Japanese cinema has been well represented at the Oscars over the years, but Ryusuke Hamaguchi is the first filmmaker from that country to receive a directing nomination since the great Akira Kurosawa in 1985, for Ran. Hamaguchi joins a group of titans who have a staggering 41 nominations among them, including Paul Thomas Anderson, whose career total stands at 11 nods (and zero wins); Jane Campion, the only woman nominated for Best Director twice; and Kenneth Branagh, who now has noms in a record-shattering seven different categories. And finally, Steven Spielberg. The 19-time nominee—the first director in Oscar history to be nominated in six different decades—received his eighth nomination in this category, tying him with Billy Wilder as the third most recognized director of all time.
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
“A one-of-a-kind delight from a daring and always-surprising filmmaker” is how TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde described Anderson’s nostalgic romp through the San Fernando Valley in 1973. With an exacting eye for details, the three-time Best Director nominee takes us on a leisurely ride through an era and place he clearly loves. “It’s a time that Anderson recalls at least as much from the movies as he does from life,” Duralde wrote. “But he’s crafted a lived-in, even tangible, period experience.”
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Based on memories of sectarian violence that exploded in Northern Ireland when Branagh was a 9-year-old lad, Belfast is by far his most personal film. But he had no desire to do a documentary-like reconstruction and he encouraged the cast to explore their characters not purely as versions of his relatives, but simply as people. “There were some incidents I wanted to definitely include, but I knew that if it was going to have a life elsewhere, it needed to be something that would be very different,” the filmmaker said. “It’s not pure therapy.”
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Twenty-nine years after landing in this category for The Piano, Campion returns with a ferocious drama about toxic masculinity that cements her place as one of today’s boldest, most fearless auteurs. Supporting Actress nominee Kirsten Dunst said Campion’s ability to draw layered performances from her actors is unparalleled, while Best Actor nominee Benedict Cumberbatch was succinct: “She’s a pied piper, she’s a white witch and she’s got such an aura about her.”
RyUsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
In his three-hour film based on a Haruki Murakami short story, Hamaguchi lets his scenes breathe, taking his time as he follows a grieving theater director who makes an unexpected connection with his taciturn chauffeur. By replacing Murakami’s flashback-filled structure with a more straightforward chronological one, Hamaguchi furthers the delicate flow of his storytelling. “Flashbacks are basically used to explain what has happened, meaning that you’re looking from a future point in time and you’re going back,” the filmmaker said. “I don’t know if that’s really the richest way to use time, to use it for explanatory purposes. So I created this movie so that the flashbacks would be created by the viewers themselves.”
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
For Spielberg, it was all a question of reimagining the original stage musical, not the 1961 film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. A lifetime fan of the show, he brings affection and respect to his interpretation of the star-crossed Jets and Sharks from New York City, while still making refreshing changes—not the least of which are the race and socioeconomic dimensions explored in Tony Kushner’s screenplay. Vibrant, joyful and moving, this is, as TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde wrote in his review, “a take on West Side Story that’s both reverent and exciting.”
Steve’s Perspective
Even as the Best Picture category has sometimes remained a question mark, Best Director has had a clear frontrunner in most recent years. This year, that person is Jane Campion, who seems likely to follow Nomadland director Chloé Zhao and give the Oscars back-to-back female winners in a category that took 66 years to have its second female nominee (which, coincidentally, was Campion for The Piano in 1994).
