The Oscar for Cinematography is not a beauty contest, it isn’t about how pretty a film looks, it is about how well it is lit and photographed, in the same vein, the best director Oscar doesn’t go to the best film, that’s what the best film category is for! While, the Best picture Oscar is really the sum total of all the awards, the acting, the music, the photograph, the script, the direction and all the other elements that make up a film, the best director Oscar, is based purely on the process of directing. It is worth remembering that although the winners are selected by the Academy membership as a whole, the nominations are made by the academy’s directing branch. In other words, the nominations come from the directors and their contemporaries.
This years nominations are: Michael Haneke – Amour, Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild, Ang Lee -Life of Pi, Steven Spielberg – Lincoln David O. Russell -Silver Linings Playbook. I am yet to see Lincoln and Amour so will reserve judgment on the strength of the category but have selected five directors I would have liked to have seen nominated:
Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty
Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
Ben Affleck – Argo
Sam Mendes – Skyfall
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight Rises
Each of them has crafted a fantastic movie that would have been run of the mill in lesser hands if they even existed. All would have been worthy winners.
Should Steven Spielberg win it will put him the elite company of : William Wyler and Frank Capra with three best director Oscars and just one behind John Ford with four. Ang Lee has picked up one win and one other nomination in the category previously (Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon respectively), David O. Russell has been nominated before (The Fighter), it is Michael Haneke’s first nomination. Not only is it Benh Zeitlin’s first nomination, it is his first feature.
Whoever loses, or indeed those who weren’t nominated, it is worth remembering they are in good company, despite thirteen nominations between them Alfred Hitchcock (5), Federico Fellini (4) and Stanley Kubrick (4) didn’t win a single best director Oscar.
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this category was one of the weakest in actual nominations, why Affleck and Bigelow were nominated is a travesty.
Week and baffling!
Thanks for your thoughts. As is often the case, I’ve only seen one of these films so far – Life of Pi. Whilst I enjoyed it and thought that Lee’s direction was skillful, I don’t think he deserves the Oscar this time around.
It feels like this might be Spielberg’s year…
I haven’t seen Lincoln yet so will reserve judgment.
Nice post. Can’t believe Fellini and Kubrick didn’t win Oscars! Outrage!
They are in good company with Hitchcock, David Lynch, Sidney Lumet and Terrence Malick to mention a few more.
I don’t really understand how has Ben Affleck ended up in the nominations. Don’t get me wrong, Argo is not a bad movie, but it’s only average. On the other hand, Kathryn Bigelow has once again shown how talented and visionary she can be. Also Sam Mendes did a great work on Skyfall. Hope one of them is getting the Oscar.
I think you have missed the point, Affleck, Bigelow and Mendes aren’t nominated.
I haven’t seen any of the Best Directors’s movies yet, but I feel comfortable saying Ben Affleck should have received a nomination. Luckily, he got the Golden Globe and the movie as a whole is doing quite well.
He is a producer of Argo so has a best picture nomination for his CV along with the Oscar he won for the
Good Will Hunting screenplay.
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