Last week it was the writers, today the Directors Guild of America announced nominees for best director of 2011, and wouldn't you know it, it's a fairly unsurprising list. The guys (yeah, all guys) are: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, David Fincher for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, Alexander Payne for The Descendants, and Martin Scorsese for Hugo.

So, with the exception of Hazanavicius, these are all guys who've been nominated for a DGA (and an Oscar) before and could mostly be called part of the establishment. Hazanavicius might go on to become part of that club, as he's likely to earn an Oscar nomination this year. In fact, the other four fellows could very likely be his competition for that award too. There aren't a ton of "snubs" that come to mind here — Bennett Miller might have been included for Moneyball, maybe Steven Spielberg for War Horse — unless you go a little deeper into the edgy indie realm. (While certainly an indie, The Artist is not exactly a thematic counterpart to Drive or Take Shelter.) But alas smaller, darker films are often overlooked, as are comedies. Well, at least comedies not directed by Woody Allen.

Though to be fair, Dragon Tattoo is pretty dark stuff. Call us crazy, but we're starting to have a hunch that Fincher might be a good bet to win some "sorry we've never given this to you before" awards, including old mister Oscar. Either that, or Hazanavicius takes it for showing Hollywood folk a movie about the wonder of Hollywood folk. That tends to work every time.

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Richard Lawson