2018 Oscar Predictions: BEST DIRECTOR (June) – Spielberg is Tops; Sean Baker, Jordan Peele, Sofia Coppola Debut

Erik Anderson June 5, 2017

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As with Best Picture, Todd Haynes enjoyed a single month at #1 with Wonderstruck but falls all the way down to #7 in Best Director for June. Also the same as Best Picture, Steven Spielberg jumps over Detroit‘s Kathryn Bigelow for the top spot.

Joe Wright (Darkest Hour) and Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) make small moves up with Haynes’ departure as does Denis Villeneuve for Blade Runner 2049. The race for those two spots is within a single point of each other and Call My By Your Name‘s Luca Guadagnino, at #6, is only just a single point from that. A very tight race this season.

Sean Baker is the top debut this month for The Florida Project, landing at #8 – just as his film did in Best Picture. Jordan Peele (Get Out), Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) and Cannes Best Director winner Sofia Coppola (The Beguiled) are the other debuts; at 11, 13 and 18, respectively.

Michael Haneke (Happy End), Richard Linklater (Last Flag Flying) and Darren Aronofsky (mother!) fall off the list and Alfonso Gómez-Rejón (The Current War) re-enters at #13.

Here are the 2018 Oscar predictions in Best Director for June from the Gold Rush Gang. Keep an eye on all of the Gold Rush Gang’s 2018 Oscar predictions updated LIVE throughout the month.

Green – moves up from last month
Red – moves down from last month
Blue – debut/new entry
Orange – re-entry

	BEST DIRECTOR	ERIK ANDERSON	BRYAN BONAFEDE	GREG HOWARD	EVAN KOST	JASON OSIASON	KENNETH POLISHCHUK	DENIZCAN SÜRÜCÜ	RICHARD ANTHONY	ŞÜKRÜ SÖĞÜT	MATT DINN	TOTAL POINTS

1	Steven Spielberg – Untitled Pentagon Papers Project	2	1	3	1	10	2	2	1	1	2	85
2	Kathryn Bigelow – Detroit	1	4	1	2	9	3	1	6	2	1	80
3	Joe Wright – Darkest Hour	3		2	5	2	6	4	5	3	5	64
4	Christopher Nolan – Dunkirk	8	2	5	4	5	7	8	7	4	4	56
5	Denis Villeneuve – Blade Runner 2049	4	6	6	7	4	5	5	4	5	9	55

6	Luca Guadagnino – Call Me By Your Name	6	3	7	3	1	10	7	3	10	6	54
7	Dan Gilroy – Inner City (possibly 2018)		9	8		3		3	2	8	3	41
8	Sean Baker – The Florida Project		5		6	6	1	10		9	8	32
9	Todd Haynes – Wonderstruck	7			8		4	6		7		23
10	Andrew Haigh – Lean on Pete	5	8	10		8			8	6		21
11	Jordan Peele – Get Out		7		9	7	8				7	17
12	Dee Rees – Mudbound	10		4				9				10
13	Alexander Payne – Downsizing			9								2
13	George Clooney – Suburbicon						9					2
13	Paul Thomas Anderson – Phantom Thread		10								10	2
13	Michael Gracey – The Greatest Showman	9										2
13	Alfonso Gómez-Rejón – The Current War								9			2
18	Martin McDonaugh – Three Bilboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri								10			1
18	Sofia Coppola – The Beguiled				10							1

	OTHER CONTENDERS
	Aaron Sorkin – Molly’s Game
	Andy Serkis – Breathe
	Darren Aronofsky – mother!
	David Gordon Green – Stronger
	Garth Davis – Mary Magdalene
	Guillermo Del Toro – The Shape of Water
	Michael Haneke – Happy End
	Reginald Hudlin – Marshall
	Richard Linklater – Last Flag Flying
	Sebastián Lelio – Disobedience
	Stephen Frears – Victoria and Abdul
	Woody Allen – Wonder Wheel
	Yorgos Lanthimos – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

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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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.