2018 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Director

February 21, 2019

Roma

With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Director, which is not exactly competitive, but it is yet another category where we have a favorite, but where an upset wouldn’t be too shocking.

(Note: All previous awards listed are only for directing and not other categories.)

Best Director

Alfonso Cuarón for Roma
Tomatometer Score: 96% Positive
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Film: Golden Globe, BAFTA, and DGA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Film: Golden Globe, BAFTA, and DGA
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Career: One Oscar, One Golden Globe, One BAFTA, and One DGA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Career: One Oscar, One Golden Globe, One BAFTA, and One DGA
Notes: Alfonso Cuarón has won every previous major award he was nominated for and there’s a good chance Roma is the big winner on Oscar night. On the down side, he did win an Oscar for directing not too many years ago and foreign-language films rarely win awards outside of the Best Foreign-language Film category.

Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite
Tomatometer Score: 94% Positive
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Film: BAFTA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Film: None
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Career: None
Director's Previous Major Wins, Career: None
Notes: I wouldn’t be surprised if Yorgos Lanthimos won an Oscar for directing during his career, but not this year. He’s probably not the longest of the long shots here, but it’s close.

Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman
Tomatometer Score: 96% Positive
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Film: Golden Globe, BAFTA, and DGA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Film: None
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Career: One Oscar, One Golden Globe, One BAFTA, and One DGA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Career: One Oscar, One Golden Globe, One BAFTA, and One DGA
Notes: If anyone is going to score the upset in this category, it’s going to be Spike Lee. Many, if not most people agree that he should have won for Do the Right Thing and Oscar voters do like to give make-up awards. Additionally, this is arguably his best movie in a over a decade. I would be happy if he won, but also a little surprised.

Adam McKay for Vice
Tomatometer Score: 66% Positive
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Film: Golden Globe and DGA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Film: None
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Career: One Oscar, One BAFTA, and One DGA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Career: None
Notes: This film has by far the weakest reviews in this category and might be the longest of the long shots to win.

Paweł Pawlikowski for Cold War
Tomatometer Score: 96% Positive
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Film: BAFTA
Director's Previous Major Wins, Film: None
Director's Previous Major Nominations, Career: None
Director's Previous Major Wins, Career: None
Notes: Part of me feels bad for the people who made Cold War. The film earned three Oscar nominations and normally when a foreign-language film does that, it would be a big story. However, this year, the film is completely overshadowed by Roma and will likely go home empty handed. That said, it still earned three Oscar nominations and has been doing really well at the box office for a limited release, so everyone involved should be very proud of their work.

Conclusion: Alfonso Cuarón should win for Roma, unless Spike Lee get the make-up Oscar for being snubbed for Do the Right Thing. That’s not likely, but if it happens, it likely won’t be the biggest surprise of the night.


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Filed under: Awards Season, Vice, Roma, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Zimna wojna, Alfonso Cuarón, Spike Lee, Adam McKay, Paweł Pawlikowski, Yorgos Lanthimos