Countdown to the Oscars: Best Director

the nominees for best director are:

paul thomas anderson, there will be blood
joel coen & ethan coen, no country for old men
tony gilroy, michael clayton
jason reitman, juno
julian schnabel, the diving bell & the butterfly

what a delicious crop of best director nominees this year. fresh faces. innovative artists. filmmakers long overdue.

the best part of the best director category is that the nominees are nominated by other directors. this is why you'll often see nominees who's films are otherwise overlooked.

julian schnabel is a perfect example. the diving bell & the butterfly is the most visually stunning and beautifully crafted film this year. this is not a surprise from a person who first made his name as an artist on the new york art scene (gary oldman played schnabel in the film he previously directed: basquiat).

but schnabel's movie has otherwise been unnoticed by the academy. the directors nominating their own helps and it could drive him towards a surprise win sunday night.

but once the nominees are announced, the entire academy then votes on the category and i would bet that most have not seen this brilliant piece of film making.

on the opposite end... jason reitman directed the sleeper hit of the year when he created juno. but it's too soon for reitman even though he has given us back-to-back solid films (his previous film was thank you for smoking).

i don't feel any momentum for gilroy and michael clayton. yes, the film was released back in the summer and remembering the film for so much this long after it's release speaks highly for the film. but as wonderful as the film is, it's nothing special. nothing exciting compared to the other nominees.

despite my belief that schnabel could be a spoiler come sunday night... i feel the race is really between the coen brothers and paul thomas anderson.

anderson has been one of my favorite directors over the past several years. i'm crazy about magnolia and boogie nights and the way he can weave together all these interlocking stories is right up my alley.

but he departed from his usual fare and brought us there will be blood. if it didn't have his name on it...you may not even realize it was his film. bold and stark in it's depiction, the film is the type of epic the academy often loves. i've described the film as the drunken stepfather to giant.

but this is anderson's first nomination. directors are rarely rewarded for their first nomination anymore. look how long it took scorsese and speilberg to win... altman passed before he ever won an oscar. hitchcock never won....

but the coen brothers have been making some of the best and original cinema over the past couple of decades that movie-goers have seen.

no country for old men is a perfect film. and i can talk about this more later. but the coens crafted this masterpiece... and they have both been nominated for the film.

back in 1996, joel cohen was nominated alone for best director for the brilliant fargo. he lost...probably unfairly....to anthony minghella for the english patient.

fargo was a perfect film. to create another perfect film is an amazing accomplishment and i can't see the academy not rewarding the coen brothers this time around.

they also won the DGA (directors guild of america) and even though the academy has split with the DGA more frequently over the past few years... there was a time when the winner of the DGA always went on to win the academy.

that trend will continue again this year.... and deservedly so.

will win: joel & ethan coen, no country for old men
should win: joel & ethan coen, no country for old men

e.