Yes we are in movie awards season. We have the Globes and 300 other movie-related industry awards groups to give out their paperweight trophies that boost fragile bloated egos. This thursday morning, the 10th at 5:30 in the morning (8:30 East Coast) is when the Oscars announce this year's nominations. Who'll get honored? Who'll get snubbed? Which picks will surprise people?

Anyway the Director's Guild of America (DGA, the Hollywood directors' labor union) announced their nominations today. They're important because they usually nail the names that will get also nominated for the Best Director Oscar. The DGAs and Oscars usually share 4 of the 5 names put forward. Keep that fact in mind.

The 2012 DGA nominees:

Ben Affleck (ARGO)
Kathryn Bigelow (ZERO DARK THIRTY)
Tom Hooper (LES MISERABLES)
Ang Lee (LIFE OF PI)
Steven Spielberg (LINCOLN)

Interesting note: All those nominees above, save for Affleck, have already won the Best Director Oscar. (Spielberg has won it twice, in fact.)

So who will get snubbed at the Oscars for director? I think Affleck/Bigelow/Spielberg are locks. Hooper and Lee are more vulnerable. I say it's Hooper, and he's replaced with Quentin Tarantino.