DGA Announces Award Nominees and 75th Anniversary Celebrations

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has announced the nominees for the 2011 DGA Awards, to be held on January 29, 2011 in Los Angeles. Past DGA Award winners, including Kathryn Bigelow, Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese, will serve as co-chairs of the event, which has in the past served as a reliable predictor of who will go on to win the Academy Award for Best Director. Since the DGA Awards began only six of the winners for Best Feature Film Director have not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award that same year.

The DGA Award nominees in the film categories are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2010
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
David O. Russell, The Fighter

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2010
Lixin Fan, Last Train Home
Charles Ferguson, Inside Job
Alex Gibney, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
Davis Guggenheim, Waiting for “Superman”
Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, Restrepo

Though this year marks the 63rd Annual DGA Awards, the DGA itself has been around since 1936, making 2011 its 75th year in existence. And for a milestone anniversary like that, well, you just have to celebrate. This year’s DGA Awards will, in addition to honoring the winners, serve as a jumping-off point for a yearlong series of special events honoring innovative directors who have impacted the history of film.

For more information on the DGA, and to see the nominees in the television and commercial categories, visit www.dga.org. The DGA plans to launch a new site in early spring that will emphasize the DGA’s 75th anniversary.