I think it's safe to say that the days of the lone Best Director nod are over. With ten nominees for Best Picture, your Directing nominees are going to be five of those ten. From my ten predicted Best Picture nominees, the five I'm guessing to land a Director nod are the ones who have been nominated there before.
The first, and most famous of whom, is
Steven Spieberg. who was last nominated in 2006 for
Munich. He looks to have a high-profile year with
The Adventures of Tintin likely to make a big box-office impact and
War Horse to tantalize awards-voting bodies at year's end. Spielberg has been one America's most important filmmakers since the 1970s, and assuming that he'll earn the Academy's attention is seldom far-fetched.
Also nominated in 2006 (for
Capote) was
Bennett Miller, directing this year's baseball-centred drama
Moneyball. Some are quick to chalk his
Capote nomination up as bit of a fluke in a weak year, but he's a sensible director who works well with actors. With Oscar-winning screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian handling the script and an impressive cast signed up, Miller has a good opportunity to make something really good out of this.
And would you look at this,
another person who was last nominated in 2006 (for
Goodnight and Good Luck), the multitalented
George Clooney. His political drama
The Ides of March, which he also wrote and produced with collaborator Grant Heslov, lands this year and is poised to be a force to be reckoned with on the circuit. Clooney has a terrific cast with lots of awards potential. Multiple acting nods is often good news for the director's chances.
Last nominated in 2005 for
Sideways,
Alexander Payne has not made a feature film since. Everyone's very excited to see him return this year with his take on the acclaimed novel
The Descendants. Payne is adept at tackling drama and humour in balanced measure, and the story of a soon-to-be single father trying to reconcile with his two daughters may benefit from his sense of poignancy and levity.
Terrence Malick has only ever made one film the Academy really responded to (
The Thin Red line for which he was nominated in 1999), but he's only ever made a handful of films anyway. His filmography is so small and spread out that fans of his are always hungering for his next feature, often forced to wait several years. It feels like we've been waiting for
The Tree of Life forever, but now that it has a release planned this spring, we can finally see if it was worth the wait.
Predicted five:
George Clooney,
The Ides of March
Terrence Malick,
The Tree of Life
Bennett Miller,
Moneyball
Alexander Payne,
The Descendants
Steven Spielberg,
War Horse
Also consider: J.J. Abrams
Super 8, David Cronenberg
A Dangerous Method, Cameron Crowe
We Bought a Zoo, Drake Doremus
Like Crazy, David Fincher
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jodie Foster
The Beaver, Phyllida Lloyd
The Iron Lady, Jason Reitman
Young Adult, Tate Taylor
The Help.
