David O. Russell, "American Hustle"
Paul Greengrass, "Captain Phillips"
Alfonso Cuarón, "Gravity"
Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave"
Martin Scorsese, "The Wolf of Wall Street"

I think Allen could get nominated here. I'd replace Greengrass with him and agree with the rest.

Cuarón
Greengrass
McQueen
Payne
Russell

We'll see if this award even matters for the Oscars anymore... or if last year was just a fluke!

I'm actually thinking Jonze is No. 4 on the list and should be relatively safe. Greengrass could be replaced by a number of candidates.

I agree with xiayun that Jonze is relatively safe and #4 on the list. And then I think Scorsese will nab the 5th spot (Scorcsese is Scorsese and Wolf of Wall Street has been strong with guilds so far and nabbed nominations with both the PGA and WGA). So:

Cuaron
McQueen
Russell
Jonze
Scorsese

Peace,
Mike

I'll agree with MikeQ!

That looks solid.

Jean Marc-Vallee has a better shot at Oscar than DGA, but its time to consider him a contender.

Eh. I don't know. Even if Dallas Buyers Club is nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, which it very well could be, I still do not see it as a major contender for directorial prizes. The director is a relative unknown (his most widely watched prior film is The Young Victoria), and the film is very much a showcase for acting and, I guess, writing rather than overtly distinctive direction.

The nominees are Cuaron, McQueen, Russell, Greengrass, and Scorsese.

After last year, everything seems meaningless. For all we know, the Academy could nominate Ryan Coogler and Alexander payne instead of Cuarón and Greengrass.

The DGA line-up looks exactly what everyone has been predicting for the BD line-up for a long time now until The Wolf of Wall Street divided critics and audiences.

Wolf of Wall Street has now hit DGA/PGA/WGA. Seems like it's gaining momentum to me.

I need to see the Wolf stat

I still believe Jonze or Payne will replace Scorsese in the Oscar lineup. My actual prediction is Payne.

No, not Payne, IMO. Jonze is more likely. A third directing nom is a huge thing, especially if you going into the race with no chance of winning.

Fun fact: ever since 2000 the DGA noms and the Oscars matched up 5/5 only once (in 2005).

Yeah, DGA is used to be the best indicator for BP when there were 5 nominees, not BD.

Having seen both wolf and hustle this wknd, I feel like it is Scorcese who has the 3rd Oscar spot locked up while Russell could still easily miss.

A) these precursors are nominating Russell as make-up for snubbing SLP, whereas Oscar may have voter fatigue for a film IMO clearly inferior to SLP and The Fighter
B) Hustle is supposedly similar in style to Scorcese films, but is IMO clealy inferior to Wolf, so voters can just vote for Scorcese directly rather than a weaker imitation

You are confusing your "IMO" views too much with...reality. American Hustle is far more crowd pleasing than The Wolf of Wall Street. American Hustle and Russell are as in as in can be.

Just watched it, glad I did, nomination well deserved, and it will be a travesty if it doesn't at least get a nomination.

Given how things have gone so far, time for Scorsese to win here.

John G. Avildsen won this for Rocky back in 1977.

I think David O. Russell should win for American Hustle.