Ang Lee has two previous DGA wins ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain") out of three nominations.
Kathryn Bigelow previously won a DGA Award for "The Hurt Locker." This is her second nomination.
This is the first DGA nomination for Ben Affleck.
Steven Spielberg has three previous DGA wins ("The Color Purple," "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan") out of 10 nominations. He also won the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
Tom Hooper won a DGA Award for "The King's Speech" and was also nominated for the TV miniseries "John Adams." This is his third nomination.