Well, lookee here. Steven Spielberg has been leading the the “experts” consensus over at Gold Derby for close to five months, but he’s finally been dethroned by … The Daniels! Are Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan actually going to win the Directing Oscar?
Now that we have five contenders, it seems as though The Daniels have gained the momentum needed to nab frontrunner status. Quite the story. Then again, I’m still of the mindset that Spielberg will win his third Directing Oscar come March 12th, but he’s definitely no shoo-in.
Just to look outside the Gold Derby bubble, Variety’s Clayton Davis, THR’s Scott Feinberg, IndieWire’s Anne Thompson still have Spielberg winning.
It’s no secret that Spielberg, and really “The Fabelmans,” have had a hard time keeping the immense momentum they gathered at TIFF in September. What really killed the buzz was immediately after the film was released, it bombed at the box-office.
Yes, ‘Fabelmans’ was overhyped by overtly exciting reviews, but the fact that US movie audiences couldn’t care less about Spielberg’s life story didn’t help.
If it were up to me, Todd Field would be the runaway winner in this category for his virtuosic work in “TÁR.” No, really, no other filmmaker last year aimed as high and attained as much in regards to epic ambitions. Don’t get me wrong, Field can still win, but it’ll be tough with…The Daniels!