The directors of “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Moonlight,” “Manchester by the Sea” and “Arrival” were nominated Thursday for the Directors Guild of America Award for feature films, an honor that is a traditionally strong predictor of who will win the Oscar.
Since 1948, there have only been seven times that the winner of the DGA Award for feature film directing has not gone on to win the Academy Award for best director.
The most recent time was 2013 when Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for “Argo,” but wasn’t even nominated for a directing Academy Award, even though the film won the Oscar for best picture.
Nominated for the feature film honor were Damien Chazelle for “La La Land,” Garth Davis for “Lion,” Barry Jenkins for “Moonlight,” Kenneth Lonergan for “Manchester by the Sea” and Denis Villeneuve for “Arrival.”
The nominations are the first DGA nods for Chazelle, Jenkins, Lonergan and Villeneuve. Davis was nominated in 2009 for directing a U.S. Cellular commercial.
Davis was also nominated Thursday for the DGA award for first-time feature film directing for “Lion.
Also nominated in that category were Kelly Fremon Craig for The Edge of Seventeen,” Tim Miller for “Deadpool,” Nate Parker for “Birth of a Nation” and Dan Trachtenberg for “10 Cloverfield Lane.”
The DGA Awards will be presented Feb. 4 at the Beverly Hilton.
—City News Service