The Anomaly of Best Director

[skimpole]

This thread exists to offer some thoughts on the Best Director award. One might think that the Best Director would be the person responsible for the Best Picture of the year. Admittedly, that does not necessarily follow, given that the auteur theory of the director's usually preeminent importance wouldn't arise for about thirty years after the Academy Awards. Still, the gap is fairly noteworthy. After all, of the 88 Best Picture winners that were nominated for best director, 67 also won Best Director.

Still, let's look at the differences:

1927-1928. For the only time, the award is split between dramatic and comedic direction. Frank Borzage won the first for Seventh Heaven and Lewis Milestone won for Two Arabian Knights. (And he only won that because Charles Chaplin was removed from competition for three awards and given a special Oscar). Of the two best picture winners, neither William Wellman (Wings) nor F. W. Murnau (Sunrise) got a nomination.

1928-1929 Frank Lloyd wins for The Divine Lady, the only time, I believe, a director won for a movie not nominated for best picture

1930-1931 Norman Taurog wins for Skippy

1931-1932 Frank Borzage wins for Bad Girl

1935 John Ford wins for The Informer

1936 Frank Capra wins for Mr Deeds Goes to Town. Here I think I can explain the award: The Great Ziegfeld won because it was an expensive major motion picture, but it obviously wasn't very good.

1937 Leo McCarey wins for The Awful Truth, while The Life of Emile Zola won because it was the gutless socially important picture.

1940 John Ford wins for The Grapes of Wrath, while Rebecca wins Best Picture because powerful figures in the Academy didn't want to be reminded how shabbily they treated agricultural laborers.

More later.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

My choices for the 1930s-

1930- Lewis Milestone for All Quiet On The Western Front
1931- Fritz Lang for M
1932- James Whale for The Old Dark House
1933- Leo McCarey for Duck Soup
1934- Edgar G Ulmer for The Black Cat
1935- Lew Landers for The Raven
1936- James Whale for Show Boat
1937- William Wyler for Dead End
1938- Howard Hawks for Bringing Up Baby
1939- George Stevens for Gunga Din

[TikiSoo]

One might think that the Best Director would be the person responsible for the Best Picture of the year.

Interesting topic....



I sometimes wonder about Director vs Editor as well. Who really makes the film work? We all credit the actors, because that's who we see and we believe their performances.

The Director has the overall vision, manages and coordinates all operations to that end, a seemingly Godlike Controller & coach.

But the Editor can alter the reaction to those scenes, change the flavor and intent of the story. An Editor can alter an actor's performance by choosing how & what to show to the audience.

I never noticed a "good editor" until watching ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE '75 and still rarely notice their work. While many Directors oversee the editing process, I'm sure some Editors just have footage dumped on them to make sense of.

That's why great films are great-the coming together of talent & collaboration.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The 1940s-

1940- Boris Ingster for Stranger On The Third Floor
1941- Orson Welles for Citizen Kane
1942- Jacques Tourneur for Cat People
1943- Alfred Hitchcock for Shadow Of A Doubt
1944- Billy Wilder for Double Indemnity
1945- Billy Wilder for The Lost Weekend
1946- John Ford for My Darling Clementine
1947- Henry Hathaway for Kiss Of Death
1948- Jules Dassin for The Naked City
1949- Robert Wise for The Set Up

[skimpole]

A reminder of those directors with three or more nominations:

12 William Wyler

9 Martin Scorsese
Steven Spielberg

8 Billy Wilder

7 Woody Allen
David Lean
Fred Zinnemann

6 Clarence Brown
Frank Capra

5 Robert Altman
George Cukor
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
John Huston
Elia Kazan
Frank Lloyd
George Stevens
King Vidor

4 Francis Ford Coppola
Michael Curtiz
Clint Eastwood
Federico Fellini
Stanley Kubrick
Sidney Lumet
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Mike Nichols
Peter Weir

3 Paul Thomas Anderson
Ingmar Bergman
Richard Brooks
Coen brothers
Stephen Daldry
David Fincher
Miloš Forman
Bob Fosse
Alejandro González Iñárritu
James Ivory
Norman Jewison
Stanley Kramer
Ang Lee
Ernst Lubitsch
David Lynch
Leo McCarey
Lewis Milestone
Alexander Payne
Arthur Penn
Roman Polanski
Sydney Pollack
Carol Reed
David O. Russell
John Schlesinger
Ridley Scott
Oliver Stone
Quentin Tarantino
William A. Wellman
Robert Wise
Sam Wood

[Detective Jim McLeod]

the 1950s-

1950- Billy Wilder for Sunset Blvd
1951- Alfred Hitchcock for Strangers On A Train
1952- Fred Zinnemann for High Noon
1953- Andre DeToth for House Of Wax
1954- Alfred Hitchcock for Rear Window
1955- Charles Laughton for Night Of The Hunter
1956- Stanley Kubrick for The Killing
1957- Stanley Kubrick for Paths Of Glory
1958- Alfred Hitchcock for Vertigo
1959- Michael Gordon for Pillow Talk

[Detective Jim McLeod]

the 1960s

1960- Alfred Hitchcock for Psycho
1961- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story
1962- John Frankenheimer for The Manchurian Candidate
1963- Roger Corman for X The Man With The X Ray Eyes
1964- Samuel Fuller for The Naked Kiss
1965- Roman Polanski for Repulsion
1966- Sergio Leone for The Good The Bad And The Ugly
1967- Richard Brooks for In Cold Blood
1968- Stanley Kubrick for 2001 A Space Odyssey
1969- John Schlesinger for Midnight Cowboy

[ElCid]

One might think that the Best Director would be the person responsible for the Best Picture of the year.

Interesting topic....



I sometimes wonder about Director vs Editor as well. Who really makes the film work? We all credit the actors, because that's who we see and we believe their performances.

The Director has the overall vision, manages and coordinates all operations to that end, a seemingly Godlike Controller & coach.

But the Editor can alter the reaction to those scenes, change the flavor and intent of the story. An Editor can alter an actor's performance by choosing how & what to show to the audience.

I never noticed a "good editor" until watching ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE '75 and still rarely notice their work. While many Directors oversee the editing process, I'm sure some Editors just have footage dumped on them to make sense of.

That's why great films are great-the coming together of talent & collaboration.

Good points.
I believe it has to be a cooperative effort by many parties. The good and great movies come from the screenwriter(s), director and actors primarily. Could well add in cinematographer. Never thought about the editors role, but can definitely see that it is a major one. Have seen too many movies where the continuity was really shabby. Don't know if better editing could have fixed it though.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The 1970s-

1970- William Friedkin for The Boys In The Band
1971- Don Siegel for Dirty Harry
1972- John Boorman for Deliverance
1973- William Friedkin for The Exorcist
1974- Tobe Hooper for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
1975- Steven Spielberg for Jaws
1976- Martin Scorsese for Taxi Driver
1977- Woody Allen for Annie Hall
1978- John Carpenter for Halloween
1979- Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The 1980s

1980- Stanley Kubrick for The Shining
1981- Joe Dante for The Howling
1982- Ingmar Bergman for Fanny And Alexander
1983- Terry Jones for The Meaning Of Life
1984- Milos Forman for Amadeus
1985- Martin Scorsese for After Hours
1986- David Lynch for Blue Velvet
1987- Brian DePalma for The Untouchables
1988- George Sluizer for The Vanishing
1989- Tibor Takacs for I Madman

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The 1990s

1990- Martin Scorsese- Goodfellas
1991- Kenneth Branagh- Dead Again
1992- Robert Altman-The Player
1993- Robert Altman-Short Cuts
1994- Danny Boyle-Shallow Grave
1995- David Fincher-Se7en
1996- Mary Harron- I Shot Andy Warhol
1997- Atom Egoyan The Sweet Hereafter
1998- Joel and Ethan Coen The Big Lewbowski
1999- Alexander Payne-Election

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The 2000s

2000- Christopher Nolan for Memento
2001- Richard Kelly for Donnie Darko
2002- Mark Romanek for One Hour Photo
2003- Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill Vol 1
2004- Marc Forster for Finding Neverland
2005- Andrew Adamson for The Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe
2006- Todd Field for Little Children
2007- David Fincher for Zodiac
2008- Yojiro Takita for Departures
2009- Marc Webb for 500 Days Of Summer

[Detective Jim McLeod]

2010s

2010- Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
2011- Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene
2012- Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
2013- Spike Jonze for Her
2014- Richard Linklater for Boyhood
2015- Joel Edgerton for The Gift
2016- Damien Chazelle for LaLa Land
2017- Todd Haynes for Wonderstruck
2018- Bo Burnham for Eight Grade
2019- Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

[skimpole]

Continuing on with Best Directors who didn't direct Best Pictures:

1948: I guess the Academy could resist the world's greatest play directed by the world's greatest Actor. But the directors could resist Olivier, and instead chose John Huston for The Treasure of Sierra Madre. I've read that there was some hostility in Hollywood towards English films at the time, and the fact that The Red Shoes was the only Best Picture nominee not to get a director nomination supports the idea.

1949: Joseph Mankiewicz wins for A Letter to Three Wives instead of Robert Rossen for All the King's Men. Having recently rewatched the latter, I'm inclined to agree that it is actually rather vague and shallow in its treatment, and the directors felt less need to honor it.

1951: In Best Picture, An American in Paris came up between the middle between A Place in the Sun and A Streetcar Named Desire. I suspect this was because many votes wanted a nicer movie, but in my view they made the right choice. The Directors were less easily influenced, and since Kazan had won before, Stevens won the vital self-important vote.

1952: The Greatest Show on Earth's victory over High Noon was clearly a sign that there were a lot of Republicans (and conservative Democrats) in Hollywood. But directors had no trouble choosing someone else.

1956: The more respected Stevens wins for Giant, with its vaguely more serious theme and still respectable box officer over Around the World in Eighty Days

1967: After a long line of agreements, Mike Nichols wins for The Graduate. I can imagine that directors would be slightly more risque than the Academy as whole. Nichols won the Director's Guild and the Golden Globes. Jewison doesn't seem to have won anywhere.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

To most recent-

2020- Chloe Zhao for Nomadland
2021- Guillermo DelToro for Nightmare Alley
2022- Todd Field for Tar