Welcome to Beyond The Trailer’s coverage of the 2016 Academy Awards, giving you an
in-depth look at the top categories.
Today, Best Director, where despite surprisingly strong contenders across the board, Alejandro
Inarritu seems poised to join that rare club of individuals who have won back to back Oscars.
Do you think Alejandro is as done a deal as Leo?!
Be sure to vote in Beyond The Trailer’s annual Oscar poll!
The link is in the video description.
And right now let’s take a look at who could possibly upset an Alejandro win…
Lenny Abrahamson - Room One of the nicest things about the Best Director
category this year is that it isn’t full of the “usual choices”.
Sure it would be nice if Room’s Lenny Abrahamson would get nominated, but he doesn’t have
the pedigree.
He doesn’t have the connections.
He isn’t the sort of director to get “nominated”.
Except this year, he did!
Yes, instead of Sir Ridley Scott and Todd Haynes, and even over a diversity nomination
for Ryan Coogler, here’s Irish director Abrahamson who’s few films to date have
NEVER been recognized by The Academy, The Golden Globes, BAFTA or even the indie Gotham
or Spirit Awards.
As for mainstream moviegoers, Abrahamson has barely registered with Frank, sort of starring
Michael Fassbender, and putting Jack Reynor on Hollywood’s radar.
Ah, so THAT’S why Reynor gets work!
Because up until now it’s been a bit of a mystery.
But at the end of the day there’s no mystery as to why Abrahamson made the cut this year
- The Academy just loves Room that much.
So while Brie Larson is almost guaranteed to win Best Actress, such adoration could
lead to another upset - maybe even here.
And even if Abrahamson doesn’t win, you can bet he’s squarely on Hollywood’s radar
now as well - reunited with Jack Reynor!
Alejandro Inarritu - The Revenant Wow.
The last two years have been a meteoric rise for Mexico’s Inarritu.
He broke into Hollywood as a typical foreign director - the type actors go to for artistic
credibility in-between blockbusters, making films lauded by critics but seen by few.
And on that note, Inarritu has made many trips to the Oscars, but always as “filler”,
in other words, his films had no chance of winning any major awards but occasionally
took home a craft award or two.
But then Birdman came along, where Inarritu suddenly seemed to click as not just an artist
but a businessman.
First off, Birdman tapped into Hollywood’s growing frustration with the rise of the superhero
movie - all the fall awards releases tanked at the box office, but Deadpool breaks box
office records?!
Then second, Inarritu discovered the power of “stunt” filmmaking.
Done all in what seemed like one long take, Birdman went on to win Best Picture, Best
Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
Then with The Revenant, while his instance of shooting with only natural light and real
snow caused the production to become a costly nightmare, Inarritu spun those choices as
an artist holding his ground - a narrative that’s worked!
Inarritu has won Best Director at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, and The Director’s Guild
of America - he didn’t even sweep like that for Birdman!
See, just like George Miller this year, Richard Linklater made the mistake of not playing
up his own “stunt” filmmaking…
The squeaky wheel gets the Oscar!
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight Now, you might THINK that Tom McCarthy is
another surprise nominee, but he actually has excellent awards street-cred.
The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win, The Cobbler - oh, wait a minute, how’d that
last one get in there…?
See luckily for McCarthy, Spotlight was such a labor of love - which he also co-wrote - that
The Academy was willing to overlook one paycheck gig that THANKFULLY nobody saw.
McCarthy is also a TV and sometimes movie actor, but Academy voters do love a multi-hyphenate
- just ask the current king of multi-hyphenates, George Clooney.
And the great thing about being a multi-hyphenate is that it increases your chances of getting
an Oscar.
See, while there’s pretty much no chance he’ll win Best Director, and won’t get
an Oscar for Best Picture since he isn’t a producer on Spotlight, McCarthy IS the front-runner
for Best Original Screenplay, having already won the BAFTA and the WGA Award…
Adam McKay - The Big Short This is a
the other surprise nominee - Will Ferrell’s creative partner since way back in the day
on SNL!
Yes, the director of Farrell’s biggest hits is now an Oscar nominee, which might mean
he and Ferrell have…grown apart?
It’s tough to say as McKay doesn’t have his next directing gig set up yet, the big
dreamer and his management team obviously holding out hope for an Inarritu upset.
Now that’s funny!
Then again, McKay could find himself laughing all the way up to the Oscar stage.
The Big Short isn’t a frontrunner in any of the major categories, with only a slim
chance it could take Best Picture - both Spotlight and The Revenant have stronger claims to the
title right now.
So the ever democratic Academy could feel Leo’s Best Actor win takes care of The Revenant,
and look to give some gold to The Big Short right here.
But even if McKay doesn’t win, which again he likely won’t, to be an Oscar-nominated
director is going to take his career to a whole new level.
It would be nice if he could take Ferrell with him, but just remember what happened
when Nic Pizzolatto cast pal Vince Vaughn in True Detective Season 2.
I suspect Paul Rudd’s cell will ring before Ferrell’s…
George Miller - Mad Max Fury Road To fanboys, Christopher Nolan and Miller are
cut from the same cloth - but not to the Academy.
Nolan almost immediately graduated to blockbuster status after Memento, robbing him of some
of the artistic street-cred that’s so important to The Academy - thus the likely reasoning
behind his decision to direct a World War 2 pic as his next project ala Steven Spielberg’s
Schindler’s List, which finally got him some respect in Hollywood as an artist.
But Miller’s eclectic resume, seemingly devoid of concern for box office success despite
astounding box office success, Academy voters were enchanted by Miller’s Lorenzo’s Oil,
Babe and Happy Feet - the later for which he actually won Best Animated Feature in 2007.
So Academy voters, contemporaries of Miller, are likely impressed not just with Miller’s
experimentation but also his ability to reinvent himself - keeping his career alive.
But thriving?
As fanboys have moved their allegiance to Star Wars and now Deadpool, and even The Revenant
thanks to Leo, Miller’s Mad Max Fury Road suddenly seems forgotten.
And suddenly instead of excitedly talking about about planned sequels like he was right
after Mad Max Fury Road’s release, suddenly he’s saying he’s too tired to revisit
the material right now.
Yes, fanboys and the industry casting his work aside seems to have broken Miller and
while a win here or for Best Picture could maybe make him rise like the phoenix, neither
is likely happen…
And those are the 2016 nominees for Best Director!
Be sure to leave your comments down below, as well as vote in Beyond The Trailer’s
annual Oscar poll via the link in the video description.
I’m Grace Randolph, and I hope you’ll check out the rest of BTT’s Oscar coverage
- right now!