HispanicBusiness

Oscar hopefuls Steven Spielberg and Katherine Bigelow were nominated Tuesday for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award in a key stepping stone to Oscar glory.

Also nominated for the DGA's outstanding directorial achievement were Ben Affleck, for his Iran hostage drama Argo; Ang Lee for the shipwreck drama Life of Pi; and Tom Hooper for the musical Les Miserables. Spielberg was nominated for his presidential history film Lincoln, while Bigelow's nod came for the Bin Laden hunt movie Zero Dark Thirty.

The award will be announced on February 2 and is considered a good indicator of the Oscar directorial winner since there is a large overlap among the two groups of voters. Last year, the French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius won the DGA award with the silent film The Artist and later also won the directing Oscar.