(MENAFN- Arab Times) Steven Spielberg has extended his domination at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards, earning his 11th film nomination Tuesday for his Civil War epic "Lincoln".
Also nominated were past winners Kathryn Bigelow for her Osama bin Laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty"; Tom Hooper for his musical "Les Miserables"; and Ang Lee for his lost-at-sea story "Life of Pi." Rounding out the lineup is first-time nominee Ben Affleck for his Iran hostage crisis tale "Argo."
The Directors Guild field is one of Hollywood's most accurate forecasts for who will be in the running at the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Thursday.
The winner at the Directors Guild almost always goes on to win the directing prize at the Oscars. Only six times in the 64-year history of the guild awards has the winner there failed to follow up with an Oscar.
Spielberg has won the Directors Guild feature film prize a record three times, for "The Color Purple", "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan", along with directing Oscars for the latter two. He received the guild's lifetime achievement award in 2000.
Bigelow became the first woman to win the guild honor and the directing Oscar three years ago for "The Hurt Locker." Hooper won the same prizes a year later for "The King's Speech", while Lee is a two-time guild winner for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain", the latter also earning him the directing Oscar.
Affleck, who also stars in "Argo", follows such actors-turned-filmmakers as Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson to earn a Directors Guild nomination.
Overlooked by the guild were past nominees Quentin Tarantino for his slave revenge tale "Django Unchained" and David O. Russell for his oddball romance "Silver Linings Playbook."
No clear front-runner has emerged yet for the Feb 24 Oscars, with "Lincoln", "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Les Miserables" all considered strong prospects to take home Hollywood's highest honor.
Winners for the 65th annual Directors Guild awards will be announced Feb. 2, with Kelsey Grammer as host.
Milos Forman, director of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus", will receive the guild's lifetime achievement award.
"Skyfall", "The Hobbit", "Zero Dark Thirty", "Les Miserables" and "Lincoln" are the feature films nominated for the top award by the Cinema Audio Society, a non-profit organization that honors the art of sound mixing in film and television.
For the first time, CAS also nominated five animated films for their sound mixing. In that category, one stranger to awards season, "The Lorax", joined more expected nominees "Brave", "Frankenweenie", "Rise of the Guardians" and "Wreck-It Ralph."
In the television category, nominees included episodes of the one-hour series "Boardwalk Empire", "Breaking Bad", "Game of Thrones", "Homeland" and "Mad Men", the half-hour series "30 Rock", "Californication", "Modern Family", "Nurse Jackie" and "The Office", and the movies and miniseries "American Horror Story", "Game Change", "Hatfields & McCoys", "Hemingway & Gellhorn" and "Sherlock."
CAS is one of two groups that gives awards for sound work. Its awards - made in two film and four TV categories - are minimal compared to the nearly 20 categories handed out by the Motion Picture Sound Editors, who will announce their nominations in mid-January.
Since 2000, almost 75 percent of the films nominated by the Cinema Audio Society have gone on to receive Oscar nods in the sound mixing category.
In the press release announcing the nominations, CAS president David E.
Fluhr noted that the organization is now in its fourth year of online voting, adding that the voting "went smoothly and was a secure and uncomplicated procedure for our members."
The CAS ceremony will take place on Feb 16 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. At the show, the CAS Career Achievement Award will be presented to Chris Newman, and the CAS Filmmaker Award will go to director Jonathan Demme.
Here are the nominated films.
Motion Pictures - Live Action:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
Motion Pictures - Animated:
Brave
Frankenweenie
The Lorax
Rise Of The Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph
Television Movies and Mini-Series:
American Horror Story: Asylum Part 1 - Welcome to Briarcliff
Game Change
Hatfields & McCoy's: Part 1
Hemingway & Gellhorn
Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia
Television Series - One Hour:
Boardwalk Empire: The Milkmaid's Lot
Breaking Bad: Dead Freight
Game of Thrones: Blackwater
Homeland: Beirut is Back
Mad Men: Commissions and Fees
Television Series - Half-hour:
30 Rock: Mazel Tov, Dummies!
Californication: Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be
Modern Family: Disneyland
Nurse Jackie: Handle Your Scandal
The Office: New Guys
Television - Non-Fiction, Variety or Music - Series or
Specials:
The 2012 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Deadliest Catch: I Don't Wanna Die
Frozen Planet: To the Ends Of The Earth
Great Performances At The Met: Anna Bolena
Soundtracks: Music Without Borders
Also:
LOS ANGELES: Bill Taylor, the co-founder of Illusion Arts and a visual effects supervisor who has worked on more than 200 films, has been voted the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation by the Academy's Board of Governors, AMPAS announced on Tuesday.
Taylor will receive the award at the Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony on Feb 9 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He won a Technical Achievement Award at that ceremony 32 years ago for the concept and specifications for a Two-Format, Rotating Head, Aerial Image Optical Printer.
(The Sci-Tech Awards are full of people winning awards for things like that - they're devoted to the ones who put the sciences in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)
Taylor has served as visual effects supervisor on films including "Lawless", "Public Enemies", "Milk" and "Bruce Almighty." His other VFX and matte photography credits during a near-40-year career include "DragonHeart", "What Dreams May Come", "Mystery Men", "Spaceballs", "Batman Forever" and "The Fast and the Furious."
At the Academy, he has served as one of the Visual Effects Branch's representatives on the Board of Governors, and he co-founded the organization's Science and Technology Council.
He is also the co-author of chapters on bluescreen and greenscreen compositing in "The American Cinematographer Manual" and "The VES Handbook of Visual Effects."
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