Directors Guild announces nominees for documentary filmmaking

Credit: Magnolia Pictures

The DGA will award the recipients of its prizes for directing on February 2. For now, however, the venerable Guild has followed up last week's nomination announcements for narrative filmmaking with its nominations for documentary filmmaking.

The nominees via Hitfix:

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" (Alison Klayman)
"How to Survive a Plague" (David France)
"The Invisible War" (Kirby Dick)
"The Queen of Versailles" (Lauren Greenfield)
"Searching for Sugar Man" (Malik Bendjelloul)

"The Queen of Versailles" and "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" missed out on corresponding Oscar nominations, yet the critically-acclaimed documentaries still have a shot at awards season glory. "Queen" in particular was considered an Oscar frontrunner, having won the Directing Award at Sundance and the Grand Jury Prize at the Brisbane International Film Festival. The film charts a husband and his straight-off-of-Bravo wife as they attempt to build the largest and most expensive single-family house in the US, until the economic crisis hits and throws their plans into disarray.

The winners will be announced Feb 2.