15 Great Filmmakers Who Deserve A Best Director Oscar - Page 2 of 5

David FincherDavid Fincher
Directing Nominations: “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” (2008) and “The Social Network” (2010).
Other Oscar History: Both films were Best Picture nominees. ‘Button’ got thirteen nominations in total, winning three, while “The Social Network” also won three, from eight nods. “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” picked up five nominations, including Best Actress, and won Best Editing.
What He Should Have Won For: Even Fincher’s worst movie is better directed than 90% of the films released these days, so there’s a lot to choose from here. But if we had to pick, we’d go for Fincher’s true-blue masterpiece “Zodiac,” a film that was entirely overlooked by the Academy (though a spring release date from Paramount, who didn’t know what to do with the movie, probably didn’t help). Fincher’s most substantial film to date, and a major transitional leap in terms of his style (it was his first picture for five years),  the film eschews the show-off qualities of “Fight Club” and “Panic Room,” for a more meticulous and consistent tone and approach, one that seemingly effortlessly crams a huge amount of information and characters into a coherent and gripping story that simply flies by. Personal, subtly funny and even terrifying in places, it led the way for Fincher’s embrace by the establishment in recent years.
Next Chance To Win: Fincher’s very much in the running for “Gone Girl” this time around, though the competition is stiff, with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Richard Linklater looking like locks at this stage, and Christopher Nolan and Angelina Jolie likely if their films deliver, and he’ll have to fight off people like Morten Tyldum, James Marsh and Ava DuVernay to make the cut. It’s probably not his year to win, all things considered, but you never know.

Quentin Tarantino,Quentin Tarantino
Directing Nominations: “Pulp Fiction” (1994) and “Inglourious Basterds” (2009).
Other Oscar History: Both “Pulp Fiction” and ‘Basterds’ were Best Picture nominees, and Tarantino won Screenplay Oscars for ‘Pulp’ and “Django Unchained,” which also picked up a Best Picture nod.
What He Should Have Won For: We’re team “Jackie Brown” ’til we die. Tarantino’s 1997 Elmore Leonard adaptation was almost totally overlooked by the Oscars (earning a single nod, for Robert Forster as Best Supporting Actor), but in our eyes, it’s his best movie and the last project he has made regarding, well, people, rather than riffing on other movies. Tangled and complex without feeling indulgent, taut and tense and restrained in a way that suggested a new maturity for the filmmaker that was quashed by the flying heads and anime sequences of “Kill Bill,” the film is his most grown-up and enduring work, with a timeless feel that’s seen it age better than most of his movies. And it features the most finely tuned performances of any of his pictures (that Pam Grier didn’t get a Best Actress nod that year is, frankly, astonishing). Perhaps if Tarantino had got more awards love for this film, he’d have made more like it, and he’d have retreated less into grindhouse than he did.
Next Chance To Win: Tarantino should be a major contender next year with his widescreen Western “The Hateful Eight.”

Paul Thomas AndersonPaul Thomas Anderson
Directing Nominations: There Will Be Blood” (2007)
Other Oscar History: Anderson picked up screenwriting nominations for “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia” and “There Will Be Blood,” and also got a Best Picture nomination for the latter, which received eight in total. Seven actors have been nominated for roles in PTA films (Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Daniel Day-Lewis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams), but only Day-Lewis took a trophy home.
What He Should Have Won For: One of the hardest picks to make, as there are arguments to be made for virtually any one of his films. Our first instinct was “Boogie Nights,” but it’s the work of a director still in thrall to his influences, and he certainly deserved the nod for the classical brilliance of “There Will Be Blood.” But in the end, we’ve plumped for “The Master,” a film that couldn’t have been made by anyone except Paul Thomas Anderson. His most idiosyncratic and puzzling work, the film develops a rhythm and tone unlike almost anything else. It’s not for everyone (despite the three acting nods, not enough Academy members liked it for a Best Picture nomination), and Anderson arguably overshoots the perfect ending, but it’s still a remarkable piece of work that seems to signal a new phase for one of our most talented filmmakers.
Next Chance To Win: This year, with “Inherent Vice.” Sight unseen, the perceived wisdom is that the film could be too wacky and comic to make much of an awards splash, but we’ll be finding out when it screens at the New York Film Festival this weekend.