DGA president Michael Apted today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2007. Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will be Blood)…no surprise. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)… obviously. Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)…congrats! Sean Penn (Into The Wild)…good for him. Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
No David Fincher/Zodiac love because they didn’t send the DGA members screeners? I feel a combination of pity and contempt for those people who are too lazy to see the films they need to see on their own, and who lack the gumption to stand up and recognize exceptional classic quality when it’s staring them right in the face. This was primarily a quality-based vote, but you and I know it was governed by the usual political, follow-the-tide, don’t-stand-alone Zelig considerations. (Thanks to Cinemascope‘s Yair Raveh for the first nudge.)