Directors Guild Picks Nominees, Greatest Oscar Indicator

The Directors Guild of America has chosen its nominees. And listen, this is the greatest indicator for the top 5 Best Picture nominees and the Best Director nominees. The five are Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris,” Michel Hazanavicius for “The Artist,” David Fincher for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Martin Scorsese for “Hugo,” and Alexander Payne for “The Descendants.” Except for the omissions of Steven Spielberg for “War Horse” and Bennett Miller for “Moneyball,” I think the list is exactly right. If you add those two films, plus maybe “The Ides of March,” you’ll have the Best Picture nominees for 2011. It’s a solid list. There is simply no way that Terrence Malick’s incoherent yet daring “Tree of Life” is going to make it into the big final awards selections. Ditto Lars von Trier. And “Bridesmaids” is fun, but not a competitor. So that’s it. The DGA did a good job.