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)

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON - May 23, 2026
• Cannes 2026: Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ Wins Un Certain Regard Grand Prize - May 22, 2026
• ‘Coward’ Review: Belgian Soldiers Find Love in Lukas Dhont’s Hidden Romance Masterpiece [A] Cannes - May 21, 2026