I expected Boyle and Van Sant to be nominated.
I was on the fence over Fincher and Howard (the former directed an overlong mess of a film and the latter - how hard was it to direct 2 brilliant actors doing the same thing they did on Broadway???)
So I predicted that only 3 of the Best Film nominees will coincide with Best Director - Boyle, Van Sant and Fincher.
My other 2 - Arofonsky and Nolan. Both snubbed.
And my "I didn't see that coming" was the director of Cannes winner "Gomorra" - which was snubbed by the foreign language committee.
Best Director
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dylanfan23
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Unlike i think everybody on this board, i've always liked howard for the most part. Aside from some obvious missteps early in his career and recently i think he's made some very good films including A Beautiful Mind. I thought frost/nixon, cinderella man, a beautiful mind, apollo 13 and parenthood were all very good films, with edtv and the paper two very likable films for me and he has gotten the two nominations he's deserved for a beautiful mind and frost/nixon...i don't think he deserved the oscar but i thought his work on a beautiful mind deserved a nomination. So i'm happy for him this morning.
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Franz Ferdinand
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He does not deserve to win but I was glad to see Ron Howard get a nomination. He and the screenwriter did a good job opening up the play and make it far more cinematic than Shanley did with Doubt. Howard's best work since Apollo 13 (to repeat something said here several times).
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Franz Ferdinand
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Oscar Race 2009: Nomination Predictions - Director
By: Ed Gonzalez On: 01/20/2009 15:30:21
You know the drill: No guild is better at predicting the winner of the Best Picture Oscar than the Directors Guild of America. For Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, the group this year has thrown its weight behind David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Gus Van Sant (Milk), and Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), and history tells us at least three, most likely four, of these directors will hear their names called when Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday. We think it'll be four this year, and before you accuse us of wishful thinking when we say Ron Howard will be the odd-man out, let us remind you how Opie was nominated for a DGA in 1986, for Cocoon, but failed to secure an Oscar nomination. Okay, so no one really expected an Oscar nomination to follow that curious DGA acknowledgement, but let us also remember how Opie followed in Steven Spielberg's footsteps by winning the DGA award a decade later for Apollo 13 but again falling short of an Oscar nomination. Those were merciful snubs, and though AMPAS would finally shine a light on the man for A Beautiful Mind, we'd like to think enough Oscar voters have come around to the embarrassment of that award to refuse the man a chance at another victory lap. Yes, Frost/Nixon's show-and-tell screenplay and smugness may be up the Academy's alley, but I can't be the only one who feels the film has the look of something shot on Michael Douglas's ginormous Wall Street cell phone.
The Academy's director's branch is known for giving at least one spot here to industry outsiders, assuming you feel folks like Pedro Almodovar and Paul Greengrass qualify as such, and though Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) fits that criterion quite nicely, so does five-time Oscar nominee Mike Leigh, a surprise Best Director entrant a few years back for Vera Drake and whose Happy-Go-Lucky may be his best work to date. The richness of Leigh's philosophical inquiry has ironically and tellingly flown over the heads of persons stuck on Sally Hawkins's performance, but there's no doubting that the popularity of the film feels as passionate as a ribald flamenco dance—something you could never say about Howard's frosty motion picture.
Will Be Nominated: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire, David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky, Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight, and Gus Van Sant for Milk
Should Be Nominated: Tomas Alfredson for Let the Right One In, Jonathan Demme for Rachel Getting Married, Jose Luis Guerin for In the City of Sylvia, Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky, and André Téchiné for The Witnesses
By: Ed Gonzalez On: 01/20/2009 15:30:21
You know the drill: No guild is better at predicting the winner of the Best Picture Oscar than the Directors Guild of America. For Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, the group this year has thrown its weight behind David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Gus Van Sant (Milk), and Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), and history tells us at least three, most likely four, of these directors will hear their names called when Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday. We think it'll be four this year, and before you accuse us of wishful thinking when we say Ron Howard will be the odd-man out, let us remind you how Opie was nominated for a DGA in 1986, for Cocoon, but failed to secure an Oscar nomination. Okay, so no one really expected an Oscar nomination to follow that curious DGA acknowledgement, but let us also remember how Opie followed in Steven Spielberg's footsteps by winning the DGA award a decade later for Apollo 13 but again falling short of an Oscar nomination. Those were merciful snubs, and though AMPAS would finally shine a light on the man for A Beautiful Mind, we'd like to think enough Oscar voters have come around to the embarrassment of that award to refuse the man a chance at another victory lap. Yes, Frost/Nixon's show-and-tell screenplay and smugness may be up the Academy's alley, but I can't be the only one who feels the film has the look of something shot on Michael Douglas's ginormous Wall Street cell phone.
The Academy's director's branch is known for giving at least one spot here to industry outsiders, assuming you feel folks like Pedro Almodovar and Paul Greengrass qualify as such, and though Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) fits that criterion quite nicely, so does five-time Oscar nominee Mike Leigh, a surprise Best Director entrant a few years back for Vera Drake and whose Happy-Go-Lucky may be his best work to date. The richness of Leigh's philosophical inquiry has ironically and tellingly flown over the heads of persons stuck on Sally Hawkins's performance, but there's no doubting that the popularity of the film feels as passionate as a ribald flamenco dance—something you could never say about Howard's frosty motion picture.
Will Be Nominated: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire, David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky, Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight, and Gus Van Sant for Milk
Should Be Nominated: Tomas Alfredson for Let the Right One In, Jonathan Demme for Rachel Getting Married, Jose Luis Guerin for In the City of Sylvia, Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky, and André Téchiné for The Witnesses