By John H. Foote
Two women were nominated as Best Director for the first time in the history of the Directors Guild!
Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and Chloé Zhao for Nomadland received nominations, along with Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7, David Fincher for Mank and Lee Isaac Chung for Minari.
Of the five nominees there are no real surprises, though I remain shocked Paul Greengrass is not among the critics or directors choices for his superb western News of the World.
At this writing Chloé Zhao appears to be the front runner, though Emerald Fennell has had growing support for her searing film Promising Young Woman.
Other than Fincher, a previous nominee, all the others are nominees for the first time.
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.
