Gus Van Sant gets DGA nomination for "Milk"

I know there are tons of awards being announced these days but trust me, this is a biggie: Gus Van Sant is among the five nominees for the 2009 Directors Guild of America Award - often a precursor to the Oscar for the winner.

Van Sant's competition: Christopher Nolan for "The Dark Knight," Danny Boyle for "Slumdog Millionaire," David Fincher for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and Ron Howard for "Frost/Nixon."

There does not seem to be a clear front-runner yet. All the films are excellent.

The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry's most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award; only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award: