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Happy (belated) New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2010, either the end or the beginning of a decade, depending on which calendar you go by, whether or not you're ignoring all of the decade-end lists that have been popping up on various Web sites, and from various newspaper critics. As we enter the first month of the new year, and the dregs of new releases (excluding, of course, the 2009 films that are expanding this month), this week's In Contention will focus on lots of guild-related news, specifically the Producers Guild and the Directors Guild, both of which announced this week. The final big guild to announce, the Writers Guild, will announce on Monday, the 11th. More importantly, we'll look at what this means for the upcoming Oscar nominations, which come down on Groundhog Day, February 2nd.

But, before we begin our rundown of awards, a bit of odd and bad news. When you read next week's In Contention column, we're going to discuss, as I mentioned, the Writers Guild of America nominations. I'm warning you now so you don't find yourself with a quizzical look on your face for the entire week that a heaping helping of movies are not going to be among the WGA nominations. Moreover, when I say "a heaping helping of movies", I mean movies that have a strong shot at getting screenplay nominations at the Oscars. Some WGA-ineligible contenders are Up, In the Loop, District 9, Fantastic Mr. Fox, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, The Road, and A Single Man. You may have noted, and wisely, that a lot of these movies have a damn good chance the Oscars. Not at the WGAs, unfortunately.

Why? There are two big reasons: either the writers of those films are not WGA members (including, of all people, Quentin Tarantino, who's never been a WGA member), or those films' scripts were not made under the WGA's strict guidelines, and are thus ineligible. Does this mean anything for any of these films' chances at writing nods at the Academy Awards? No; they're all eligible to be nominated at the Oscars, and a majority of them will likely get those nods. I'm just trying my best to calm the wave of people throwing up their hands in disgust and/or confusion. If anything, we can all scratch our collective heads about why the WGA has such odd guidelines as to exclude so many potential nominees, but that's about it.

With that out of the way, let's get to the big news. The Directors Guild of America announced its awards on Thursday, the 7th, and there were no surprises here. The five nominees are Kathryn Bigelow, for The Hurt Locker; James Cameron, for Avatar; Lee Daniels, for Precious; Jason Reitman, for Up in the Air; and Quentin Tarantino, for Inglourious Basterds. In short, folks, don't be shocked if these are the five directors and films that are the frontrunners at the Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. There's no question that all of the films have a major shot at the big prize. Before these two guilds announced, there was some skepticism about Daniels' shot at getting an Oscar nod, but the DGA seems to have solidified their choices.

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