Upset alert! Many have assumed for the last several months that The Social Network would pretty much clean up come Oscar time, but over the last week or so, the race has gotten a lot more muddled. The King's Speech led the field with 12 Academy Award Nominations, and now the film has just picked up another major precursor award. Could David Fincher actually be in trouble? Director Tom Hooper just won the prestigious Outstanding Directorial Feature Award from the Director's Guild, and if history is any indication, that's not a good sign.
According to Deadline, there have only been 6 times in history that the Director's Guild honoree didn't match the Oscar category, most recently Roman Polanski in 2002. Clearly there were other issues in play that time around.
Just last week, our own Oscar expert Katey Rich said Fincher's statue was coming, but now it seems he may no longer even be the frontrunner. Are we finally starting to see The Social Network backlash that so many predicted or was tonight's surprise victory simply a stumbling block?
Stay tuned for more analysis on what this might mean in the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards.
