I got this note about last night's DGA awards this morning, and had to read it twice.  Apparently, things got a bit feisty.  Well, just take a look for yourself:

Being in the room was an odd experience to say the least.  I'm sure you have heard by now the drama of the show....

An extremely drunk Sean Young heckled Julian Schnabel the moment he walked on stage to accept his medallion.  She was quickly 86'd by security and tried to throw a punch at those ejecting her from the venue.  She really ruined Julian's moment and it was kind of sad.  He looked into the audience and said "Who said that?"  She blurted out something else unintelligible and then he said "Perhaps you'd like to finish my speech," said "thank you very much" and started to step away from the podium.  He came back, of course, but it seemed he was visibly pissed and upset by the interruption.  Sort of sad, actually.  It's like you get this big moment where you're one of the 5 directors honored in a year and then some drunk ass wipe in the audience ruins a lifetime moment for you.

(Tony Gilroy item/subjective reaction to a speech stricken from the record due to ruffled feathers.)

If you're looking for more coverage of last night's festivities, Tom O'Neil has a podcast up of the Coens' acceptance speech as well as some speculation on the DGA-Oscar win percentage.  Is "No Country for Old Men" going to take this year's Best Picture award?

Also, as always, Variety has its coverage of the goings-on.

If you haven't heard by now, the Coen brothers and Robert Elswit were recipients of the DGA and ASC awards this evening.  The Coens' win was quite expected, but Elswit taking top honors away from Roger Deakins is quite unexpected -- personally, I thought Deakins would take the cake here.   "There Will Be Blood" has more support than I anticipated.

It really does seem like a toss up between "No Country" and "Blood."  We'll see.

Later this evening, the Directors Guild of America will dish out its kudos.  Of course, this is an anxiously anticipated event because the winner here typically goes on to win the Oscar.  And the winner of the Best Director Oscar matches up with Best Picture at some high percentage that I'm not capable of calculating at this point in time.

If you want to get your DGA coverage fix, there are a couple of outlets tossing around ideas and assumptions.

Tom O'Neil is considering a win for Sean Penn, while Sasha Stone thinks Paul Thomas Anderson could take the spoils away from the Coen brothers.

And always, Variety has a preview up with a number of pieces and angles if you just want to marinate in all things DGA this glorious Saturday morning.

This is the Coens' to lose, right?  Right?

I didn't realize I'd be making two posts about Tony Gilroy in a row, but there we are.  And, ironically enough, I sat down to watch "Michael Clayton" again last night, and in the 12 hours since I ejected it from my DVD player, I've already forgotten James Newton Howard's Oscar nominated score again.  That one will be a head-scratcher for a while, but nevertheless, it's a tight movie that deserved, well, a good portion of its accolades this season.

I stumbled across this here at homebase yesterday.  I think it's the first phase two Oscar ad we've seen:

•  Place your bets! [Hollywood Stock Exchange]

•  Sasha Stone previews the DGA race, warns against getting caught up in last minute predictions chaos, and mixes in some other considerations for good measure. [Awards Daily]

•  The DGA Awards, by the way, will be hosted by Carl Reiner. [Variety]

•  We've also got a massive preview of the awards, with looks at peripheral nominees (assistant directors, anyone?), the newbie nature of the group and some huzzahs for DGA attorney Jay Roth. [Variety]

•  An old post, but Jeffrey Wells considers nominations for art direction, cinematography, costume design and score to be "soft" tips of the hat for "Atonement." [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Tom O'Neil says to bank on Julie Christie at Sunday's SAG Awards.  Lionsgate flooded the screener market again. [Gold Derby]

•  David Carr makes some final observations on the nominations, taking note of the newbies and diversity in the line-up and pointing out that "Into the Wild" deserved "better treatment." [The Carpetbagger]

•  New York Magazine draws humorous parallls between the year's Best Picture nominees and the current political climate. [Vulture]

•  In analyzing this year's nominees, Kyle Smith makes us wonder why he's even in this business. [New York Post]

•  In case you haven't heard, things are looking up for the Oscar telecast. [Variety]

•  Scott Bowles follows it up and digs up some industry chit-chat on alternatives. [USA Today]

•  Finally, A.O. Scott writes up the legacy of Heath Ledger for The Paper of Record. [New York Times]

•  Sasha Stone digs uop the International Film Music Award nominees.  Alexandre Desplat leads the pack. [Awards Daily]

•  Keeping things intresting during the Oscar season, The Envelope launches a nifty new Sundance section for full coverage. [The Envelope]

•  Tom O'Neil wonders if the DGA's deal with the producers is the lifeline Gil Cates and the Oscar ceremony was banking on. [Gold Derby]

•  Noah Forrest cranks out a personal Oscar ballot full of unique and inspired choices. [Movie City News]

•  Nathaniel Rogers, meanwhile, has his own ballot for the acting contenders.  He says to hell with a supporting actor campaign on Casey Affleck's performance in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."  Lead all the way, baby. [The Film Experience]

•  New York Magazine is high on Imelda Staunton's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" turn (also showing up on Rogers' ballot). [Vulture]

•  David Poland talks with "Juno" star Ellen Page. [The Hot Blog]

*cricketschirping*

Well, in any case, this came in from City Hall:

LOS ANGELES - Today Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made the following statement regarding the announcement of a tentative agreement between the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers:

“I am pleased that the Directors Guild and the studios bridged the issues that divided them and arrived at a mutually acceptable framework for the future.

“It's now time for all the parties to take their cue.

“I urge the studios and writers to return to the table immediately and set to work on a common script that will get the cameras rolling again.

“I further urge all the organizations representing film and television workers to join together to break the impasse.
 
“The film and television industries are the lifeblood of the Los Angeles economy, sustaining thousands of behind-the-scenes workers who can't afford to miss another paycheck. 

“I am in constant communications with the parties and continue to offer the full support and assistance of my office in helping to bring the impasse to an end.”

That is the most unexpected line-up, given the tendencies of this guild.  Truly, I think this will be one of those cases where the Best Picture/DGA line-up is off by at least one, and possibly two.

The biggest sigh of relief was surely from Paramount Vantage, who saw "Into the Wild" settle into the locked-in position it has been staring at for weeks.  It seems with every hit the film takes, it comes back strong.  No Globes love, most BFCA nominations.  No BFCA wins, DGA nod.  No luck with ASC, four SAG nods.  I think it's good to go.

For me, the biggest surprise has to be Tony Gilroy, whose film I remain unconvinced of for a Best Picture nomiantion, but this mention is certainly interesting...and needed.

Anyway, there's more to talk about, but this internet cafe is closing up shop.  I'll reassess tomorrow, after the east coast settles in a little more.

I'm on a plane for the next 8 or 9 hours, so that's probably all the updating until this evening (unless, like I said, that on-board ethernet is up and running on Virgin).  The DGA announcement should land in three hours or so.  Here's hoping I'm in for a happy surprise when I land.  Have at it here if you want to talk the nominations at all.

I'll be on a plane when the announcement comes down tomorrow, so there won't be any updating until I land in New York in the evening.  HOWEVER, I'm flying Virgin America, and I hear they have on-board ethernet, so maybe this paragraph is a waste of space...

Yes, the BFCA awards are tonight, but tomorrow brings the most anticipated announcement of the Oscar season: the Directors Guild of America's list of feature film nominees.  According to the DGA's official site, Guild president Michael Apted will make the announcement at 10:00 a.m. (PT).

The DGA has long been considered the best predictor of the eventual Best Picture outcome at the Academy.  Going back over the last 35 years, the Guild has picked 139 of 170 nominees for an accuracy rate of 80% or so.  That's better than any of us "pros" could ever hope to manage, that's for sure.  The Guild has displayed 100% accuracy on nine separate occassions, the four of the last five years being chief among them.  Prior to 1970, the DGA sported 10 nominees for feature films, which makes tallying those totals kind of pointless, but this sufficient chunk of data ought to be enough to persuade you that tomorrow's announcement is an important one.

Tom O'Neil has been collecting predictions from various Oscarweb prognosticators over at Gold Derby, yours truly included.  You can see my black and white take on tomorrow's likely five over there, but let's take a moment to dig into the hopefuls in this space as well.

No one but no one can be considered a shoo-in except for the Coen brothers, whose "No Country for Old Men" has shown up this naysayer by already displaying some grit last month, taking down two Screen Actors Guild nomiantions.  (Critics awards just don't compute for me as great indicator of an industry award.)  Beyond that, it's really a free-for-all.

Sean Penn has been getting stellar reactions at DGA screenings of "Into the Wild," a film already leading the way at the BFCA and SAG.  One would have to consider the actor/director to be on solid ground.

Ridley Scott is a helmer clearly revered by his guild, taking down nominations in some cases that didn't correspond to Best Picture nods ("Thelma & Louise," "Black Hawk Down").  "American Gangster" was the only film to be making any box office headway until "Juno" came around, and two SAG nominations (in surprising categories) indicate industry love for the product.

Speaking of "Juno," Jason Reitman's film has been unfairly relegated to consideration as "the 'Little Miss Sunshine' of 2007," when that's really not a computeable comparison.  Nevertheless, naysayers have been left mouth agape as the film has taken some major monetary strides on its way to potentially securing the light-hearted slot of the season with AMPAS.  Reitman's showing up here tomorrow should come as no surprise if it comes to pass, especially given all those TV directors in the guild with ties to actors like Allison Janney, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.

There is a real opportunity for spoilerific things to happen, I think, outside of these strong potential candidates.  Tim Burton, for instance, has already nabbed a nomination from the BFCA and a win with the National Board of Review for helming the screen adaptation of "Sweeney Todd."

Denzel Washington, meanwhile, has seen his film, "The Great Debaters," met with standing ovations at DGA screenings.  But then, who wouldn't stand for Denzel?

Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" has been a critical darling throughout the precursor season, but did his Los Angeles antics while promoting the film leave a bad taste in voters' mouths?

Any number of peripheral surprises could pop up, from James Mangold ("3:10 to Yuma"") to Tony Gilroy (one to really watch for "Michael Clayton"), even Sidney Lumet ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"), a nominee here even when ignored by the Acadey ("Serpico," "Murder on the Orient Express").  David Fincher could even make good on a year-end rally of support for "Zodiac."

The real spoiler to watch, however, might just be Paul Thomas Anderson, whose "There Will Be Blood" has been the talk of the town, at least for the past two weeks.  A nomination tomorrow could be the first real step toward Best Picture aspirations, as an endorsement from the DGA has proven itself to be a telling seal of approval indeed.

But the safe bet always seems to surface, no?  Which leaves us with the very real possibility that Joe Wright could slide in for "Atonement," a film that lost steam after the festival circuit and a strong HFPA showing, but is still lingering in the mix nonetheless.

What do I know, right?  Whatever happens tomorrow, it still ain't the end of the road.  Crazy things happen, like Christopher Nolan grabbing a mention for "Memento" in 2000 or Robert Zemeckis sliding in for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" in 1988.  You just never can be too sure, so we'll have to see what the directors have in store for us in the morning.