2021 Oscar Predictions: BEST DIRECTOR (September)

Florian Zeller (The Father) and George C. Rolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) move up into the top 10 this month as Ron Howard (Hillbilly Elegy) and Francis Lee (Ammonite) drop to Other Contenders.

Dropping from the list this month are the 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures efforts West Side Story (directed by Steven Spielberg), The French Dispatch (directed by Wes Anderson) and Next Goal Wins (directed by Taika Waititi) as Walt Disney Studios has shuffled off a handful of films to deeper into 2021. Focus Features’ Stillwater (directed by Tom McCarthy) is also gone as it will almost definitely be moved far off into 2021.

Here are my 2021 Oscar predictions in Best Director for September.

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month

• Spike Lee – Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
• Denis Villeneuve – Dune (Warner Bros) [moved to October 2021]
• Florian Zeller – The Father (Sony Classics Pictures)
• Chloé Zhao – Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
• Shaka King – Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros)
• George C. Wolfe – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
• David Fincher – Mank (Netflix)
• Paul Greengrass – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
• Regina King – One Night in Miami… (Amazon)
• Aaron Sorkin – The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)

Other contenders: Francis Lee – Ammonite (Neon) Lee Isaac Chung – Minari (A24), Ron Howard – Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix), George Clooney – The Midnight Sky (Netflix), Eliza Hittman – Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features) Sofia Coppola – On the Rocks (Apple/A24), Kornél Mundruczó – Pieces of a Woman (Netflix), Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman (Focus Features), Christopher Nolan – Tenet (Warner Bros), Lee Daniels – The United States vs Billie Holiday (Paramount)