Inside Awards Season with Gregory Ellwood

'Waiting for Superman' and 'Inside Job' lead DGA Doc nominees

A first timer will win the directing honor this year

By Gregory Ellwood Wednesday, Jan 12, 2011 2:20 PM

"Waiting for 'Superman'"

Credit: Paramount Pictures

It's hard to believe, but acclaimed documentary filmmakers Charles Ferguson, Alex Gibney and Davis Guggenheim have never been honored by their peers in the Director's Guild of America. That's about to change. The three filmmakers join Lixian Fan ("Last Train Home") and Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger ("Restrepo") as this year's DGA Award nominees for outstanding direction in a documentary film. In fact, of the three only Gibney had been nominated before. Guggenheim was passed over for "An Inconvienent Truth" and Fergueson for "No End in Sight." In any event, this could be a very similar list to what this year's documentary nominees end up being. Unless Banksy's "Exit through the Gift Shop" makes it which we'll believe it when we see it.

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A complete list of this year's nominees are as follows:

LIXIN FANâ€¨ - "Last Train Home"â€¨
This is Mr. Fan's first DGA Award nomination.

CHARLES FERGUSONâ€¨ - "Inside Job"â€¨
This is Mr. Ferguson's first DGA Award nomination.

ALEX GIBNEY - â€¨"Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer"â€¨
This is Mr. Gibney's second DGA Award nomination. He was previously nominated in this same category for Taxi to the Dark Side in 2007.

DAVIS GUGGENHEIMâ€¨ - "Waiting for 'Superman'"â€¨
Mr. Guggenheim's Directorial Team:
Unit Production Manager: Shari Tavey
This is Mr. Guggenheim's first DGA Award nomination.

TIM HETHERINGTON AND SEBASTIAN JUNGERâ€¨ - "Restrepo"â€¨
This is the first DGA Award nomination for Mr. Hetherington and Mr. Junger.

The 63rd Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 29, 2011 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles.