LOS ANGELES — Sean Penn and Denzel Washington got the accolades Tuesday when the Directors Guild of America and NAACP Image Awards were announced.
Penn earned a nomination as best filmmaker from the directors for his tragic road tale “Into the Wild,” along with Joel and Ethan Coen for their bloody crime saga “No Country for Old Men.”
Washington was a force to be reckoned when the 39th annual National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awards sent eight nominations his way for the civil-rights drama “The Great Debaters,” which he directed and starred in. The nominations included best film, director and actor for Washington. The film was also nominated for actress for Jurnee Smollett, supporting actor for Denzel Whitaker, Forest Whitaker and Nate Parker, and writing for Robert Eisele.
Other Directors Guild nominees included: Paul Thomas Anderson for his historical epic “There Will Be Blood,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a baron of California’s oil boom in the early 20th century; Tony Gilroy for his legal drama “Michael Clayton,” featuring George Clooney as a conscience-torn attorney in a corporate lawsuit; and Julian Schnabel for his real-life memoir “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” with Mathieu Amalric as French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was paralyzed by a stroke.
Penn’s “Into the Wild” stars Emile Hirsch in the true-life story of Christopher McCandless, a young idealist whose two-year journey through America ended in tragedy in the Alaska wilderness.
“No Country for Old Men” features Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin in the tale of a sheriff and a vicious killer both on the trail of a Texas good ol’ boy who makes off with a fortune left behind at a drug deal gone awry.
Except for Joel Coen, previously nominated for “Fargo,” the guild choices all were first-time nominees.
Throughout the 60-year history of the guild honors, the winner almost always has gone on to win the best-directing prize at the Academy Awards, including last year’s recipient, Martin Scorsese for “The Departed.” The guild will announce the winner at a dinner Jan. 26, four days after Oscar nominations come out. The Oscars are scheduled for Feb. 24.
Other films vying for the NAACP Image Award in the motion picture category are “American Gangster,” “I Am Legend,” “Talk to Me” and “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?”
The NAACP Image Awards honor projects and individuals that promote diversity in arts, TV, recording, literature and motion picture.
