By John H. Foote
The Directors Guild of America announced their nominees for excellence in motion picture direction, perhaps providing the greatest influence on the Oscar race.
As expected Martin Scorsese was nominated for The Irishman, and Quentin Tarantino is up for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Scorsese has been nominated nine previous times winning for The Departed (2006) while Tarantino is a two-time nominee without a win.
Bong Joon Ho was nominated for Parasite, as expected as was previous winner Sam Mendes for 1917, and the final nominee, and happiest surprise of the day (for me) Taika Waititi for the black comedy Jojo Rabbit.
Shut out of the nominations was Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story, and his partner Greta Gerwig for Little Women. Both could still turn up in the Oscar race.
Nominations for the Academy Awards are announced next week.
John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.
