DGA honors are a good Oscar harbinger

Above : “The Power of the Dog” earned Jane Campion a Best Director nomination from the Directors Guild of America. (Photo/Netflix)

All you Oscar predictors out there, take note: The Academy Award nominations for 2021 movies won’t be announced until Feb. 8th, with the ceremony itself not set to be broadcast until March 27th.

But there are some indicators already. The Directors Guild of America , for example, released its nominations on Thursday. Winners will be announced on March 12th.

The nominees, all of which are still playing somewhere locally, are:

Paul Thomas Anderson for “Licorice Pizza.” Written and directed by Anderson, and starring newcomers Alaina Haim and Cooper Hoffman, the film is a look back at a ‘70s-era romance between Haim’s 20-something woman and Hoffman’s teenage hustler. This is Anderson’s second DGA nomination, his first being for 2007’s “There Will Be Blood.”

Kenneth Branagh for “Belfast.” Written and directed by Branagh, and starring newcomer Jude Hill along with veterans Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds and Judi Dench, the film is Branagh’s loving look back at the troubled Northern Ireland of his birth. This is his first DGA nomination.

Jane Campion for “The Power of the Dog.” Written and directed by Campion (adapted from the Thomas Savage novel), the film is set in 1920s Montana and tells the story of two rancher brothers (played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons) and the woman and her young son (played by Kirsten Dunst and Kodi McPhee-Smit) who come between them. This is Campion’s second DGA nomination, her first being for 1993’s “The Piano.” (Playing at the Magic Lantern Theatre.)

Steven Spielberg for “West Side Story.” Based on a screenplay adapted from the 1957 Broadway musical by Tony Kushner, the film is set in late 1950s New York and tells a “Romeo and Juliet”-type story involving dueling street gangs. It stars Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno. This is Spielberg’s 12th DGA nomination (he’s won three times, for 1985’s “The Color Purple,” 1993’s “Schindler’s List” and 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan”).

Denis Villeneuve for “Dune.” Directed and co-written by Villeneuve (with Joe Spaihts and Eric Roth), the film stars Timotheé Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin and is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 space-opera novel about power, treachery and the power the narcotic spice of a desert world called Arrakis. This is Villeneuve’s second DGA nomination, his first being for 2016’s “Arrival.”

My only caveat: Where are the nominations for Wes Anderson (“The French Dispatch”) and Joel Coen (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”) ? I’d have chosen either one over Branagh. Even David Lowery’s “The Green Knight” (a film I didn’t particularly care for).

But, hey, that’s just me. I’m terrible at predicting end-of-the-year awards.