Boyle, Fincher & Nolan get DGA nods

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The Directors Guild of America has nominated Danny Boyle, David Fincher, Ron Howard, Christopher Nolan and Gus Van Sant for its top film honor.

The five men are respectively the directors of "Slumdog Millionaire," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "The Dark Knight" and "Milk."

They were nominated for the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for the Year 2008, DGA Third Vice President Taylor Hackford announced Thursday.

"A film is a collaboration, but it is the director's energy and vision that brings the elements of script, performance and production into a satisfying totality. Today's nominees demonstrate how vision, combined with skill and talent, creates magic on the screen," Hackford said in a statement. "What makes this award truly meaningful to directors is the knowledge that only this award is decided solely by their peers -- the men and women who live the passion, sweat and fear that goes into creating feature films."

The winner will be named at the 61st annual DGA Awards Dinner Jan. 31 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.