2019 Oscar Predictions: BEST DIRECTOR (May) – Spike Lee Moves Up

Erik Anderson May 22, 2018

Spike Lee with the Grand Prix award for BlacKkKlansman at the 7st Cannes Film Festival (Photo: Vianney Le Caer)

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As with Best Picture, the top of the list remains in tact with Steve McQueen (Widows), Adam McKay (Backseat), Damien Chazelle (First Man) keeping their 1-2-3 spots. I’ve switched Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) and Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) on the strength of Lee’s Grand Prix win at Cannes this last weekend.

It’s 6-10 that sees changes (again, as in BP) with moves up for Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) and Jason Reitman (The Front Runner). That drops Karyn Kusama (Destroyer) and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) down a bit. Josie Rourke (Mary Queen of Scots) moves up one spot this month.

Looking at the Cannes lineup and winners this year it’s unlikely anyone outside of Spike Lee, who was already a top contender, will factor in the upper tiers of Best Director predictions but I am adding Jury Prize winner Nadine Labaki, whose Capernaum was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics and Screenplay winner Alice Rohrwacher, whose Happy as Lazzaro was picked up by Netflix.

Here are my predictions for Best Director as of May 22, 2018.

Green – moves up
Red – moves down
Blue – chart debut

1. Steve McQueen – Widows

2. Adam McKay – Backseat

3. Damien Chazelle – First Man

4. Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman

5. Barry Jenkins – If Beale Street Could Talk

6. Marielle Heller – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

7. Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born

8. Jason Reitman – The Front Runner

9. Josie Rourke – Mary Queen of Scots

10. Karyn Kusama – Destroyer

NEXT UP

James Gray – Ad Astra

Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite

Ryan Coogler – Black Panther

Alfonso Cuarón – Roma

Pippa Bianco – Untitled Pippa Bianco aka Share

OTHER CONTENDERS

Felix van Groeningen – Beautiful Boy

Dexter Fletcher – Bohemian Rhapsody

Nadine Labaki – Capernaum

Jon M. Chu – Crazy Rich Asians

Asghar Farhadi – Everybody Knows

Julia Hart – Fast Color

Sebastián Lelio – Gloria Bell

Alice Rohrwacher – Happy as Lazzaro

Ari Aster – Hereditary

Kim Nyugen – The Hummingbird Project

Wes Anderson – Isle of Dogs

Justin Kelly – JT Leroy

Thomas Vinterberg – Kursk

Debra Granik – Leave No Trace

Paolo Sorrentino – Loro

Rob Marshall – Mary Poppins Returns

Jonah Hill – Mid 90s

Jennifer Kent – The Nightingale

David Lowery – Old Man and the Gun

Mimi Leder – On the Basis of Sex

David Mackenzie – Outlaw King

Mike Leigh – Peterloo

Jacques Audiard – The Sisters Brothers

László Nemes – Sunset

Luca Guadagnino – Suspiria

Jason Reitman – Tully

Benh Zeitlin – Wendy

Richard Linklater – Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Susanna White – Woman Walks Ahead

Robert Zemeckis – The Women of Marwen

Lynne Ramsay – You Were Never Really Here

2019 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE (May)

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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.