MUMBAI: ‘Lincoln‘, ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘ and ‘Argo‘ have cemented their places as strong contenders for the Oscar Awards. The directors of these films Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck have received nominations from the Directors Guilds of America (DGA). The awards show takes place on 2 February 2013.

Also nominated are Ang Lee for ‘Life Of Pi‘, and Tom Hooper for the musical ‘Les Miserables‘. Four of them have won DGA awards in the past. What is fascinating is that all of these films are studio films. Hooper benefitted because a large of part of the DGA‘s membership consists of TV people. Hooper in the past made television miniseries ‘Longford‘ and ‘John Adams‘. Affleck is celebrating his first DGA nomination while for Spielberg it is his record 11th nomination.

Spielberg said, "The privilege of making ‘Lincoln,‘ combined with this absolutely tremendous recognition from my peers, is humbling. I thank everyone for including me on this short list of extremely unique and gifted filmmakers".

DGA president Taylor Hackford said, "DGA members have chosen an incredibly rich and varied group of filmmakers to nominate for this year‘s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award. These directors represent the highest standard of filmmaking, and their films are a testament to artistic achievement, innovative storytelling and the passion that filmmakers share with their audiences." ‘Being nominated by their peers is what makes this award particularly meaningful for directors, and I congratulate all of the nominees for their outstanding work.‘

It will be interesting to see if all five filmmakers also get nominated for the Oscar Awards. The Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow evening. If one or two of the DGA nominees misses out then one could see David O Russell ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘, Quentin Tarantino ‘Django Unchained‘, Michael Hanecke ‘Amour‘ or even Paul Thomas Anderson ‘The Master‘ getting nominated for an Oscar.

Having said that though the DGA is a strong indicator of who is going to win the best director Oscar. Only six times has the DGA winner not won the Oscar for best director. The last time that happened was a decade ago.