The Directors Guild of America picked their five leading awards contenders by nominating Danny Boyle (”Slumdog Millionaire”), David Fincher (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), Ron Howard (”Frost/Nixon”), Christopher Nolan (”The Dark Knight”) and Gus Van Sant (”Milk”).
According to Variety, Boyle is the lone DGA newbie of the group, with the remainder having been nominated for features or, in the case of Fincher, commercials.
Howard has won twice, for “A Beautiful Mind” (2001) and “Apollo 13″ (1995), and was also nominated for “Cocoon” (1985). Nolan and Van Sant each previously scored a single mention, for “Memento” (2001) and “Good Will Hunting” (1997), respectively.
Taylor Hackford announced the winners at guild headquarters Thursday morning, filling in for DGA topper Michael Apted, who was on set. Hackford saluted the diverse films in the group, noting it was a “nice mix of small films and big films.”
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