Ben Affleck Is One of Our Greatest Directors Now, Says the Directors Guild Awards

I kid with the tone of that headline. If The Town hadn't convinced you that Ben Affleck had put his Daredevil and Gigli days in the past, Argo should've made you believe that the actor was now a real director. And, yes, the Directors Guild of America agrees with that statement, naming Affleck as one of its five nominees for Outstanding Direction in Feature Film. Here's the entire group:

Ben Affleck (Argo)
Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)
Tom Hooper (Les Miserables)
Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

I'd like to note that this group is the same exact group that I predicted would get nominated for Best Director when Oscar nominations are announced on Friday. No Quentin Tarantino. No David O. Russell. If you didn't get nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award, you have zero chance at winning the Oscar for Best Director. In the history of the award, only six directors have won the Oscar for Best Director without carrying the DGA too, with the most recent person being Roman Polanski in 2002 for The Pianist.