In the Oscars oddities file,
Bohemian Rhapsody won four of the five Oscars it was nominated for, including one of the Big Eight in Malik as Best Actor. Somebody who has access to the archives would have to check this, but it must be the only case certainly in Oscar history from the past fifty or sixty years, that a film has won multiple Academy Awards and the director was not personally thanked even once. Never even name checked. There were broad thanks to "the crew", but not credited helmer Bryan Singer, now exiled in a cloud of sex abuse allegations, who was so disliked on set that he left for Thanksgiving break and never returned (or was fired, depending on who is telling the story), nor cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel who filled the gap for a bit, and certainly not Dexter Fletcher who completed the bulk of the film.
An editor works for many weeks with the director after the shooting is complete to shape the final film, as well as starting to make choices as the footage is coming in. Which I think is clearly why John Ottman got the nomination, acknowledgement from his peers (the other editors in the Academy who do the nominating) that he had to work much harder and under different circumstances than usual to make
Bohemian Rhapsody at all coherent, much less see it turn into a massive hit. He won the Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors (which is the ACE designation you will see after an editor's name for onscreen credits). They break their yearly awards into drama and comedy categories, and he won for drama. But even given that it was still a bit of a surprise to hear his name called at the Oscars. The voting body at large wouldn't necessarily appreciate his unusual work chaos as fully as editors and directors would, and objectively outside of maybe the Live Aid sequence (which BTW was directed mostly by Singer), it is not a very well or interestingly edited film and has a few scenes that are just plain dull or clunky.
Yet Ottman won the Oscar. He did not thank Singer (naturally), but nor did he thank Fletcher.
There are very strict protections in place that make it very, very difficult to get a director's credit taken away once filming has begun. It is called The Eastwood Rule. It is supposed to protect directors from having a producer or studio come in behind them and take their credit or replace them. If a director doesn't have final cut in his contract they may have the film changed without the directors consent, but they can't replace him and then have somebody else credited. Even if the cut was taken away it would still be credited to the director. This came to the fore on
The Outlaw Josey Wales and interestingly again on another Eastwood project
Tightrope. For
Wales production began with Phil Kaufman as director. Star and producer Eastwood didn't like the way things were going (including both men rumored to wanting to date actress Sandra Locke) so he fired Phil. Eastwood took over and has sole directorial credit on
The Outlaw Josey Wales.
To ensure this didn't happen again, the DGA made this "Eastwood Rule", where once a DGA member signs a contract to direct a film unless they ask for their credit to be removed themselves it is their film. Violations come with penalties, including fines levied against the production and certain crew members and the Directors Guild could choose to revoke the membership of whoever replaces the removed original director, which would make it difficult for them to work in the Hollywood system. This bit Eastwood himself in the butt on
Tightrope when he fired Richard Tuggle a few days into filming and replaced him. The finished film bares Tuggle's name and not Clint's, thanks to the Eastwood Rule.
Which is why Bryan Singer is the credited director of
Bohemian Rhapsody. Who nobody at the Oscars was going to acknowledge, including his former collaborators who won Oscar gold.
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