Directors Guild of America

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• Billboard has news that Amy Macdonald's debut album has bumped Radiohead's In Rainbows for the No. 1 spot on the U.K. album chart.
• Joyce Carol Oates has received two National Book Critics Circle Awards nominations, the Associated Press reports.
• The writers' strike goes on, but at least the Directors Guild of America and producers are negotiating in an effort to avert a directors' strike, writes the Hollywood Reporter.
• According to Variety, No Country for Old Men was the big winner at the Ohio Film Critics Association Awards, nabbing Best Picture, among others.

Photo courtesy of Fox

The Directors Guild of America has announced their nominees for the best director of 2007. The choices are interestingly different from the Golden Globe nominees, casting some doubt on whether the Globes will actually predict the Oscars in this category. DGA president Michael Apted points out that the race this year is wider than last year's: "There’s no big studio blockbuster among them, the way The Departed was last year. It’s a very open year." Check out the competition for DGA's big honor:

• Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
• Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
• Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
• Sean Penn, Into the Wild
• Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The most surprising absences here are Joe Wright for Atonement and Ridley Scott for American Gangster, as both are in the running to win the Best Director Golden Globe for two of the most talked-about films of 2007.

Not having seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I can't speak to how deserving Julian Schnabel would be of this award, though I must say I'm slightly surprised to see Gilroy and Penn there in place of Wright and Scott. I also personally think Tim Burton continues to be shafted from these award nominations.

What do you think about the DGA's shortlist? Who should win the prize for best director of 2007?

Last night, the Directors Guild of America announced the winners of its 2006 awards, which recognize everything from daytime dramas to TV commercials. The big news was a big win for Martin Scorsese, who earned the DGA's honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film for The Departed.

Not only do I think that honor is totally deserved, but it also bodes well for Scorsese's chances of finally taking home an Oscar this year. I was also glad to see some of my favorite TV shows recognized for their directing achievements. To see the rest of the 2006 DGA winners, read more