2022 has come and gone, yet the films are still on everybody’s mind as awards season has kicked off with the Oscars just months away. One category of particular interest is Best Director, as 2022 was an incredible year for some of the biggest filmmakers working today. Established names, relative newcomers, and long working overlooked directors released films that broke out and now the Best Director Oscar nomination seems more competitive than ever.
These seven directors and their films range in terms of style, budget, and genre. Some are intimate character pieces, others are massive blockbusters. Some take place at various points in the past, with a few contemporary set films, while one highlights a future. Here is a breakdown of the seven most likely candidates for Best Director at the 95th Academy Awards.
Steven Spielberg - The Fabelmans
Universal Pictures
Steven Spielberg is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and even entering his sixth decade of making movies he is still making some of the best films in his entire filmography. He was recently nominated for Best Director for West Side Story, and he seems like a lock for The Fabelmans.
The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical film about Spielberg’s childhood, and has received widespread critical acclaim and is likely a favorite among Oscar voters. While some would say his two previous Best Director wins may hurt his chances, this incredibly personal story that Spielberg has shared has connected with audiences and could be one of the director’s finest films.
Todd Field - Tár
Focus Features
2022 was the year many iconic directors returned after long hiatus. Sam Raimi returned after nine years for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Henry Selick and James Cameron each returned from their 13-year hiatus for Wendell and Wild and Avatar: The Way of Water respectively. Yet Tár marks director Todd Field’s grand return as a director 16 years after his previous film Little Children. Tár has been a favorite at various critics and awards ceremonies, and while most of the attention has been on Cate Blanchett, a great deal of notice has also gone to Field’s direction. The film is hauntingly beautiful and tense, and Field could easily walk away with the top prize.
Joseph Kosinski - Top Gun: Maverick
Paramount Pictures
Nobody could have expected Top Gun: Maverick to be the box office hit it was at the start of 2022, let alone a potential Academy Award nominee, yet after all has been said and done, here it is, and it feels like a strong possibility. Much of Top Gun: Maverick’s appeal has been the use of real-life military jets and the particular technical aspects of filming the actors in those vehicles. It was a challenging task, all overseen by director Joseph Kosinski. Kosinski pulls off the impossible, and on a purely technical level, it’s an easy argument that he deserves a nomination for Best Director.
Sarah Polley - Women Talking
United Artists Releasing
Women Talking is the fourth film from director Sarah Polley, and it has already generated a great deal of awards attention with Polley’s directing being a highlight. The story of a group of women realizing the men in their lives have drugged and sexually assaulted them is a difficult one to tell and requires a filmmaker with a deft, delicate hand and Polley excels at it. With the past two Best Director winners being women (Chloé Zhao for Nomadland and Jane Campion for Power of the Dog), the odds appear in Polley’s favor.
The Daniels - Everything Everywhere All At Once
A24
With a budget of $25 million, the directing duo The Daniels make Everything Everywhere All At Once as big, vast, and imaginative as any $200 million dollar blockbuster. The directors’ clever ingenuity, wonderfully choreographed fight sequences, and ability to balance both an emotionally mature and absurdly over-the-top tone makes for one of the most unique films released all year. Everything Everywhere All At Once is very much the achievement of two talented filmmakers and there is no argument that they should be worthy of Best Director at the Academy Awards.
James Cameron - Avatar: The Way of Water
20th Century Studios
James Cameron returns after 13 years with Avatar: The Way of Water. Cameron has already won the Best Director Oscar for Titanic and was nominated for the original Avatar where he notably lost to his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. Avatar: The Way of Water has been a passion project for Cameron and it shows in the finished film, with not only the amazing visual effects on display but the story he has crafted and how he chooses to tell it.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a more complex film than its predecessor in every day, from the technical aspect of Cameron needing to guide multiple units to blend the various characters and settings together to a more personal story that focuses on a family unit coming apart and being put back together. Avatar: The Way of Water is another example of why one shouldn’t bet against James Cameron and the director will likely score another Best Director nomination.
Gina Prince-Bythewood - The Woman King
Sony Pictures Releasing
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King has been both a critical and financial hit and has the potential to move onto awards attention. There is no arguing against the fact that much of the movie’s success is down to Prince-Bythewood’s direction. Her work calls back to the classic historical epics that were popular among Academy voters in the 1990s like Braveheart, Dances with Wolves, and Unforgiven, while also updating it with a modern filmmaking style with action particularly designed to showcase hand-to-hand combat.
Viewed within the context of the rest of her career (which has been devoted to smaller and more personal human stories), Prince-Bythewood not only brings that element to the historical drama but ups the scope of her project to an impressive amount and pulls it off seamlessly.
