17 possible best director nominees for the 2023 Oscars
From giants like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg to indie darlings like Todd Field and The Daniels, the filmmaker field is loaded this year
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(Clockwise from bottom left:) Gina Prince-Bythewood on The Woman King (Ilze Kitshoff), Martin McDonagh on The Banshees Of Inisherin (Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures), Rian Johnson on Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (John Wilson / Netflix), Steven Spielberg on The Fabelmans (Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment), Jordan Peele on Nope (Glen Wilson/Universal Pictures) Graphic: The A.V. Club
There’s no Oscar category that’s more like comparing apples and oranges than Best Director. Should the Academy reward intimate, emotionally driven character studies—evidence that a director can masterfully guide their stars? Or should they go for impressive, “how’d they do that” spectacle? As this list of could-be and should-be nominees can attest, directing is a tricky thing to qualify. Read on for the 17 filmmaker contenders (technically 18, with double the Daniels in one slot) that may be in the mix at the 2023 Oscars and deserving of that shiny gold man.
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If sheer scope and logistics were the criteria, James Cameron would win in a landslide for his dizzyingly dazzling return to Pandora. You won’t hear us claiming there’s no quality alongside that quantity, too; The Way Of Water is undeniably more than impressive enough to earn Cameron a repeat Oscar nomination after the first Avatar.So you guys have seen the Avatar sequel? Or you just jumped the gun and made assumptions to shoehorn Cameron into this premature article?The embedded link in this text has a URL that indicates it should take me to a review of the movie but given the movie isn’t out for two weeks, it just takes me to general news about the movie.
Basically what I was also going to say. As far as I was aware there had been no screenings or premieres save for possibly a few close to Cameron, and I believe it was yesterday or the day before it was reported that he was STILL tweaking it for release. I just found this all very odd, as I did follow the link as well.
Not to give anyone here too much credit, but it’s not particularly rare for critics to have seen a movie and not be allowed to post a review until a specific time. So it’s possible someone at the AVClub has in fact watched the movie and but they aren’t allowed to talk about it at length.
But also it could be boilerplate Cameron canonizing.
It’s called a “review embargo”, and critics are allowed to say they’re under one and that’s why the review isn’t available.
It’s also possible they’re working off of past precedent. I’m reminded of an Oscar preview issue of Entertainment Weekly years ago and they predicted several nominations for the first Hobbit film.
It’s also not a stretch to predict James Cameron would be nominated. He sort of has a track record 🙂 (this is not directed at you but the doubters)
I didn’t like the original but I’m sure this will get nominated.
They are referring to the production of film. You don’t have to see it to know it’s bigger than any of the other films listed.
I mean, does the quality of the movie necessarily make that much difference? It’s a spectacle with a recognizable name and a famous director. I won’t be surprised if James Cameron gets nominated even if it’s a bad movie. I won’t be surprised if Avatar makes dumb money even if it’s bad.
In terms of whether or not someone should refer to a movie as a dizzying dazzling return? Yes.
One more for the list: Goran Stolevski, for “You Won’t Be Alone”. It was simply astonishing, and although it’ll probably only be nominated for Foreign Film, it deserves so much more than that (note: it might not even get that, because it was submitted by Australia, where Stolevski is from, but the entire movie is in some dialect vaguely related to Macedonian, and the Academy has traditionally hated that sort of cross-border thing). The direction in it is top notch, with it being in 4:3 and using that ratio to be tight in on the actors in a way that puts you right in there with them. It was an amazing film.
Who the hell laughed out loud during any “comedic” moment in Tar?
Jordan Peele’s Get Out Oscar win was for original screenplay, while for directing he only achieved the nomination. We’d argue that Nope deserves that the other way around
I thought Get Out was more deserving of Best Director than Best Screenplay.
That is literally the same thing the article said, work on your reading comprehension
The problem is that Kinja mangled the quote because it contained a url/italics. The article claimed that Nope deserved Best Director over Best Screenplay, and I’m making that claim about Get Out.
I thought Get Out was more deserving of Best Director than Best Screenplay.
I would have given Jordan Peele an Oscar for both, but no one asked me.
That an oscar performace we love it, https://appetitepets.com/cacapoo-best-small-dog-breed/
People need to watch more movies, esp more movies not in the mainstream, before they start saying who “should have won” awards
Give some love to Aftersun’s Charlotte Wells!
I haven’t seen most of these, but Nope was in fact very well directed. I really liked the movie a lot – there were many, many ways it could have gone wrong and it just didn’t.
No mention of Luca Guadagino for Bones and All? Seems like a major oversight to me.
I’m thinking that Martin McDonagh, Todd Field and Spielberg are gonna fill 3 of these nominations. The other two are up for grabs and are hopefully more exciting picks, like The Daniels and maybe Ruben Ostlund (even though I personally didn’t like Triangle of Sadness all that much). I’m really curious to see how the critical and audience reception to Chazelle’s Babylon will be. It comes out in a few weeks and I surprisingly haven’t heard/seen/read much buzz about it lately; it seems like it could turn out to be a huge critical and commercial flop or a big success, with no middle ground.
I agree with your thoughts. McDonagh, Field, and Spielberg seem like easy ins. I’ve had friends who have seen Babylon and they’ve said it’s bad, almost to the point of insanity… so maybe good? lol I hope The Daniels get one, as well as Peele. Mark Mylod (for The Menu) and Ti West (for Pearl and/or X) would be my dark horses/personal adds.
I can co-sign all of your opinions here!
Early reactions to Babylon were as polarising as you’ve predicted its box office to be. It seems most either absolutely hated it or loved every second, with not much middle ground at all.
I think Spielberg, Field, The Daniels, McDonagh, and Inarritu. Spielberg’s pretty much a given.
Its Spielberg making a movie about making movies.Hollywood is gonna collectively pass out from how vigorously they’re gonna jerk themselves off about it.
“Glass Onion” also feels like a Covid-era movie, not just because of the masks and vaccine jokes, but because the cast are less developed and the scope feels limited.Nowhere in that film did I feel like like anything existed beyond the border of the frame. Instead, “Glass Onion” is oppressively sleek and charmless. It seems designed to be watched at home on TV – very Netflix with too many artless close-ups while Yedlin’s overly-saturated grading makes everyone look plastic with sickly skin tones.Hardly the suave “Evil Under the Sun” vibes that the production team were aiming for.
Every time I see a Bollywood film with a dancing/singing segment, I just completely lose my suspension of disbelief, and I don’t know what to do about it.Now I understand musicals… They have a place in cinema and I do throw on the occasional favorite, but for me (a person that watches and collects a lot of Asian films) the stuff that Bollywood puts out is not my caliber of film. They don’t blend the musical stuff enough to make an actual musical, and so the segments feel far to abrupt and disjointed from the rest of the film.And I don’t much care for the music… so that doesn’t help either.I was hesitant to watch RRR, but I had it on my list of soon-to-be-watched films… And then I saw that “Naacho Naacho” clip and immediately removed it. I’m sure it’s a cool and fun time for someone, but I kinda just hated it and I have no desire to watch the rest of it. Having a 4 minute 30 second sing and dance routine show up in such a serious film setting (and I’m sure it’s not the only one), with some really bad acting from the white people involved, it’s just too cringe for me.
I love when people feel the need to rationalize their knee jerk reactions.No one cares how you justified not watching a movie with subtitles to yourself.Please read closely: I don’t care if you watch the movie or not. But I will judge and mock anyone who is so openly, hilariously transparent about what’s really going while trying to sound sophisticated and/or like the only reasonable, mature one on a given topic.
Spielberg, Field, McDonagh, and the Daniels are probably locks. It would be nice to get a female nominee! I think Sarah Polley has the best chance (name recognition; white).A rough year for Damien Chazelle and Sam Mendes who both made movies about making movies the same year that Spielberg did. Same goes for James Gray for making an autobiographical coming-of-age film the same year as Spielberg.
Empire of Light’s reviews have been very so so and early word on Babylon is very mixed with sources claiming it’s either so insane it’s amazing or it’s so insane it’s unwatchable.
“Has there ever been a sequel with higher expectations that stuck the landing this hard?”Empire Strikes Back?
I’d like to RRR get some love. The Daniels certainly should get in the mix.
If you’re going to put Hollywood Babylon on the big screen, I got one thing to say: Fatty Arbuckle or GTFO.
“Has there ever been a sequel with higher expectations that stuck the landing this hard?”
*coughs* uh, The Last Jedi
a few months ago after some people saw it Sarah Polley seemed like a frontrunner if not THE frontrunner. I wish they had released the movie already and with more promotion. I wouldn’t cry if Spielberg takes it, but Also: I think Janelle Monae should be in the convo for supporting actress more.