It's going to be an even more exclusive—and male—old boys' club for the Best Picture category at this year's Academy Awards than even I imagined in my last pre-Oscar post.
Kathryn Bigelow didn't even get nominated for directing Zero Dark Thirty—which pretty much puts the kibosh on that film's Best Picture chances.
Ditto Ben Affleck for directing the much-liked and very well-received Argo. (Maybe Oscar just isn't in the mood for CIA procedurals this year.)
The last Director's Guild nominee to NOT receive an Oscar nomination is Tom Hooper, for Les Miserables. It's not unheard of for a film to win the Best Picture award even though its director is not nominated, but it's statistically rare.
Who did the Academy nominate instead of the above in the Best Director category? Michael Haneke, for the highly-buzzed French film, Amour, David O. Russell, for Silver Linings Playbook, and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild.
All of their films are also nominated in the crowded category of Best Picture. What they don't have is the blessing of a Director's Guild nomination, without which an Oscar nominee rarely wins an Academy Award.
So who does that leave in serious contention for Best Picture? Life of Pi, whose director, Ang Lee, is nominated by both the DGA and the Academy, and Lincoln (ditto Steven Spielberg). And personally, I cant imagine any scenario in which a movie about a boy and a tiger on a boat (no matter how gorgeous) could possibly lose to a well-crafted drama about one of the most iconic figures in American history at the moment of his greatest triumph.
What concerns me most this year are the Best Actress nominees. Not a single one in historical costume—what fun is that?
Besides which, one nominee is a woman in her 80s (veteran French actress Emmanuelle Riva, in Amour, who is, btw, very well-positioned to take the gold), and another is a 6-year-old girl (the delightful Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild).
How on earth am I going to dress my Oscar Barbies???
Stay tuned...
In the meantime, check out all the 2013 Oscar nominees, and let me know what you think!
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