That list of award nominations? May be getting to be two arms long, rather than just one, now that the Directors Guild has announced its nominations for achievement in television direction. And… you guessed it, HBO’s Game of Thrones makes that list too.
In this case, it’s veteran director Tim van Patten getting acknowledged for his excellent work in directing the first episode of the series, “Winter is Coming”. Here’s the write-up the DGA nomination provides for the director:
“This is Mr. Van Patten’s eighth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for his Sex and the City episodes “Boy Interrupted” (2003) and for “An American Girl in Paris: Part Deux” (2004). He was previously nominated in the Movies for Television and Mini-Series category in 2010 for The Pacific, “Okinawa”. He is also a four-time nominee in the Dramatic Series category for his work on The Sopranos with “Whoever Did This” (2002), “Long Term Parking” (2004), “Members Only” (2006) and “Sopranos Home Movies” (2007).”
His competition? Michael Cuesta for the pilot of Homeland, Vince Gilligan for Breaking Bad‘s “Face Off”, Patty Jenkins for the pilot of The Killing (which, despite all the problems that developed as the show barreled to the end, was a beautifully directed episode, in my opinion), and Michael Waxman for Friday Night Lights‘s “Always”.
Van Patten’s extensive prior record with the DGA, while all the others are first-time nominees, may make it seem like he’d be the favorite. And, who knows, maybe he is. But all the other directors are absolutely worthy, so it seems to us that the award could be anyone’s this season. Still, we’ll be partisan and cheer on Van Patten and Game of Thrones.