Ranking the Decade's Best Director Oscar Winners

I remember the days when Picture and Director usually matched 9 out of 10 times a decade (in the 1990s it happened only once – with Shakespeare in Love/Spielberg in 1998, in the first decade of the 2000s it happened three times - Gladiator/Soderberg, Chicago/Polanski, Crash/Lee, and that seemed insane. This decade, it happened five times, and twice, the Best Picture winner didn’t even have a director nominated – something that happened in 1989 when Driving Miss Daisy won – and other than that hadn’t happened since the mid-1930s. The preferential ballot has certainly changed the game this decade – without it, the below list may look a lot more like the Best Picture winners than it does.

 

 

10. Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech (2011) – Strangely, one of the first of the five winners whose film won as well is perhaps the only one of those five that feel like a win where Picture dragged along its director. Certainly Hooper’s direction is the weakest major element of the film – which is buoyed by a fun screenplay, and great performances, far more than anything he does behind the camera. The direction is fine – but little else.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): The opposite of Hooper’s direction was the job done by David Fincher for The Social Network who really does find a way to elevate a film with a great screenplay and cast, and find the perfect visual and aural feel for the film. I could see you liking The King’s Speech, and still giving Fincher your vote for director – curious why they didn’t.

 

9. Ang Lee, Life of Pi (2012) – It’s probably safe to assume that Ang Lee likely wouldn’t have won the Oscar had the directors nominated Ben Affleck for Argo for this prize – the uproar of his “snub” propelled him to win the Best Picture Oscar. Still, Lee has undeniable crafted a visually stunning film – great cinematographer and special effects throughout. I don’t think I’ve thought much about this film in the 9 years since I saw it – it’s fine, but not the best work of Lee’s career.

What Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): I really think the best directing job nominated that year was by Michael Haneke for Amour – a perfect example of that master at his most controlled, and best – a devastating film, and brilliant directing job.

 

8. Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, The Revenant (2015) – Even more than his first directing win (see above) – this one really did feel like Gonzalez Innaritu was showing off more than anything. There is little doubt that the cinematography is great, and the film is technical achievement – but it’s also a long, grim slog of a film that I don’t really think means much of anything. It feels like what drove Gonzalez Innaritu to direct this is a chance to show off his long tracking shots, whether or not they mean anything.

What Should Have Won (Of the Directors): Seriously people, if you wanted to reward someone for showing off, at least give it to George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road- who shows off brilliantly throughout that film, and shows off some truly jaw dropping level of ingenuity.

 

7. Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Birdman (2014) – This kind of feels like an example of great cinematography masking great directing – because the swooping, spinning camera work by Emmanuel Lubezki is great here, and it makes far more sense to do all those long takes here than in The Reverent. Still, it still feels like showing off more than anything else here.

What Should Have Won (Of the Nominees): You had two directing jobs that took far more daring to pull off – Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel – which plays games with aspect ratio (which could be seen as a gimmick as the long takes in Birdman, but works better) or Richard Linklater for Boyhood – who had to mold this film over a decade.

 

6. Damien Chazelle, La La Land (2016) – I think it’s easy to make fun of La La Land – mainly for a bunch of things it doesn’t actually do (like say it’s white hero saved jazz) – but I do think we have to give the film credit for being the rarest of things – an original musical, made in a Hollywood that clearly doesn’t do that very well, and more often than not, even screws up musical adaptations. The film is fun and romantic, and has some catchy songs, and coasts along on the charm of Gosling and Stone and, yes, is very much a directorial achievement for Chazelle.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): It really would have been great to see Barry Jenkins for Moonlight win this award – his is the better film, the better directed film, and it won Best Picture, so it would have been fitting. It’s also would have crossed one more “first” off the Academy’s list at long last.

 

5. Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water (2017) – It’s always nice to see a wonderful director – and one who has usually been seen as too idiosyncratic to win major awards, be able to do just that, without sacrificing what makes them special in the first place. That is what Del Toro really accomplished here – he made a film that is undeniably his, and connected with the Academy. It isn’t his best film – but it’s a wonderful one.

What Should Have Won (of the Nominees): A director who even better describes the “too idiosyncratic to win awards” would be Paul Thomas Anderson who, with Phantom Thread showed his master of control, and made an extremely dark, twisted comedy. It’s a masterpiece, and should have been the winner.

 

4. Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist (2011) – I think Hazanavicius and The Artist get a somewhat bad rap – probably because he has struggled since then, only making two films, and neither particularly well-received. But what he did with this film truly is wonderful – The Artist is a marvelous technical achievement, recreating silent film Hollywood in meticulous style. Yeah, you wish great filmmakers would win the award – but occasionally someone comes along, and nails it just once.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): I really wish the Academy had the guts to embrace the monumental achievement that was The Tree of Life – if not for picture, at least for Terrence Malick – who shocking has only been nominated for Best Director twice, and hasn’t won.

 

3. Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity (2013) – The first of two Best Director Oscars Cuaron won this decade, his win for Gravity was a triumph for his immense technical achievement – a swirling, twirling mixture of great cinematography and visual effects, on a breathtaking, breakneck journey through space. Sure, you can complain that the film plays fast and loose with the science – but who the hell cares – the film is brilliantly directed.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): My favorite was probably Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street – one of his best films – but part of me wishes that they gave the award to Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave, that won best picture, and is brilliantly directed. This was a year of Gravity of 12 Years a Slave – and although I love both, I was definitely 12 Years a Slave.

 

2. Alfonso Cuaron, Roma (2018) – Cuaron’s second Oscar – and one of his very best films – is another technical marvel, but a very different one than Gravity. It has some of the best cinematography of the decade – brilliant black and white, by Cuaron himself, in long, master shots. Gravity moves at a breakneck pace; Roma slows way down – brilliantly so.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): For me, a lifelong fan, I would have loved to see Spike Lee win for BlackKklansman – one of his very best films, and my favorite of the nominees. It was great to see him a screenplay award – Best Director would have been even better.

 

1. Bong Joon-ho, Parasite (2019) – Once again, they saved the best for last – Bong Joon-ho’s win for Parasite was great – it was the second in a row for a film not in English, and was also an example of a great director winning for his best film – a film his entire career had been leading up to. It is a meticulously crafted film on every level – and easily one of my favorite Best Director winners ever.

Who Should Have Won (of the Nominees): True, I would have loved to see my favorite director of all time Martin Scorsese win again for The Irishman (although the shout out by Bong was almost as good) or see Quentin Tarantino finally win best director for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – if only because I always thought he was a better director than writer, and he keeps winning screenplay prizes, but I’m more than fine with Bong winning.