The 83rd Academy Awards: Best Director Nominations

Oscar is rolling out the red carpet February 27, 2011 for the Academy Awards Ceremony. Here's a little teaser of the Best Director nominations, with my own attempt at a prediction.

Darren Aronofsky gets his first Oscar nomination for Best Director with "Black Swan." It seems fitting since Aronofsky's self-proclaimed companion piece to "The Wrestler" got nominated in the acting categories. Ellen Burstyn was also nominated for Best Actress for her tormented performance in Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream."

David O. Russell also gets his first Oscar nomination for Best Director with "The Fighter." The film was the director's first in nearly 6 years and has received a number of awards and 7 total Oscar nominations.

Tom Hooper is making a seriously acclaimed name for himself directing historical features. His direction of "The King's Speech" marks his first Oscar nomination, although he has won several awards for his television productions. Hooper has won the Hollywood Award for Film Director with the "The King's Speech" and also the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award in Feature Film.

Returning to the race is David Fincher for "The Social Network", who was also nominated for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Fincher lost to "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle in 2009 and several critics expressed disappointment that Fincher had not been nominated for his work on "Zodiac" in 2007.

Joel and Ethan Coen also make a run with "True Grit" for their second Best Director Oscar from "No Country for Old Men." Joel Coen was also nominated for Best Director for their 1996 film "Fargo." The Coen Brothers are certainly big Oscar favorites having received multiple nominations and awards for 7 of their films.

Prediction: The DGA picked Tom Hooper and there has only been 6 times the DGA has not picked the director to also take the Oscar in 63 years. Hooper certainly fulfilled the Academy's favoritism check-list for Historical Films. Yet, the Oscar nod to Darren Aronofsky has been a long time coming and Fincher took the Golden Globe award. It's a director's job to make all the elements come together and it feels like Hooper pulled this off the best in "The King's Speech."

Who do you think will win Best Actor? Play Pickem at Yahoo! Movies