This year's Best Director nominations have two front runners, Alejandro González Iñárritu for 'Birdman' and Richard Linklater for 'Boyhood'.
To use popular cliches, this is the person who's the Captain of the Ship or the Conductor of the Orchestra. Rightly so, but a director needs to be the jack of all trades to bring his vision, his story on screen.
The Academy Awards are a big deal. You don't need me to tell you that. But the Best Director makes it to the four big categories that everyone is eagerly waiting for. This year, as usual, the snubs made waves. The Best Director category should have included Ava DuVernay for Selma, David Fincher for Gone Girl, James Marsh for Whiplash and Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler.
Let's have a look at the nominations -
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman
Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Bennett Miller - Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman
The Oscar front runner first started out as a radio jockey in Mexico. So that should give you the idea of how well the jazz drums helped the background score to lift the effect of wonderful lighting in Birdman. All of Iñárritu's movies have been nominated for the Oscars.
Known for complicated, emotional and political tales (like Babel 2006) Iñárritu this time attempted the comedy genre to comment on the industry he is part of. The story of an actor who is trying to revive his washed up superhero career, Birdman also holds your attention because of its surrealism. One can derive their own interpretations in the end.
If we talk of movie maths, Iñárritu is a favourite as he bagged the Director's Guild Award for Birdman. With the exception of Ben Affleck for Argo, every director who has won the DGA has won the Oscars. The BAFTA loss may have intensified the race. But it is still in favour of the Mexican.
Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Linklater comes from the indie canvas of American movies. The man even refuses to leave his native Texas for longer duration shoots in LA! Boyhood was in the making for 13 years or so, if you count the post production. It's a one of a kind experiment which has brought brilliant results for Richard Linklater. The film is a coming of age story, quite literally, for the lead actors Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater.
Starting a project, then taking a break to do another movie, then come back to what they have filmed so far, is not an easy task. Linklater successfully gets in and out of that tunnel vision. His 'Before' series had the concept of a one day journey. In Boyhood, it is a life span.
Linklater stuck to his method of simple story telling. And this might just win him the trophy this year. The little BAFTA nod might help too!
Bennett Miller - Foxcatcher
After Moneyball, Miller is once again back with a movie on sports. With the experience of four movies in his kitty (The Cruise, Capote, Moneyball, and Foxcatcher), Bennett Miller is known to be an intellectually exciting director. All his movies have intense emotions. In Foxcather, Miller tells the story of fathers. Based on the life of Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and the relationships between his coach du Pont (Steve Carrell) and Mark's brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo).
Miller was nominated in the same category for Capote for which Phillip Seymour Hoffman won his first and only Oscar. Foxcatcher started the year with a Cannes win. But it remains to be seen if it will end with a bang.
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
The only original story in the category, Wes Anderson's movie won this year's Golden Globe Award for Best Movie Comedy or Musical. That win gave a push to all the nine nominations it received for the Oscars.
Anderson is know for fast paced comedies with an edge of grief. Set in an imaginary country 'Republic of Zubrowka' The Grand Budapest Hotel is the story of a concierge who with the help of his bellboy, proves his innocence after being framed for the murder of one of his clients.
'Geek-chic' is the Wes Anderson style. Flat camera use, limited colour palette and symmetrical compositions are Anderson's marks. Apart from these, story telling and the perfect orchestration of the smallest of the details are the strong points of The Grand Budapest Hotel. This is Anderson's fourth Oscar nomination. If I had a say, Wes Anderson would be crowned this year.
Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game is Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's first English movie. Best known for his thriller Headhunters (Norway's highest grossing film of all time), Tyldum here brings British mathematician Alan Turing's story to the world. This is the first time Tyldum has attempted telling a real person's story and successfully uses the World War II canvas to tell it.
It's the story of a genius who was, despite his gigantic contributions, wronged by the nation he helped save. The best part about Tyldum's direction is that he peels Turing's story layer by layer. Also, when Turing is in Bletchley Park, things have pace, the pace of a thriller. And when he is being confronted by the police for his sexuality, you are gripped by the drama.
Tyldum might just be the dark horse this year.
Our Prediction - Alejandro González Iñárritu is most likely to win, which could make him the second Mexican director after Alfonso Cuarón to do so. Richard Linklater is my second guess.
Winner for 2014 - Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
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