The 69th Annual DGA Awards will be handed on Saturday, February 4, 2017.

As I have been doing for a few years, as we get into the awards season, I’ll post the fictional ballots for some of the guild awards, showing what my vote would be if I had one. I will, as a rule, abstain from my fictional vote if I haven’t seen at least half of the nominees. And to be perfectly clear, I’m not a member of any of these guilds and organizations.

The list of nominees can be seen here.

Here it goes.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: abstain (The five nominated films were not seen.)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director: abstain (Lion, The Edge of Seventeen, 10 Cloverfield Lane not seen.)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film: Dennis Villeneuve for Arrival

A director is, first and foremost, a storyteller. The story that Villeneuve is telling may or may not have been of his creation, but everything else is his responsibility: from the intriguing, engaging structure, to the note-perfect acting; from the rich sound design and score to the efficient visual aspects. A rare serious science fiction film, one that manages to be very intelligent, meaningful and touching is the result. (Not seen Lion and Moonlight.)