Directors Guild Nominations Include Scorsese And McQueen, Overlook Coens And Jonze

Who will be nominated for the Best Director Oscar this year? We've got a pretty good idea now that the nominations for the Directors Guild of America's own awards have been handed down. Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), David O. Russell (American Hustle), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Paul Greengrass (Captain Philips) have been honored with nominations for the 66th DGA award. Three of those (McQueen, Cuaron, Greengrass) are first-time DGA nominations.

Historically, this nomination set is a very good predictor of where the Oscars will go, but last year was a bit of a tradition breaker, as only two of the five DGA nominees got Oscar nominations, and the DGA winner, Ben Affleck, was not among them. (Ang Lee won the Oscar.)

Meanwhile, this is another major guild that has looked past Joel and Ethan Coen and Inside Llewyn Davis; Spike Jonze is another director of significant achievement in 2013 who didn't get a nomination. 

The full list of feature directorial nominations is below, with accompanying notes from the DGA.

The winner of this year's award will be named at the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

ALFONSO CUARÓN

Gravity

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Mr. Cuarón's Directorial Team:

·         Unit Production Manager: David Siegel (Arizona Unit)

·         First Assistant Directors: Josh Robertson, Stephen Hagen (Arizona Unit)

·         Second Assistant Director: Ben Howard

This is Mr. Cuarón's first DGA Award nomination.

PAUL GREENGRASS

Captain Phillips

(Columbia Pictures)

Mr. Greengrass's Directorial Team:

·         Unit Production Managers: Todd Lewis, Gregory Goodman

·         First Assistant Director: Chris Carreras

·         Second Assistant Directors: Nick Shuttleworth, Mark S. Constance

This is Mr. Greengrass's first DGA Award nomination.

STEVE McQUEEN

12 Years A Slave

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Mr. McQueen's Directorial Team:

·         Unit Production Manager: Anthony Katagas

·         First Assistant Director: Doug Torres

·         Second Assistant Director: James Roque Jr.

·         Second Second Assistant Director: Sherman Shelton Jr.

·         Additional Second Assistant Director: Nathan Parker

This is Mr. McQueen's first DGA Award nomination.

DAVID O. RUSSELL

American Hustle

(Columbia Pictures)

Mr. Russell's Directorial Team:

·         Unit Production Managers: Shea Kammer, Mark Kamine

·         First Assistant Director: Michele 'Shelley' Ziegler

·         Second Assistant Director: Xanthus Valan

·         Second Second Assistant Director: Jason Fesel

·         Location Managers: David Velasco, Guy Efrat (New York Unit)

This is Mr. Russell's second DGA Award nomination.  He was previously nominated in this category for The Fighter in 2010.

MARTIN SCORSESE

The Wolf of Wall Street

(Paramount Pictures)

Mr. Scorsese's Directorial Team:

·         Unit Production Manager: Richard Baratta

·         First Assistant Director: Adam Somner

·         Second Assistant Director: Francisco Oritz

·         Second Second Assistant Director: Jeremy Marks

·         Additional Second Assistant Director: Scott Koche

·         Location Manager: Nils Widboom

This is Mr. Scorsese's eleventh DGA Award nomination.  He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 2006 for The Departed, and has also been nominated in that category for Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004) and Hugo (2011). Mr. Scorsese also won the DGA Award in 2010 for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Television for Boardwalk Empire and he was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for George Harrison: Living in the Material World in 2011.  In 1999, Mr. Scorsese was presented with the Filmmaker Award at the inaugural DGA Honors Gala, and he was honored with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.