2017 Oscar Predictions: BEST DIRECTOR (August)

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While Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk enjoys its new #1 status in the Best Picture race, he still sits behind Silence‘s Martin Scorsese for Best Director. Both Oscar-winning directors fall in points to red hot Damien Chazelle (La La Land). Like his film, his stock has risen significantly from last month, up 5 places and 26 points. This bumps down Nate Parker (The Birth of a Nation) and last month’s #4, Jeff Nichols (Loving) is bumped off completely and is now down in ‘Other Contenders.’

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea) and Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) remain buddy-buddy on the list and then three single-vote getters round it out with Clint Eastwood (Sully), Garth Davis (Lion) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) sharing points.

Here are the August Oscar predictions for Best Director from The Gold Rush Gang:

OTHER CONTENDERS
Ava DuVernay – The 13th
Robert Zemeckis – Allied
Ben Younger – Bleed For This
Denzel Washington – Fences
Cédric Jimenez – HHhH
Derek Cianfrance – The Light Between Oceans
Ben Affleck – Live by Night
Yorgios Lanthimos – The Lobster
Jeff Nichols – Loving
Tom Ford – Nocturnal Animals
Morten Tyldum – Passengers

Follow the updated Gold Rush Gang predictions in these Oscar categories here:

BEST PICTURE
BEST DIRECTOR
BEST ACTOR
BEST ACTRESS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BEST FILM EDITING
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
BEST SOUND EDITING
BEST SOUND MIXING

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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