And our picks in the best actor and best actress races can be found here and here. Stay tuned for our takes on the other major categories for the always polarizing Academy Awards.
Brian: We're in the home stretch with only two categories to go. Up next, we have Best Director, which is a category that's in a bit of an odd predicament. They've expanded the Best Picture nominees to 10, but have kept the directors at 5 nominees. This has lead to its fair share of snubs and surprises in recent years (most notably Ben Affleck missing a nomination for eventual Best Picture Argo).
I've also noticed a trend in split Best Picture/Director winners. Whereas these two categories used to go hand in hand, we've seen a split in recent years. After a discussion with my co-worker, I've changed my mind on this as well. I used to lump the Best Picture and Director together because I felt that a Best Picture had to be the best directed film.
However, my coworker is a much more visual person and he likens directing to being able to tell a story without a script. He places shot selection and imagery as a more important part of directing than the plot. Honestly, I can see it both ways. If you look at The Revenant, that was a beautifully directed movie, but not necessarily the best movie of the year. Same with Gravity, The Life of Pi, etc.
I could see a split scenario occurring this year, especially if Black Panther uses its SAG momentum to catapult it to a Best Picture win. The only directing nod that I could see ending up with Best Picture is Roma, so this is a very interesting category... with a few glaring snubs.
Here are the nominees:
Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
Adam McKay (Vice)
Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
Who Will Win: I'm torn on this. I think that Alfonso Cuaron will win for his epic-in-scale, yet personal in story film, Roma. However, he's already won for Gravity, and I don't see Roma with a ton of momentum going in to these Oscars. It could be the film that ends up cleaning up in the "lesser" categories, but fails to notch any of the big awards. I think that Spike Lee might just pull this one off for his long overdue nomination for BlacKkKlansman. Is it his best film? No. However, I would liken this to Scorsese finally winning for The Departed. Maybe it's just the time for Spike Lee.
Who Should Win: Again, it's between Cuaron and Lee for me. I wouldn't be disappointed if either won. Same with Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite.
Snubs/Surprises: My two biggest snubs are Ryan Coogler for Black Panther and Alex Garland for Annihilation. Coogler basically turns everything he touches in to gold and I'm really upset he was left out here. Would he have been included if they had expanded the directing field? Probably.
That Adam McKay nomination really chaps my ass because there were much more deserving people left out. Alex Garland may be the most underrated director working today. He's Denis Villeneuve without the critical acclaim. Yeah, he makes "weird" sci-fi movies, something the Academy has never really warmed up to, but he's a hell of a director and someone I hope people come around to more as his career progresses.
Who takes home your top directing award?
Adam: I thought this was perhaps the most underwhelming category besides Best Actor. I guess the biggest surprise was Pawel Pawilkowski for Cold War, which I haven't seen, but is supposed to be terrific. The lack of female nominees is glaring as is the lack of recognition for directors whose films have made it into the Best Picture race. I agree there are a lot of glaring snubs, although of course as a longtime Spike Lee fan, it is nice to see him finally recognized after all these years.
I am not someone who gets hung up on whether someone wins for the best movie or best performance. I love The Departed, so I'm fine with Scorsese winning for that and I thought BlacKkKlansman was a great comeback movie for Lee, even though he should have been nominated and won for Do the Right Thing 30 years ago.
Who will win: Alfonso Cuaron. That being said I think with some major would-be contenders like Bradley Cooper on the sidelines, I think Cuaron has this locked up. He seems to be cleaning up in the precursor awards, and his semi-autobiographical film is very much his personal vision. He has already won once -- deservedly -- for Gravity, and this epic film further demonstrates his skill and range. I always like to see the wealth spread around at the Oscars (I was bummed when Inarritu won two years in a row), but I think few will quibble with this result.
Who should win: This is tough one for me too. I have immense respect for Cuaron and I'd love to see Spike Lee win, but my favorite film represented in this category is ironically The Favourite, so I'm gonna go with Yorgos Lanthimos, a filmmaker I have not totally embraced until now. His bleak, darkly comic style grated on me in the past but I thought this film got the balance of darkness and light just right and I think his film is the best directed of this bunch.
Snubs/Surprises: For me its gotta be Ryan Coogler. Black Panther would have been just another superhero movie without him and he imbued that movie with so much style and sophistication, it's just a travesty that he was never a real contender here. I actually think Bradley Cooper deserved to get in for A Star Is Born, a wonderful and moving re-interpretation of a classic showbiz tale.
I haven't been singing First Man's praises as much as I've meant to but for me Damian Chazelle demonstrated with that movie that he is too good to ignore. Lynne Ramsey did excellent work on You Were Never Really Here. The Coens did more effortlessly great work with The Ballad of Buster Scuggs. But, I'm just glad Peter Farrelly and Bryan Singer didn't get in for fairly obvious reasons.
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