Best Director: The Ten Contenders [Updated]

Never won a Directing Oscar: Kubrick, Hitchcock, Godard, Welles, Kurosawa, Lynch, PTA, Chaplin, Tarantino, Cronenberg, Malick, Fellini, Bergman, Varda, Leone, Fincher, Altman, Hawks, Lumet, Campion, Herzog, Scott, Gilliam, Preminger, Cassavetes, Lang— It’s all meaningless, folks.

And yet, it’s always fun to speculate way ahead of time when it comes to the Best Director category. Why? Because we want the best filmmakers to win so that they have more freedom to make more movies. It’s as simple as that.

Upon request, I’ve decided to update my Best Director contenders list. Clearly, things have changed since I first published in June.

David Fincher (The Killer) is most likely a 2023 candidate now. Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) may or may not submit his film last-minute. Andrew Dominik (Blonde) has a film that I heard, from someone just yesterday, is a total fascinating MESS (still looking forward to it). George C. Wolfe (Rustin) isn’t ready.

Suffice to say, 2022 could very well be known as the year where marquee filmmakers had their films delayed by a year. It’s really unprecedented what we’re seeing, the likes of Lanthimos, Scorsese, Fincher, Aster, Glazer, Anderson have all been kicked to the 2023 curb.

I also can’t help but get sucked into the rumors that Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” will be delayed, I heard this “rumor” from a well-seasoned Oscar pundit back in June and the fact that still no trailer or image has been released concerns me. However, let’s count it as 2022, for now.

I’m tempted to think that Todd Field is our frontrunner. As mentioned two days ago, I’ve only heard great things about “Tar,” with someone comparing the framing to Kubrick. A “swirling and meticulously crafted epic about obsession” one person told me.

Back to the Oscar race, I’ve painstakingly tried to decipher through many of the question marks for this year’s fall crop of contenders. The result, to keep a very close eye out on these ten filmmakers:

• Steven Spielberg (The Fablemans)

• Damien Chazelle (Babylon)

• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Bardo)

• Todd Field (TAR)

• Sarah Polley (Women Talking)

• Sam Mendes (Empire of Light)

• Kwan/Scheinert (Everything Everywhere …)

• Noah Baumbach (White Noise)

• Darren Aronofsky (The Whale)

• Florian Zeller (The Son)

For now, I’m sticking with these. This list will likely change once films actually start screening at Venice/Telluride/Toronto.

I would be ecstatic if Audrey Diwan (Happening) could muster up some Oscar buzz. Her film is now the most topical of the 2022 US release calendar. I’ll talk more about that movie later this week.

Then there’s the “Cannes slot” which occurs every few years. This year, Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave) might sneak in there, although I’m very skeptical about his intricately webbed film going anywhere. More realistically, Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlund (Triangle Sadness) is gaining buzz — he could be the one.

Lukas Dhont (Close), might have the second best chance as he directed a film that completely adheres to the Academy’s film sensibilities. And yet, it’s only going to Telluride?