Golden Globe Nominees: Best Director – Motion Picture

My predictions: 3/5, missing Ron Howard and Stephen Daldry
Who’s missing? Baz Luhrmann (Australia), Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino & Changeling)

This is a fairly boring list as far as exciting variety of nominees goes, since it’s the exact list for Best Motion Picture – Drama. I thought that perhaps favorites like Mike Leigh and Woody Allen or even the Coen brothers might overcome the comedy embargo, but no such luck. Nominees David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road), and Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) are all here because their films predictably fared very well. Ditto for the two I didn’t quite expect, both of whose films did do remarkably well with nominations: Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) and Stephen Daldry (Frost/Nixon). There’s rarely a surprise nominee this early, so watch out for Clint Eastwood’s severely snubbed two films (three nominations combined) to stage a possible comeback lately on in the awards race.

Who will win? Hard to tell at this point, but my gut tells me David Fincher.