“Precious” director Lee Daniels gets nominated for Directors Guild of America Award, makes history

A big congratulations to out director Lee Daniels who was among the five feature film directors nominated Thursday for the coveted Director’s Guild of America prize.

Daniels, director of Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire is the first African-American to be nominated in the category. Openly gay director Rob Marshall won the DGA prize in 2003 for Chicago.

His competition is past DGA winner James Cameron for Avatar, former nominee  Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, and fellow first-time nominees Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and Jason Reitman for Up in the Air.

The DGA nominations often mirror the Academy Awards field and the winner almost always also goes on to take the Oscar. If Daniels also earns an Oscar nod, he will be only the second African-American nominee in the category following John Singleton who was nominated for the 1991 film Boyz in the Hood.