Oscars 2012 Category Breakdown: Best Picture & Best Director
I do this every year now. I break down all the individual Oscar categories. It’s actually something I love doing, since it sets up all the categories. It familiarizes them to me (and hopefully everybody else), and allows for a more colloquial referencing to them come Oscar night. Because I do these, on Oscar night, I can be like, “Oh, yeah, Buzkashi Boys…” and it’s just understood what that is, what it’s nominated for, and everything else.
So, like always, we start from the top and work our way down. We start with Picture and Director, the two big categories.
What I do is list all the previous winners in the category, then talk about maybe some notes and things about it, whatever that may be (each category has its own thing), and then I go over this year’s crop of nominees, and rank what I think, at this point in time, each one’s chances at winning are.
And we’ll start with Best Picture. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: The Weakest Best Director Nominees
Again I’ll stress that I’m talking about all-time.
I’ll also stress that half this list could easily have been swapped out for other nominees that aren’t on here. Mostly I’m just talking about really weak nominees that you just look at now and go, “Really?” Most people haven’t even heard of half of these movies. Or you just look at the films and the performances and go, “Wow, that hasn’t held up at all,” or, “That was really a popularity nomination.” Or some of them — some of them nobody can figure out. There’s one on this list that you look at and go, “Where the fuck did that come from?”
So that’s mostly what this is. People always talk about what the weakest winners were, but no one ever really talks about the weak nominees. Because there’s some weak ass shit populating a lot of these Oscar categories. We tend to forget about them, because in a given Oscar year there are at least 30 (this year there are 34) new nominees in the six major categories, but there’s a lot of shit out there that nobody mentions.
So, today, I’m gonna talk about what I think (some of) the weakest Best Director nominees are.
(more…)
Oscars 2012 Update: DGA Awards
Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for Argo.
It’s now going to be 7 times.
(That is, seven times that the DGA and the Oscars have differed. Ever. And now everyone’s gonna be wondering what the directors branch did with their Oscar nominations this year. This is fun. Best Director at the Oscars is officially meaningless this year.)
Oscars 2012 Update: DGA (Directors Guild) Nominations
The DGA has just announced their nominations.
I’m sure you all know that this is the most accurate predictor for the Oscars there is, the DGA winner having gone on to win the Best Director Oscar all but six times.
And as for the nominees — they’re actually really good about it. Last year, four out of five nominees matched, with David Fincher missing out and Terrence Malick getting on (most likely due to the latter’s Best Picture nomination and the former’s lack of one). 2010, four of five (the DGA had Christopher Nolan and the Oscars had the Coen brothers). 2009, all five. 2008, four of five (Nolan again. They replaced him with Stephen Daldry at the Oscars). 2007, four of five (DGA had Sean Penn, Oscars had Jason Reitman). 2006, only three of five (DGA missed Spielberg and Paul Greengrass in favor of Bill Condon and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris). 2005, all five. 2004, all five. 2003, four of five (DGA had Gary Ross, Oscars had Fernando Meirelles). 2002, four of five (DGA had Peter Jackson, Oscars had Pedro Almodovar). 2001, three of five (DGA had Baz Luhrmann and Christopher Nolan and the Oscars had Robert Altman and David Lynch). And 2000, four of five (DGA had Cameron Crowe and Oscars had Stephen Daldry).
So basically, they’re gonna get you at least four nominees. And when they do miss, it’s usually because either the Best Picture situation is murky (2006), a foreign director gets on (2003, 2002), really seasoned directors get on (2001), or they just fucking hate one particular director (2010, 2008).
That said, let’s look at this year’s DGA nominees: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Six Months Later. Thoughts, Changes, etc.
(Note: This article isn’t finished yet. I got way behind on shit, and decided to post it as-is. Half an article is better than no article, and it’s not like anyone will know after a few days anyway. If you haven’t read it yet, you should probably wait until tomorrow, since I’ll have it done by then.)
Well, those “My Nominations” articles became a mess. I pretty much gave up on those after the first category. Which is my fault. I rushed them out because I figured, “How hard could they be?” and didn’t really set up what my criteria were going to be and very quickly strayed from what my original intention was. And by the end I basically said fuck it and just went through the motions. I was pretty much doing stuff that’ll start going up tomorrow anyway, so I actually put zero effort into them and had no idea what was actually being written. I was really only concerned with making sure stuff went up to fill the gap between the Disney stuff and this next set of articles. At some point I’ll go back and do those for real.
Mostly what this article is going to be is an update on the Oscar Quest now that I haven’t really thought about it for six months. The final article went up on July 4th, and I was done writing them back in April. So I haven’t really thought about anything on this blog other than Disney stuff since July. The idea was to go back and just look at all the categories and go, “Okay, so how do I feel about all of the categories now that I’ve had time to think about them, separate from the blog and all that?” So that’s what I’m going to do.
I’ve already updated the Oscar Quest: Viewer’s Guide and the Oscar Quest: Rankings articles to reflect the changes that are being made. I’m also not really tracking the changes I’m making. I’m just sort of making them and writing what my current opinion is on the categories. It’s all up on the blog, so my changes can be seen if you go chronologically. I will say, flat out, these will be my completely unvarnished opinions on everything, unrelated to all the other stuff. Since I’m sure at some point during all those articles I was either more diplomatic than my opinion is or harsher than my opinion is, depending on the situation. (That’s really the problem with writing shit online. People just sort of read it and assume that’s your set opinion. Meanwhile I’m just writing shit and not even thinking about it. I don’t even know half the shit I say.) So let’s update the Oscar Quest. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Director (1927/1928-1949)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Director (1950-1969)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Director (1970-1989)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Director (1990-2011)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Abridged Oscar Quest: Best Director
I got the idea for this shortly after all the articles went up. (You can find the articles here.) I was thinking — “What would it be like if circumstances didn’t matter? If I just voted based solely on the category and what was nominated?” Naturally that led to, “Well that can become a nice series of articles.” So that’s what they’re becoming.
I’m calling it my Abridged Oscar Quest. I’m going to go through every year of every category, and simply pick winners based solely on the category. I will not take into account what won before, what is the “classy choice,” what never had a shot. Just — here are the nominees, here’s what I would vote for if I had a ballot. I’m taking into account nothing but the films.
I’m going to star (*) the film I’d vote for.
Last, but not least, today is Best Director: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1927-1928 (Comedy & Dramatic)
(Note: THIS CATEGORY IS NOT FINISHED. I still need to watch one of the nominees. I still have not been able to find Sorrell and Son in any cheap/acceptable format. If anyone has it or knows where it can be procured, let me know, so this category can be finished.)
The very first Best Director category. It’s split up into two. So we’ll deal with one then go into the other one afterward. First let’s recap the year.
Best Picture was also split into two categories. The “Outstanding Production” of the year was Wings, while the “Unique or Artistic Production” went to Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Then Best Actor was Emil Jannings for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh (talked about here). And Best Actress was Janet Gaynor for Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise (talked about here). All of them are good decisions.
And these categories — based on what was nominated (for the first one), or simply based on the effort (the second one), they were both good choices (the second being really good).
BEST DIRECTOR – 1927-1928 (Comedy)
And the nominees were…
Lewis Milestone, Two Arabian Knights
Ted Wilde, Speedy (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1928-1929
(Note: THIS CATEGORY IS NOT FINISHED. I still need to watch one of the nominees. I still have not been able to find Drag in any cheap/acceptable format. If anyone has it or knows where it can be procured, let me know, so this category can be finished.)
1928-1929 is the second year of the Oscars, one where there were no official nominees. They just mailed out ballots and whoever got the most votes won, and the unofficial nominees were the people who got the most votes. These were them for the Best Director category.
As for the rest of the year — The Broadway Melody wins Best Picture, because it was the film to best utilize the wonderful new technology called sound, Warner Baxter wins Best Actor for In Old Arizona (talked about here), quite possibly the least interesting or cared about category ever, and Mary Pickford wins Best Actress for Coquette (talked about here), which is a great historical decision that helped to legitimize the category. That’s it, really.
Remember, we’re working on a different set of rules for these categories than we would for contemporary ones. Though, even with the different set of rules, I really can’t understand this one. Not even a little bit. You just invented sound — why wouldn’t you give Best Director to a sound film? Or even if not, why would you give it to that film? (Though, admittedly, he was nominated three times, so maybe that had something to do with it.)
BEST DIRECTOR – 1928-1929
And the nominees were…
Lionel Barrymore, Madame X
Harry Beaumont, The Broadway Melody
Irving Cummings, In Old Arizona
Frank Lloyd, The Divine Lady & Drag & Weary River
Ernst Lubitsch, The Patriot (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1986
1986. One of the lone brights spots in the black hole that is the 1980s. God, I fucking hate this decade.
Platoon wins Best Picture and this category. Paul Newman (finally!) wins Best Actor for The Color of Money (talked about here). Marlee Matlin wins Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God (talked about here). Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest win Best Supporting Actor (talked about here) and Best Supporting Actress (talked about here), respectively, for Hannah and Her Sisters. I like all the decisions except the Supporting ones. But even those I’m somewhat okay with.
As for this category — really obvious. Best decision in the category. I understand a David Lynch vote, but all things considered, the simple result in itself is very acceptable. And that’s what counts, really.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1986
And the nominees were…
Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters
James Ivory, A Room with a View
Roland Joffé, The Mission
David Lynch, Blue Velvet
Oliver Stone, Platoon (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1945
The last of the 1945. We’ll dispense with all the bells and whistles and just recap.
The Lost Weekend wins Best Picture, Best Actor for Ray Milland (talked about here), and this category. Joan Crawford wins Best Actress for Mildred Pierce (talked about here). Best Supporting Actor was James Dunn for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (talked about here), and Best Supporting Actress was Anne Revere for National Velvet (talked about here). All of them were great decisions.
And then this category is self-explanatory. Wilder should have won the year before this, and directed the Best Picture winner this year, so this is cut and dry.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1945
And the nominees were…
Clarence Brown, National Velvet
Alfred Hitchcock, Spellbound
Leo McCarey, The Bells of St. Mary’s
Jean Renoir, The Southerner
Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1965
I love 1965. It’s such a strong year. And the decisions were largely great. In fact, almost all great.
The Sound of Music wins Best Picture. That’s pretty clear cut. Best Actor was Lee Marvin for Cat Ballou (talked about here), which, as I say, is a good decision because Lee Marvin is awesome, but a terrible one because Richard Burton and Rod Steiger gave much better performances. Best Actress was Julie Christie for Darling (talked about here), which is a top ten Best Actress decision for all time. Best Supporting Actor was Martin Balsam for A Thousand Clowns (talked about here), which was a good decision in what was one of the weakest Best Supporting Actor categories of all time. And Best Supporting Actress was Shelley Winters for A Patch of Blue (talked about here), which was a terrific decision. She was awesome in the film.
And, that leaves us with this category, which — what did you think was gonna happen?
BEST DIRECTOR – 1965
And the nominees were…
David Lean, Doctor Zhivago
John Schlesinger, Darling
Hiroshi Teshigahara, Woman in the Dunes
Robert Wise, The Sound of Music
William Wyler, The Collector (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1983
1983 is a really weak year. When Terms of Endearment wins Best Picture, you’re witnessing a pretty weak year. It’s not that the film is bad, it’s just — it’s not a strong Best Picture winner.
Shirley MacLaine won Best Actress for the film (talked about here), which had to happen, since she was way overdue by this point, and despite the strength of the category, she needed to win. And Jack Nicholson won Best Supporting Actor for the film (talked about here), which, I don’t understand. I guess they just wanted to give Jack another one. Sam Shepard really should have won there. Best Actor this year was Robert Duvall for Tender Mercies, which, the category was pretty weak, and Duvall needed to win an Oscar (his snub in 1979 was Unforgivable). So I support the win, even though I wasn’t over the moon about his performance. Best Supporting Actress was Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously (talked about here). She played a man. ‘Nuff said.
Now this category. How the fuck was Phillip Kaufman not nominated for The Right Stuff? He’d have won the category with these nominees.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1983
And the nominees were…
Bruce Beresford, Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander
James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Mike Nichols, Silkwood
Peter Yates, The Dresser (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1946
No sense in wasting time for 1946. The Best Years of Our Lives, a film about the aftereffects of war on the average American soldier and his family, was going to win Best Picture no matter what. No matter how much we all love It’s a Wonderful Life, it wasn’t going to win. Not in 1946, right after the war. Not gonna happen.
The Best Years of Our Lives wins Best Picture, Best Actor for Frederic March (talked about here), Best Supporting Actor for Harold Russell (talked about here), and this category. And no matter how much we may not like any of those decisions, they were gonna happen anyway. Best Actress was Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own (talked about here), which was a fantastic decision, and she was about seven years overdue for one of these. And Best Supporting Actress was Anne Baxter for The Razor’s Edge, which was another terrific decision.
Then there was this category. Wyler’s second of three. (All for Best Picture winners, too. When this man wins, he really wins. Kind of like Clint Eastwood.) I feel less bad about this one because Capra already had three. (And Lean would win two.) It makes perfect sense. The only thing complicated about this is who the hell I’m gonna vote for.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1946
And the nominees were…
Clarence Brown, The Yearling
Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life
David Lean, Brief Encounter
Robert Siodmak, The Killers
William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives (more…)
Oscars By Statistics
Here’s something I thought would be interesting to do…
I don’t really know how much I’m into the whole statistical thing. Generally I like having all information at my disposal and then doing what feels right. Statistics to me feel more like rationalization than playing the odds. You know?
That said, I got this idea from playing the ponies. Every year, before the Kentucky Derby and the other Triple Crown Races, my hometown newspaper (that’s the New York Daily News. My family is middle class. We’re not sophisticated enough to get (or care about half the stuff written in) the Times and we’re not low enough to bother with the Post) prints a big section where they go over all the horses in the race and writes a little something and all that. It’s mostly useless. My father always says, “Let me lose my own money.” It’s all luck, anyway. Unless you know what you’re doing.
But, there is one thing at the bottom I always found interesting, which is — they show you all the post positions that the horses start from (usually 20), and then they tell you, based on the number of Derbies there have been, which post positions have won the race the most. Not the most helpful of information, since, a lot of it has to do with context. Yet, if you wanted to, you could probably make a case, saying, “Well, this position has won the most times, so why not?” It’s as good a system as any. It really comes down to how much you want to believe in it. (more…)
Oscars 2011 Breakdown: Best Picture & Best Director
Just like last year, this is just a breakdown of the individual categories. We start from the top and work our way down.
Best Picture, is, of course, the one category from the Oscars most people know about. It’s pretty self-explanatory. The only qualifications that need to be made are with the pre-1934 years, which were the Academy was figuring itself out and getting its legs under itself. And that even continued, to an extent, until 1939. Not really until Gone With the Wind was everything set in stone. So, in a way, Best Picture is reflective of the state of the industry, since it really wasn’t until 1939 (thereabouts) where the industry really figured out how to do things and made it into a science.
I guess the thing to do now would be to list all the Best Picture winners. The great thing about this is how almost everyone has the exact same reactions to the same years. (more…)
If I Got To Change the Oscars…
I love what-if scenarios. This is one of those experiments where I asked myself: if given the chance to change the outcome of a certain number of categories in the history of the Academy Awards, which ones would I change?
It sounds easy. I thought it would be, too. It’s very easy to come up with a list of poor choices when you think about what the “worst” Oscars are. But when you get into it, and actually start looking, you’d be surprised at which ones you’d actually allow to be kept and where you really want to make the changes. I was a bit surprised at how it turned out. Here’s how the whole thing works:
If I got to change any ten results in the history of the Academy Awards, in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director, which ones would I choose?
That’s it. Not why, no justification required, just — change from one result, to another result. Simple as that. Which would I change? Here are my answers, as well as some observations about them afterwards. Also, just in case, I feel I should point out that these answers are in no particular order at all. There’s nothing to read into there. It’s just, how it turned out. So here are the ones I decided to change: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Best Director Choices
I’m gonna do this without little fanfare because — it’s obvious why these films are on this list.
We all know which Best Director winners were the best, but in the interest of symmetry — I already listed what I consider the worst Best Director choices, so it’s only fair that I list the best as well.
Also, since I have room here — all of these articles will go up on one big “Oscar Quest Pages” page, where I link to all of this stuff. That’s why I’m not going out of my way to link to it all now.
Anyway — here are what I (and most people, I’d imagine) consider to be the best Best Director choices of all time: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Worst Best Director Choices
Today begins the other half of the “Best & Worst” articles — the best choices. It’s one thing to say, “This set of nominees is really weak” — now, we’re talking, “This winner is really weak.” This is where the most people have opinions. (And just to nip this in the bud, I don’t care about yours. This is my list. Want to voice your opinion? Make your own list.)
We’re gonna start here with the Worst Best Director choies. I’ll list who it was that won, who they beat, and explain why I think it’s one of the worst choies of all time in this category. Pretty simple.
And later, I’ll list the Strongest Best Director choices. I did it this way because — the worst choices list is much more interesting and contested than the best choices list. That one’s just — obvious.
Anyway, let’s take a look at all those bad decisions the Academy’s made (kind of like when you remember all those people you picked up in those bars): (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Weakest Best Director Categories
Earlier today, we took a look at the Strongest Best Director categories of all time. Now, it’s time to flip the coin and take a look at the weakest.
Some years you can just tell. It just feels weak. Of course, the pitfalls with a list of the “weakest” anything are numerous. The big one is when the list is filled with several terrific individual efforts. Sometimes there two or even three great single efforts on a set of nominees, but because of circumstances (that person already had a couple of Oscars, or they were never going to win (David Lynch), or the film was too on the nose, or that effort was a shadow of that person’s previous/later work), it doesn’t really help make the category any stronger. When looking at who to vote for (and taking into account Oscar history — because you have to, as much as you don’t want to. Because even if you don’t, they do. You have to navigate through the waters), you’ll find that these years actually are really, really terrible.
Again, as I said with the list of Strongest categories — don’t go so much by individual rankings as much as the fact that the category is on the list. Think of it as these 10 (and extra 5) as being what I consider the worst (I think we can all agree these belong here), and then the rankings as my personal preference as to how I’d rank them after we’ve established that they’re weak.
All right, now let’s look at all these pieces of shit: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Strongest Best Director Categories
Today we’re starting a whole new section of what I’m calling my “Oscar Quest Pages.” Since this whole thing is drawing to a close soon (seriously, almost five months to the day from now, it will be completely finished), I wanted to make some lists for stuff, to give people some resources for actually seeing the movies in question. It’s one thing to look up who won what year, or look at who won and was nominated based on all those giant lists I have, but when it comes to actually finding movies to watch, I wanted to provide as much pseudo-analysis and suggestions as possible.
This doesn’t so much have to do with movies to watch as much as it does analysis of the Quest itself. I wanted to see which years were the absolute best and worst in the history of the Oscars. Some years (like the one we’re in) just feel weak. Others feel insanely strong (like many of the ones in the 70s, which you’ll see are a recurring theme at the top of most of these lists).
So, starting today, I’m going to single out what I think are the best years for each of the individual Oscar categories. Today, I’ll be listing the strongest and weakest Best Director categories of all time. And I’ll work through the rest of the categories over the next few days. Keep in mind, these are only the categories. Just the sets of nominees. We won’t be concerning ourselves with what won, just — how strong was the list of nominees? (more…)
