It’s the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony, Best Director gets announced, the winner, Ron Howard, gets out of his seat and makes his way to the stage to accept the award for A Beautiful Mind. For a few seconds, as he makes his way up to the stage, the camera pans to fellow nominee David Lynch going up to other nominee, the late great Robert Altman, and consoling him about the defeat. With one arm around Altman, we can’t quite make out what Lynch is telling him, but rest assured it wasn’t “the best man won”. At that point we kind of had a feeling that this was Altman’s last shot at getting the golden statuette. Just five years later the director of classics such as Nashville, MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Player, 3 Women, Shortcuts, and The Long Goodbye would pass away at the age of 81 years old. Sadly, stories such as Altman’s aren’t uncommon. One can go through a list of late great filmmakers who never won a Best Director Oscar: Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Sidney Lumet, Howard Hawks, Arthur Penn – and that’s only the American-born list.
The sad tradition of not honoring the right
filmmakers will likely continue for the Academy. Further proof can be found
with these 11 greats who haven’t won yet, with some not even having a single nomination
to their name; unfortunately they will likely never muster a win because of the
visionary daring they bestow upon their every film. Originality can sometimes
be so ahead of its time that it will scare voters away. It takes time to
comprehend and acknowledge how some were just ahead of their time and produced
some of the most important cinematic experiences imaginable. One only hopes
that a few of the following eleven directors will make it up to the stage in
the near future.
Ridley
Scott
Although The Martian wasn't the greatest
thing he's ever done, most people were not only predicting a Ridley Scott
nomination, but even a win! The fact that he was snubbed, put all those hopes
to rest and put the 78-year-old director in a precarious position at the tail
end of his illustrious career. Don't get me wrong, this master still has quite
a few more gems left in him, but The Martian was his best shot – a
crowd-pleaser that made a ton of money and solidified his stamp as a great
visionary of sci-fi. Up next for him is Alien: Covenant, a prequel to the
famous series and a follow-up to his much debated 2012 film, Prometheus.
Five
Best Movies: Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, American Gangster, Black Hawk Down
Oscar
Nominations for Directing: Three.
Jean-Luc Godard
Although
the academy has never awarded a foreign film the Best Director award,
exceptions could have been made in the 1960s for Jean-Luc Godard's tremendous
streak of films. The films Godard churned out on a yearly basis were
astounding. Starting with 1960's Breathless, his role in France's Nouvelle
Vague movement helped shape not only his country's cultural movement, but also
influence the way films would be shot and told in the American studio system.
Now 85 years old, he strays far away from conventional cinema and instead opts
for a requiem-sensed way of telling a story: It's bold, original, but vital
filmmaking that still allows him to win awards at Cannes. Just don't expect him
to win any Oscars for these films, as they are way too groundbreaking for the
Academy's tastes. That's why a couple of years ago he was awarded an Honorary
Oscar: they know.
Five
Best Movies: Breathless, Contempt, Alphaville, Pierrot Le Fou, Band Of
Outsiders
Oscar
Nominations For Directing: Zero.
David Fincher
If a case could ever
be made about how awards-worthy David Fincher is, he probably wouldn't want to
hear about it anyways. That's how much he cares about awards. He's more
interested in making vital art. If his films are at first met with polite
approval, check out release date reviews of Seven, Fight Club and Zodiac, they
instead end up lingering in our heads, aging like fine wine and becoming
stone-cold classics. His static, highly controlled camera compositions enhance
feelings of dread and coldness to the characters and situations he portrays. In
fact, his cold, detached style has made him become the heir apparent to Alfred
Hitchcock, whose films shared similar traits to and were also widely divisive
back in the day. Next up for Fincher is a remake of Hitch's Strangers on a Train,
set on a plane. A match made in heaven.
Five Best Movies: The
Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club, Se7en, Gone Girl
Oscar Nominations For
Directing: Two.
David Lynch
The
day David Lynch wins an Oscar will probably be the day our society has a
significant cultural shift and abstract surrealist cinema would actually be
making millions at the American box-office. Suffice to say, this will not be
happening in the foreseeable future, which probably means Lynch will have to
wait for his much-deserved honorary Oscar. But imagine a society where a David
Lynch could potentially become mainstream; it briefly happened in the early ‘90s
when, for one season, ABC'S Twin Peaks was the toast of the town and the
obsession in millions of American homes. Of course Lynch couldn't help it and
slowly veered the series' tone into, well, a David Lynch kind of world filled
with abstract ideas, unresolved mysteries, and the strangest of characters.
With all that being said, the fact that he has been nominated three times for
Best Director is quite a beautiful miracle in itself.
Five
Best Movies: Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, Wild At Heart, The
Straight Story
Oscar
Nominations for Directing: Three.
Pedro Almodóvar
Although
he hails from Spain, Pedro Almodóvar has gained a solid following in the United
States. His films, critical hits, also tend to make quite a bit of money. He
even got a Best Director nod in 2002 for his masterwork, Talk to Her. He is
such an imposing cinematic force that his movies usually get presented as
an "Almodóvar film". Often portraying strong female characters,
his films have that acerbically comic wit that we've all grown to love ever
since his 1987 breakout hit, Law of Desire. His aesthetic brilliance goes far
beyond surface beauty, he has written some of the strongest, most eloquent
roles for female actresses in the history of the art form and basically
kick-started Penelope Cruz's career into Hollywood stardom. If there ever was a
foreign filmmaker who could defy the odds and become the first one to ever win
a Best Director Oscar for a foreign film, it's Almodóvar.
Five
Best Movies: Talk To Her, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Broken
Embraces, The Skin I Live In, All About My Mother
Oscar
Nominations for Directing: Zero.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Starting off his career with the Altman/Scorsese-inspired
Hard Eight, Boogie Night, and Magnolia, there seemed to have been a shift in
his style post-Punch-Drunk-Love in 2002. The best living filmmaker working
today, P.T. Anderson has quintessentially reinvented cinema with his twin peaks
There Will Be Blood and The Master – two bold, unique, ambitious films that
signified a forward step in American filmmaking. They were character studies
that defined the American character and the dark soul of this country. These
were such exceptional works, from a director boldly going into new places, that
comparisons to Kubrick were inevitable. These were movies that would surely be
remembered in all their lasting glory in the years and decades to come. In
fact, if there ever was a director today who could be compared to Kubrick, it
would P.T. Anderson. Kubrick never got his due, winning only Best Special
Effects, and one can only hope that Anderson won't be given the same fate.
Five
Best Movies: There Will Be Blood, The Master, Boogie Nights, Magnolia,
Punch-Drunk-Love
Oscar
Nominations for Directing: One.
Terry
Gilliam
Starting off with the Monty Python comedy troupe in the ‘70s
would have been enough to love this man, he gave us Monty Python and the Holy
Grail, but the fact that he also became an influential filmmaker in the
eighties and nineties fully justifies his inclusion on this list. Terry Gilliam
is a visionary. He saw stuff that was far beyond anyone's reach at the time. In
1985 he made Brazil, an important cinematic milestone that wasn't even going to
get released until the L.A. Film Critics Association managed to screen it for
its members and consequentially named it their Best Picture of 1985. His heavy use of wide angle lenses might take you
aback at first – actually every single unusual camera angle he concocts would –
but his style is unmistakably Gilliam, and the wonder of the worlds he creates
are claustrophobic, dreamy, and richly detailed. He's never been nominated for
Best Director, which is a crime, but if one looks at his filmography, they'll
find something better: lasting works of art.
Five
Best Movies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brazil, The Fisher King, 12
Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Oscar
Nominations for Directing: Zero.
David Cronenberg
If one theme keeps resonating among the directors of this
list, it’s that they never seem to play it safe; these are directors who don’t
make movies that are meant for Awards consideration. Oscar bait they are not,
which perfectly describes the films of Canadian master David Cronenberg. He’s
never gotten a single writing, directing, or producing nomination in his 40+
year career. That means classics such as Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, A
History of Violence, and Eastern Promises were not even mentioned in their
respective years – as if they never existed. Time always has a way of making
things better and that’s what’s happened to these films: they’ve lasted.
Cronenberg will turn 73 in March, and he still makes smart, urgent films about
his deepest obsessions, and never strives for the conventionality that wins
awards. His parasite-filled, sexually tabooed and ultra violent films are what
dreams are made of. Or is that nightmares?
Five Best
Movies: Videodrome, the Fly, Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, Eastern
Promises
Oscar
Nominations for Directing: Zero.
Brian De Palma
If David Fincher has been channeling
Hitchcock for the last two decades, Brian De Palma has been doing it for the
last five decades. De Palma has referenced Hitch by constantly casting blondes
as leading ladies, using Hitchcock regular Bernard Hermann’s scores and – more
importantly – copying camera techniques of such films as Vertigo, Rear Window,
and Psycho. Of course De Palma still managed to infuse his own “auteur” voice
in the films; he’s one of the very best filmmakers for the long take/tracking
shot and his constant use of the split screen has been nothing short of
revolutionary. If you are too young to have lived through the ‘70s and ‘80s you
wouldn’t know that at one point he was releasing one great movie after another.
His familiar obsessions still linger inside him as he continues making movies
this decade, but an Oscar nomination, in any category, still hasn’t happened.
Five Best Movies: Blow Out, Carrie,
Dressed to Kill, Carlito’s Way, Scarface, Body Double
Oscar Nominations for Directing:
Zero.
Spike Lee
If any
director can attest to getting the shaft from the academy, it’s Spike Lee. His
greatest movie, Do the Right Thing, didn’t even get a Best Picture nomination
in 1989, with the academy instead opting for the safer, gentler, but
nevertheless forgettable, whimsical depiction of racism in Driving Miss Daisy.
We all know which film stood the test of time and which film, as Lee pointed
out recently, is taught in film schools all across the U.S. It wasn’t just that
movie, either: his incendiary film about Malcom X couldn’t muster anything,
except a Best Actor nomination for Denzel Washington. Just like some of the
great directors of his time, Lee’s films have aged very well and he keeps
pushing the envelope, most recently in last year’s undervalued Chi-raq. He’s
also responsible for starting the whole #Oscarssowhite debate when he refused
to accept his honorary Oscar for this year’s upcoming ceremony.
Five Best Movies: Do the Right
Thing, Malcom X, The 25th Hour, Summer of Sam, Inside Man
Oscar Nominations for Directing:
Zero.
Quentin Tarantino
Love him or hate him, you can’t deny
the impact Quentin Tarantino has had on film culture over the last 25 years.
Contrary to the other filmmakers on this list, he has actually won an Oscar
before, actually two, both for Best Original Screenplay. No Best Director
Oscar, which I guess he can’t really be too bummed about, especially since he
keeps saying he’s going to retire after his tenth film, and well, let’s face
it, his films are polarizing and always split the Academy vote. It’s already
pretty impressive how his brand of filmmaking has transferred to the mainstream
and actually makes money. Even when Pulp Fiction came out in 1994 nobody would
have thought Tarantino would release a film 15 years later that would amass 320
million dollars in worldwide box office receipts (Inglourious Basterds).
Five Best Movies: Pulp Fiction,
Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds
Oscar Nominations for Directing:
Two.
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