ACADEMY AWARDS WATCH 2011: BEST DIRECTOR

I previously mentioned that over the next few weeks I'd be taking a look at the nominees in eight major categories for the 2011 Academy Awards. I'll be writing about what I think will win, what I want to win, and my thoughts about each category overall.










The nominees for Best Director are:
 

Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
David O. Russell - The Fighter

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
David Fincher - The Social Network

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Joel and Ethan Coen - True Grit

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wow, looking at this list of nominees makes me realize movies are not dead, and that we are lucky to live in a cinematic era that produces these filmmakers. All five of these helmers directed the hell out of their respective films, and if any of these gentlemen (gentlemens in the case of True Grit?) were to walk away with the award I don't think I would have any compaints. (Except, maybe, for David O. Russell. While The Fighter is grade A formula filmmaking, it's one of Russell's lesser works, and if he were to win it would lessen his chances of receiving The Big One in the future for something more spectacular. And no, I'm not talking about his adaptation of the videogame Uncharted).
 
Of course, there can be only one winner, and I'm having trouble deciding whether or not that will be Tom Hooper or David Fincher. I have a feeling that if The Social Network wins for Best Picture, Hooper will walk away with the Director award, and vice-versa. None of the other nominees are a real threat to those two filmmakers, whose films have been topping critic lists and garnering multiple awards since the season began.
 
If I was an active, voting member of the Academy, I'd throw down for Aronofsky. I have yet to go back and revisit Black Swan, as I had planned to, but it simply grows in stature with each passing moment in my mind. No director put more blood, sweat, and tears into each frame of their film as Aronofsky, and while the film certainly has a few issues, there's quite frankly nothing quite like Black Swan out there.