The Directors Guild of America announced their nominees for Best Achievement in Directing for 2011:

• Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris 
• David Fincher, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 
• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist 
• Alexander Payne, The Descendants 
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo 

The nominations, aside from the inclusion of David Fincher, feels generic and bland. That’s not to say that the directors/films nominated are bland or bad (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made my top ten of 2011 list and I enjoyed Midnight In Paris and The Descedants a lot. Wasn’t so crazy about Hugo), it’s just that during awards season, there are three or four films consistently nominated for every award under the sun while truly great work seems to fly under the radar. 

I would’ve love to see a director like Nicolas Winding Refn receive a nomination for Drive. Or Steve McQueen for Shame or even Mike Mills for Beginners.