With the annual Academy Awards slowly but surely creeping up on us, the time has come to discuss which filmmaker will take home the desired 'Best Director' award and receive the highest of praise possible from within the industry.
This year's Best Director lineup consists of a few faces seen many times before at the Academy Awards, as well as two first-time nominees. The nominations are as follows:
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Martin Scorsese (Killers Of The Flower Moon)
Justine Triet (Anatomy Of A Fall)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone Of Interest)
All 5 of the movies that are nominated within this Best Director category have performed exceptionally well throughout this year's awards season, with 'Oppenheimer' being the most dominant of them all.
The blockbuster biopic swept at the Oscar nominations last month, racking up a total of 13, the most amongst any other film released this year. And it's creator, Christopher Nolan, seems the most likely candidate to receive the award for Best Director.
Nolan, who has been nominated for Best Director only once before for 'Dunkirk' (2018), is currently without an Academy Award, despite being nominated across various categories a total of 5 times before the release of 'Oppenheimer'.
The English filmmaker's first recognition of excellence from the Academy dates all the way back to 2002, in which he received a Best Original Screenplay nomination for 'Memento'. But could 2024 finally be the year that Nolan receives his well-deserved Oscar?
So far this awards season, Nolan has a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice and a BAFTA to his name for his work on 'Oppenheimer', making him the strongest candidate by far. With the film expected to be very successful on Oscar Sunday, which means taking home various wins from it's 13 nominations, the filmmaker could very well see himself up on the stage at least once on the evening.
The only filmmaker within this category who may have something to say in Nolan's pursuit in becoming an Academy Award winner is director of 'Poor Things', Yorgos Lanthimos. The Greek filmmaker, who was previously nominated back in 2019 for 'The Favourite', has received a smothering of nominations throughout this year's awards season.
The film itself was actually very well received by the Academy this year, being recognised across 11 various categories, second to just 'Oppenheimer's 13. 'Poor Things' has received much praise for it's unique style of filmmaking and cinematography throughout this recent awards season, and this could very much play well in the hands of Lanthimos when the Best Director category is announced.
Regardless, Nolan is still the frontrunner in this years race for an Academy Award amongst the nominated directors, and by quite the distance. It looks a very strong possibility that we would finally see the filmmaker crowned as an Academy Award winner when March 10th comes around.
Who do you think will win the award?