg.
The five nominees are generally in line with the conventional wisdom of who the awards season favorites are. Those snubbed for the top award include Steven Spielberg (The Post), Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Ridley Scott (All the Money in the World), Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), and Dee Rees (Mudbound.) The Golden Globe Best Director nominees – who as Natalie Portman memorably pointed out, were all male – were winner del Toro, along with Scott, Nolan, Spielberg and McDonagh.
Who has the inside track for the Best Director Oscar category? That’s unknown, but it’s very possible the Directors Guild has a better grasp on who’s deserving than does the Globes-awarding Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Alas, James Franco’s chances for a Best Director nomination, for The Disaster Artist, are likely kaput in the wake of the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him.
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The 2018 DGA Award winners will be announced on Saturday, February 3.
