Oscar pick-a-palooza year three: Who is the Best Director?

George Miller on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road

This is the fourth in a series of of annual Oscar predictions posts featuring myself and my friend Brian Wezowicz of Too Fat 4 Skinny Jeans. 

Check out his blog and give it some love and in the meantime, read our take on this year's Academy Award nominees.

BRIAN: Uggghhhhhhh! Ah, yes... the age old problem of racism against whites. See you at the next Donald Trump rally Charlotte. Yikes! I wonder how she'll feel about today's emergency measures taken by the Academy to ensure diversity within the nominees. I don't quite know how to segue from that to our next category, so I'll just go ahead and cut straight to the chase.

I feel like this is a strong group of directors. From the big and bold world of the apocalypse (Miller) to perhaps the most innovative director working today (Iñárritu), to a great director working out of his comfort zone (McKay), I feel like we have a dynamite group of directors. I'm really torn here. I love the fact that George Miller was nominated. Besides Stallone, there isn't a more rewarding "comeback" story in this year's race than George Miller.

I wasn't the biggest Mad Max fan growing up, and so it took me awhile to see Fury Road in the theaters. But my hesitation was completely without merit. Without exaggeration, it may be one of the most beautiful films ever made, certainly one of the most exciting. Throw in the fact that it may be one of the most feminist action movies ever made and you have the perfect recipe for an Oscar winner (plus, it was just so damn fun!). However, I feel like the tide is swelling for The Revenant and it could be in for a big night.

Here are the nominees:

DIRECTING 
Adam McKay - The Big Short
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson - Room
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight

Who Will Win: Iñárritu

I don't think anything is slowing this one down. The only thing that could keep him back is I don't believe there has ever been a back to back directing winner. Hell, you can probably count the number of major category back to back winners on one hand. Was Tom Hanks the last to do it? I know that Christoph Waltz won two Oscars, but his movies weren't released in two straight years.

Who Should Win: George Miller

I honestly can't remember seeing a movie quite like Mad Max: Fury Road. It's the best Max movie by a long shot. The Academy loves big time event movies (Gladiator, Return Of The King, Braveheart, etc.), so I could see them going with Miller here. I may have to go home and watch this movie tonight!

Adam McKay

Dark Horse: I really think that it's either one or the other, but If I had to pick one I would go with Adam McKay. His first dip into drama was a surprising success.

Who you got?

ADAM: Are we going to come back to Best Actor? I think the so-called emergency measures are long overdue. I've always thought it was absurd that you had these ancient Oscar voters who reportedly don't even watch most of the films and who are so disconnected from what's happening in the movies that they aren't familiar with any actor under the age of 40 who isn't named Jennifer Lawrence.

It's sad that it took the embarrassment of #OscarsSoWhite to do something dramatic, but hey it took a massacre in a church to bring down the Confederate flag in South Carolina, so what can you do.

This is a really hard category to predict. I think at least four of the five nominees have a legit chance to win. I agree that George Miller has the best "comeback" narrative. After doing some kids movies, he got back to what he does best -- mind blowing action that is both gorgeous to look at and staged (mostly) for real. Iñárritu is on a real hot streak with The Revenant coming right after his triumph with Birdman. McCarthy made one of the best journalism films of all time with Spotlight and Adam McKay showed he has real range, with his first serious film The Big Short. Room is terrific, but I think Lenny Abrahamson's nomination is his reward here.

I'm still smarting over the the snub of Ryan Coogler for his work on Creed, and quite frankly J.J. Abrams, who did a miraculous job rejuvenating Star Wars, deserved some consideration too, but I digress.

Who will win: This is so hard but I am going to take a risk here and say George Miller.

I think he will benefit from the entirety of the academy voting for this one, and arguably of all the nominees his film is the most distinctly a director's movie. At 70, I think voters understand that he's due and as well-received as The Revenant is I don't see Iñárritu winning Best Director two years in a row. I also feel like McCarthy's film is just too small to win, but I could be wrong.

Who should win: George Miller

This is a no brainer for me because Mad Max: Fury Road was my favorite movie of the year. I thought the film was visionary and original and a win for him would be an acknowledgment of what an ambitious feat he pulled off.

Dark horse: Adam McKay

His film just won the PGA, which I think makes it a dark horse to win Best Picture, and while these two awards sometimes split, they usually don't. The Big Short is enough of a crowd pleaser and not particularly divisive with critics, so it might pull off an upset here.