Best Best Director of the Decade

[Uri]

I'm proud to be the one who at least temporarily disowned Jackson, one of the least deserved winners ever, of his leading position here. As said before, Lee, the Coens or Eastwood are all worthy, I went with Polanski.

[ITALIANO]

I voted for Ang Lee, but I could have voted for Polanski or the Coens or maybe even Eastwood. Peter Jackson definitely isn't my idea of a great or even good film director honestly.

[The Original BJ]

Seeing as how they got zero votes, I sort of wish I had thrown mine to Soderbergh or Bigelow, both of whom I strongly considered. These were probably two of the happiest Director wins this decade for me -- the former for being such a terrific shock, the latter for being the gender breakthrough.

(Scorsese's at-last win was a great moment too, though Departed wasn't high enough within his own echelon for me to consider him here.)



Edited By The Original BJ on 1270701498

[rain Bard]

Peter Jackson winning here is sad. Very sad.

well, he's in first place, but tied with two others. everybody on the list currently has less than 20% of total votes.

I voted for Polanski myself.

[ITALIANO]

Peter Jackson winning here is sad. Very sad.

[OscarGuy]

Didn't notice that...well, then...that only changes a couple of my picks.

2000: Ang Lee - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2002: Rob Marshall - Chicago
2006: Paul Greengrass - United 93
2009: Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds (followed by Jason Reitman, then James Cameron)



Edited By OscarGuy on 1270669388

[Eric]

Guys, my picks were from the pool of nominees. If I were going from out of the blue, I'd have maybe one, maybe two Oscar nominees in the mix at all.

00: Edward Yang, Yi Yi
01: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Pulse
02: Brian De Palma, Femme Fatale
03: Lars Von Trier, Dogville
04: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tropical Malady
05: Steven Spielberg, War of the Worlds/Munich
06: David Lynch, Inland Empire
07: Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg
08: James Gray, Two Lovers
09: Francis Ford Coppola, Tetro



Edited By Eric on 1270682825

[Jim20]

Might as well throw my picks in:

2000 Steven Soderbergh, Traffic (r/u: Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous)

2001 Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(r/u: David Lynch, Mulholland Drive)

2002 Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(r/u: Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her)

2003 Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(r/u: Clint Eastwood, Mystic River)

2004 Alexander Payne, Sideways
(r/u: Martin Scorsese, The Aviator)

2005 Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
(r/u: Steven Spielberg, Munich)

2006 Martin Scorsese, The Departed
(r/u: Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men)

2007 Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
(r/u: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood)

2008 Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
(r/u: Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married)

2009 Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
(r/u: Spike Jonze, Where the Wild Things Are)

[OscarGuy]

2000: Darren Aronofsky - Requiem for a Dream
2001: Peter Jackson - LOTR: FOTR
2002: Peter Jackson - LOTR: TTT (Though, both Hayao Miyazaki and Todd Haynes were very high on my list for that year)
2003: Peter Jackson - LOTR: ROTK
2004: Martin Scorsese - The Aviator
2005: Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain
2006: Alfonso Cuaron - Children of Men
2007: Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood
2008: David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009: Neill Blomkamp - District 9

[Hustler]

2000: Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
2001: David Lynch, Mulholland Drive
2002: Roman Polanski, The Pianist
2003: Fernando Meirelles, City Of God
2004: Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
2005: Steven Spielberg, Munich
2006: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
2007: Joel and Etan Coen, No Country For Old Men
2008: Stephen Daldry, The Reader
2009: Quentin Tarantino, The Hurt Locker
2009: Kathryn Bigelow, Inglorious Basterds

[Hustler]

Polanski

[Sabin]

This is by far the closest race since I started doing this poll. Six for Ang Lee and Peter Jackson (neither of which I agree with) and five for Joel & Ethan Coen and Roman Polanski. Closing out the first half of the list (surprisingly) is Martin Scorsese with three.

Do I ever have to start the "Worst" thread?

Taking Eric's cue...

2000: Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
2001: David Lynch, Mulholland Drive
2002: Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
2003: Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation but another viewing of Master and Commander may change that.
2004: Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
2005: Steven Spielberg, Munich
2006: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
2007: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
2008: Gus Van Sant, Milk
2009: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker



Edited By Sabin on 1270605650

[Eric]

Though this was overall an auspicious decade in the category, I find, oddly, not once did my pick for the year match the Academy's. A further oddity: four of the winners WERE my picks, but in different years -- Lee in 2000, Jackson (tied with Altman) in '01, Eastwood in '03 and Scorsese in '04.

My decade's picks (a la the Best Actress threads) would've been:

00: Steven Soderbergh, Erin Brockovich
01: David Lynch, Mulholland Drive (this is, by far, the runaway winner of the decade for me)
02: Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
03: Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation (not too thrilled with this)
04: Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
05: Steven Spielberg, Munich
06: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
07: Joel & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
08: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
09: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

So only two years I agreed with their choice, but yes, this was overall a pretty decent year for Academy selections in this category. A couple glaring exceptions aside.

[Jim20]

Could we do a poll of worst director winner except for Howard...that would be a tougher choice for me.

Danny Boyle would make a worthy runner-up to Ron Howard.

[Damien]

Polanski, with Eastwood close behind.