2020 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Director

February 8, 2020

1917

Our annual Oscar Prediction contest closes at noon, Pacific Time, on Sunday, so 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. We are continuing our shortened schedule with Best Director. We have yet another close race with two films that are practically a coin-toss away from being the winner.

(Note: All previous awards listed are only for writing and not other categories. However, they are for both original, adapted, and combined writing categories, depending on the award in question. Previous awards and nominations are for theatrical and not TV programs, on the other hand. )

Best Director

Joon-ho Bong for Parasite
Tomatometer Score: 99% Positive
Movie’s Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globe, and DGA
Movie’s Previous Major Wins: None
Director’s Previous Major Nominations: None
Writer’s Previous Major Wins: None
Notes: It is incredibly rare for a foreign-language film to earn any nominations outside of the Best International Film category, but not only did this film do that, it wouldn’t be a huge shock if it won for Best Director. It does have the best reviews on this list, but it hasn’t been able to turn any of its previous major nominations into wins. I don’t think it will win. I want it to win, but I don’t think it will.

Sam Mendes for 1917
Tomatometer Score: 89% Positive
Movie’s Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globe, and DGA
Movie’s Previous Major Wins: BAFTA, Golden Globe, and DGA
Director’s Previous Major Nominations: One Oscar, One BAFTA, Two Golden Globes, and One DGA
Writer’s Previous Major Wins: One Oscar, One Golden Globe, and One DGA
Notes: This film isn’t the best film on this year’s list; in fact, it is middle of the road. However, and this is important, it is the most “directed” movie on this year. It is made to look like a continuous take using editing tricks to disguise the actual cuts in the film and that takes a lot of skill as a director to pull off. So while Parasite is the better movie, it is not unfair to argue Sam Mendes’ directing in this movie is more impressive.

Todd Phillips for Joker
Tomatometer Score: 68% Positive
Movie’s Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA and Golden Globe
Movie’s Previous Major Wins: None
Director’s Previous Major Nominations: None
Writer’s Previous Major Wins: None
Notes: No. 68% positive isn’t good enough to win Best Director. If this film does win this award, it will be one of the worst wins in many, many years. It will be looked at as a worse decision than Tom Hooper’s win for The King’s Speech nearly a decade ago.

Martin Scorsese for The Irishman
Tomatometer Score: 96% Positive
Movie’s Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globe, and DGA
Movie’s Previous Major Wins: None
Director’s Previous Major Nominations: Eight Oscars, Eight Golden Globes, Nine BAFTAs, and Nine DGA
Writer’s Previous Major Wins: One Oscar, Eight Golden Globe, One BAFTA, and One DGA
Notes: This film has earned a nomination for directing in every major awards ceremony it qualified for. And it lost them all to 1917. Had Martin Scorsese not already won an Oscar, it would be a shoe-in as a “career achievement” award they like to hand out. That said, if he keeps getting nominated he will win again.

Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
Tomatometer Score: 85% Positive
Movie’s Previous Major Nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globe, and DGA
Movie’s Previous Major Wins: None
Director’s Previous Major Nominations: Three Oscars, Four Golden Globes, Three BAFTAs, and Two DGA
Writer’s Previous Major Wins: None
Notes: Quentin Tarantino has won plenty of awards in his career, including two Oscars. However, he has mostly won for his writing and not his directing. This trend could continue this year with him winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and losing out here.

Conclusion: This should be a two-way race between Joon-ho Bong and Greta Gerwig; however, the latter wasn’t even nominated. Parasite is the best movie on this year’s list; however, 1917 is the more showy film in terms of direction, so I think that gives Sam Mendes the edge.


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Filed under: Awards Season, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, 1917, Joker, Parasite (기생충), Greta Gerwig, Tom Hooper, Sam Mendes, Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Joon-ho Bong