How long is it before something that was previously unpredictable becomes so common that it goes from trend to guarantee? That’s what’s been happening in the ever-evolving race for Best Director and its connection to Best Picture and more.
In the era of five Best Picture nominees, we’d often have what we called ‘the lone director’ nomination; a director who would get nominated when their film was not nominated for Best Picture, like Billy Wilder for Some Like It Hot or Martin Scorsese for The Last Temptation of Christ. It happened twice to both Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho and Rear Window) and David Lynch (Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr.). The phrase itself has always been a bit of a misnomer, implying the Best Director nomination is a film’s only nod and indeed in the case of Lynch, both times it was true. This period these ‘lone directors’ were a combination of respected veterans, auteurs and non-English language film helmers (or a combination of the three), like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini. The directing branch, who votes separately in their category like all branches, often thinks outside the box, outside of the Best Picture norms.
That has held true until the era of the expanded Best Picture lineup that began in 2009. For the next five years, with anywhere from 8-10 Best Picture nominees, there was always a corresponding Best Director for it. Then, 2014’s Foxcatcher earned five Oscar nominations, including writing and two acting nods but also for Bennett Miller’s direction even though the film missed the 8-film lineup. As it was the first time since the expansion that had happened it was glaring, as there were, essentially, three more chances than they’re used to be. Then it happened again with Paweł Pawlikowski 2018’s Cold War but it felt different. Pawlikowski had won Best Director at Cannes and the film was nomination for (the then named) Foreign Language Film Oscar. To its unfortunate timing, he and the film were nominated alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma in that category and in cinematography and directing, losing all three bids to Cuarón. Then two years later, the (now called) International Feature Film frontrunner Another Round, earned Thomas Vinterberg a spot in Best Director without BP. In between there was the breakthrough that was Parasite, the first non-English language film to win the Best Picture Oscar and taking its director, Bong Joon Ho, along with it. Then last season we saw Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car land in Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and win IFF.
What does all of this mean? Does it mean anything? If we’re looking at the Cannes-to-Oscar pipeline, it does. Or at least it’s a good start.
This weekend’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, the satire on excess Triangle of Sadness, is Ruben Östlund’s English-language debut and is someone who’s felt on the cusp of going from foreign auteur to being pulled into the U.S. awards gravity not unlike Yorgos Lanthimos and his Oscar breakthrough The Favourite. Is Triangle of Sadness getting 10 nominations like The Favourite did? No, definitely not. But with NEON backing him, his Parasite by way of Don’t Look Up, he should be taken seriously as a contender.
After the success of Parasite, Minari and Drive My Car, the Academy finally opening its doors to more consistent Asian representation in Best Director and Best Picture is definitely starting to look real and not simply one and done fix of a long-standing dismissal. Park Chan-wook’s Cannes Best Director win for Decision to Leave gives him a huge boost and even though his film has an unproven Oscar distributor, that shouldn’t be quite the hindrance we sometimes think it is after Janus Films got Drive My Car all the way to the finish line. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker may not have secured one of the fest’s top film prizes but Song Kang-ho’s Best Actor win could be enough to keep the film in conversation throughout the season as NEON will undoubtedly push him hard. But, they also have the Palme winner. Decisions, decisions.
1. Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)
2. Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films)
3. Damien Chazelle – Babylon (Paramount Pictures)
4. Sarah Polley – Women Talking (MGM/UAR)
5. Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Bardo (Netflix)
6. The Daniels – Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
7. Park Chan-wook – Decision to Leave (MUBI)
8. Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures)
9. Darren Aronofsky – The Whale (A24)
10. James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios)
11. Florian Zeller – The Son (Sony Pictures Classics)
12. Sam Mendes – Empire of Light (Searchlight Pictures)
13. Ruben Östlund – Triangle of Sadness (NEON)
14. Todd Field – TÁR (Focus Features)
15. Ridley Scott – Napoleon (Apple Original Films)
16. Hirozaku Kore-eda – Broker (NEON)
17. Maria Schrader – She Said (Universal Pictures)
18. Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures)
19. Ron Howard – Thirteen Lives (MGM/UAR)
20. Noah Baumbach – White Noise (Netflix)
Other contenders (alphabetical):
Without distribution
1. The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films)
3. Babylon (Paramount Pictures)
4. Bardo (Netflix)
5. Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
6. Avatar: The Way of Water – 20th Century Studios
7. Women Talking (MGM/UAR)
8. The Son (Sony Pictures Classics)
9. Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures)
10. Empire of Light (Searchlight Pictures)
11. TÁR (Focus Features)
12. Triangle of Sadness (NEON)
13. Broker (NEON)
14. The Whale (A24)
15. The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures)
16. Elvis (Warner Bros)
17. She Said (Universal Pictures)
18. Napoleon (Apple Original Films)
19. Decision to Leave (MUBI)
20. White Noise (Netflix)
Other contenders (alphabetical):
Without distribution
Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt… Read More
SFFILM announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition and the Audience Awards at the 67th San Francisco International… Read More
Apple TV+ today debuted the teaser for Presumed Innocent, the upcoming, eight-part limited series starring… Read More
Michael Showalter was a bit of a weirdo comedy maverick during his initial years in… Read More
Frameline48, the largest LGBTQ+ cinema showcase in California, runs June 19-29, 2024 and will announce… Read More
In what feels like a long time ago, in our own galaxy not far, far… Read More
This website uses cookies.