Oscars 2009: Predictions for Best Director

BEST DIRECTOR

 Predictions: The Five Noms:

Steven Soderbergh – ‘The Argentine‘
Ron Howard – “Frost/Nixon“
David Fincher – “The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button“
Sam Mendes – “Revolutionary Road“
Baz Lurhmann – “Australia“

Usually, the four out of the five filmmakers nominated in this category accompany Best Picture noms. In 1999, Mendes won Best Director for American Beauty. The following year Soderbergh won for Traffic. Howard got the gold in 01′ with A Beautiful Mind. This trio of filmmakers should be battling it out for the top director honors in 09 and be joining two veteran directors who’ve surprisingly never even been nominated.

As mentioned before, Soderbergh might have a twosome of possibilities all depending with what happens with distribution and I’m looking forward to seeing what the new HD RED prototype cameras can do for the big screen. He might be the odd man out in my list because of the budget size and perhaps visual spacing, but Ron Howard and his Broadway-to-film piece could grab the director a nom even with the contained set piece and less the scope of an all-encompassing epic. Skilled director Fincher has never been nominated for Oscar, perhaps the Academy is ready to reward avant-garde filmmakers working in the studio system. The heavy favorite of the category might be Mendes period piece – pacing and camerawork give the project the production value that normally pushes a film into this sort of stratosphere. Finally, Baz Lurhmann is probably not going to go to the flashy, headache-inducing route, might make his million dollar project into have.

The Contenders:

I’d say that Gus Van Sant’s Milk has a better chance at receiving the Best Picture nom than a Best Director nod. Why? I’m thinking this year the larger scale films might take up more room in this category.  Clint Eastwood who has been in the winners’ circle twice in the past decade might also be a favorite for the category but like Van Sant he might be put aside. Finally in the top tier noms I’d put money on Stephen Daldry to get a worthy look at from Academy members and I’m hoping that Tarsem somehow gets some cred in this game among giants. You can’t discount last year’s big winners, but is Burn After
Reading worthy of three-peat material for the Coens. And when discussing Academy faves we can’t forget Mike Leigh’s contribution in 08′. Long shot contenders might come from Fernando Meirelles, or new directors Alan Ball and Charlie Kaufman.