Director Roundup: DGA and Globes frazzle Oscar

Award season is in high gear, or another way to put it, the snubs are starting to bloom. Sunday night saw director Richard Linklater win and win big for Boyhood, besting Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman), Wes Anderson (the Grand Budapest Hotel), David Fincher (Gone Girl) and Ava DuVerney (Selma). 

Today's Director's Guild nominations saw the puckish gods bump into the game board and knock a few pieces askew. Will Ava DuVerney become the first African American woman nominated for a directing Oscar? We'll find out Thursday, but she didn't get the nod from the DGA. Likewise, David Fincher was also overlooked. Joining fellow DGA nominees Iñárritu, Anderson, Linklater, we've got Clint Eastwood (American Sniper) and Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) rounding out the pack.

The ten pictures up for the Producer's Guild's Darryl F. Zanuck award include American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, Foxcatcher, Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Nightcrawler, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash. 

The notable PGA omissions include A Most Violent Year, Interstellar, Into The Woods, Selma, Unbroken and Wild.

The initial "Birdman's got it in the bag" fervor has abated a bit, while enthusiasm, timeliness and massive critical praise has helped Selma, not that the DGA paid notice. At this point, I'd say the five most likely names to be called Thursday morning are Iñárritu, Anderson, Linklater, Eastwood and DuVerney. That's Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood, American Sniper and Selma. 

Linklater's in pole position, but after the surprise win Sunday for Best Comedy or Musical at the Globes, Wes Anderson's star definitely seems to be on the rise, especially since Budapest came out way last March. Iñárritu's Birdman and Linklater's Boyhood will likely be duking it out, so the votes could split, and that could just favor Wes Anderson or Ava DuVerney, assuming she's nominated. 

So as usual, it's a heck of a circus, and it's going to add another ring as of Thursday morning. Definitely feeling like a year where Oscar will split Picture and Director to two different films. Stay tuned!