AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 235: Best Director Oscar Winners Tier Ranking – Part 2

On episode 235 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Cody Dericks, and Josh Parham conclude their tier ranking of the 97 Best Director winners from the Academy Awards.

In the second part of the Best Picture tier rankings (listen to Part 1 here), the AW team start in the 1980s and go all the way to the most recent winners of Best Director. This is where our hosts and audience are able to talk about the films they have most likely seen the most, and see the expansion of the limited “S tier,” where compromise and sacrifices of some member’s favorites are placed lower than you would be expected. But there are plenty of surprises amongst the team, leading to a fascinating final ranking of these 97 winners, including Ang Lee, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Sam Mendes, Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan and Chloé Zhao. This was another fun exercise getting to talk about some of the best (and not so great) winners of all time and the team really hopes you enjoy this part as much as part one.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 3h06m. We will be back next week to review Richard Linklater’s latest film Hit Man and participate in a fun draft to determine who are the greatest movie stars of all time. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

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Ryan McQuade

Ryan McQuade is the AwardsWatch Executive Editor and a film-obsessed writer in San Antonio, Texas. Raised on musicals, westerns, and James Bond, his taste in cinema is extremely versatile. He’s extremely fond of independent releases and director’s passion projects. Engrossed with all things Oscars, he hosts the AwardsWatch Podcast. He also is co-host of the Director Watch podcast. When he’s not watching movies, he’s rooting on all his favorite sports teams, including his beloved Texas Longhorns. You can follow him on Twitter at @ryanmcquade77.

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