David Fincher is the only of the five directors to have previously been nominated. He got nods for
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Danny Boyle won for
Slumdog Millionaire) and
The Social Network (Tom Hooper won for
The King's Speech). While known and loved for his thrillers (
SE7EN, Zodiac, Fight Club, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl) his fellow filmmakers in the directors branch of the Academy give him props for his dramas. His fanbase will get more of what they love with his next project,
The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender with
SE7EN scribe Andrew Kevin Walker adapting Alexis Nolent's graphic novel, but his fellow directors grooved to
Mank, even if it held up the screenwriter as the "hero" and not the legendary director Orson Welles.
Mank's title character negotiating his way through Hollywood, California politics, and his own excesses and consternations was never designed to be a crowd-pleaser, but other than hardcore film buffs the Academy voters may turn out to be the perfect target audience. Will Mr. Fincher's fictionalized behind-the-scenes look at
Citizen Kane's script be the one that gets him that overdue Oscar?
Lee Isaac Chung has been toiling in the arthouse circuit for over a decade now, including two movies about Rwanda in
Munyurangabo and the documentary
I Have Seen My Last Born. For his latest he turned to his own life.
Minari tells a story very similar to his: a small family of first-generation immigrants from Korea move to Arkansas in Reagan's 1980s America to try their hand at farming. The father has been making a decent living sexing chicks (which is not anywhere as fun nor as dirty as that sounds) but has a dream of growing Korean vegetables in American soil for the waves of his countrymen moving to the U.S. The film is seen largely through the eyes of the young son, the view known very well by Chung who lived it. This warm but unvarnished, authentic bit of near autobiography has catapulted Lee Isaac Chung into the spotlight. He is unlikely to win but a worthy nomination.
Thomas Vinterberg was one of the biggest surprise nominations Oscar morning. Only thirty-three other filmmakers have taken one of these five slots for a foreign language film, and one of them was Clint Eastwood for
Letters from Iwo Jima. However the last two instances were the first to actually win the award: Alfonso Cuarón two years ago for
Roma and of course Bong Joon-Ho last year for
Parasite. Will the Dutchman Vinterberg continue that unprecedented streak from a movie released in a year full of the unprecedented? Highly unlikely. His nomination was surprise/reward enough. Vinterberg had his international breakthrough over twenty years ago with
Festen, the first Dogme 95 film. He has made some darn good films, including
The Hunt (also starring Mads Mikkelsen),
Submarino, and
The Commune in his native Denmark as well as a Sundance hit
Dear Wendy and the 2015 adaptation of Hardy's
Far from the Madding Crowd starring Carey Mulligan.
This nomination should make
Another Round the odds-on favorite to win Best International Feature Film. This is only the twelfth Danish film nominated in that category (one of them was Vinterberg's
The Hunt), and three of them have won:
Babette's Feast (1987),
Pelle the Conqueror (1988), and
In a Better World (2010). But as big a surprise as it was for Vinterberg to make the cut as a nominee it would be an absolute shock if he were to actually win Best Director.
In the 92 previous years of The Academy Awards there have only been
five women ever nominated as Best Director: Lina Wertmüller for
Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for
The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for
Lost in Translation (2003), Kathryn Bigelow for
The Hurt Locker (2009), and Greta Gerwig for
Lady Bird (2017). Bigelow is the only of those who won. This year there are two women up for Best Director and one of them is the early favorite.
Before this year
Emerald Fennell has been best known as an actress. She had smaller supporting roles in films like
The Danish Girl, Albert Nobbs, and the 2012 adaptation of
Anna Karenina starring Keira Knightley and she is better known for her television work including
"Call the Midwife" and most recently playing Camilla Parker Bowles on the current season of
"The Crown". Her feature debut as not just a director but in fact a writer/director is
Promising Young Woman which has landed her as a double Oscar nominee. Her dark comedy of revenge was hatched in the perfect #MeToo climate. I think it is smart and fun and apparently her fellow directors agreed. Yes, there were fewer films released but Fennell made the cut over the veteran likes of Spike Lee, Paul Greengrass, Kevin MacDonald, Lee Daniels, Christopher Nolan, and Aaron Sorkin. Even with the hot-button topic I don't suspect she'll win, but you can't have a much better calling card as a filmmaker than your debut netting Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay nominations. If she has other stories to tell there will surely be producers to finance them and if she can pull them off as well as
Promising Young Woman she may ditch the whole acting thing.
Chloé Zhao has been at this a little longer, though
Nomadland is only her third feature. She was an immediate force in the indie film world with her debut
Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) getting good notices and her follow up
The Rider (2017) was strong enough to get her some Oscar buzz, Independent Spirit Award nominations, and a deal with Marvel - she has helmed the upcoming
Eternals starring Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and the buff Kumail Nanjiani. But while she was putting her stamp on the MCU she was also periodically going off to shoot
Nomadland. Frances McDormand had optioned the book and after seeing
The Rider wanted Zhao. She got her and now she is the favorite to win Best Director. Win or lose Chloé Zhao is just getting started.