Weep with me now my fellow people of good taste for the continual shunning of Todd Haynes at awards shows. Save one. Haynes will always have the Independent Spirits as loyal cheering squad. They've miraculously nominated him for his direction on every single one of his feature films.
Yes well before even the bulk of cinephiles realized he was going to be a legendary filmmaker. They nominated him for his strange triptych debut (Poison) and his then quite divisive/confounding but now universally admired sophomore effort ([safe]) and they've been true ever since. I bring this up to quench the tears and prepare for the worst on Thursday in case Carol is barely acknowledged which is what usually happens with Todd Haynes films on Oscar nomination morning. Even Far From Heaven (2002), his biggest hit, got a weak 4 nominations despite having the kind of "Spectacular Spectacular!" craftsmanship that at least nets filmmakers Moulin Rouge! honors (nope - Far From Heaven was stiffed in both Art Direction and Costumes. Hilarious to contemplate but true.)
The Academy's directing branch is much more exclusive in numbers and arguably more sophisticated than the much larger voting body of the directors guild, but it's best to lower expectations; the world is often a mysteriously cruel place! Nevertheless it's frustrating that an auteur as singular and consistently wondrous as Todd Haynes has trouble getting honors from peers. He's in good company at least. Great artists in every field throughout time have had to decades for people to catch up with their greatness. Sometimes it didn't even happen until after they died. Remember that Alfred Hithcock never won a Directing Oscar and Douglas Sirk, one of of Todd Haynes's greatest influences, was never even nominated for one. Curiously Sirk, who specialized in the melodrama (those are often about women and you know how Oscar feels about women's pictures - Ewww!) was nominated by the DGA once, for Imitation of Life but an Oscar nomination did not follow. Generally Oscar will boot one of the DGA nominees for someone else but since they haven't gone 5/5 for awhile we're probably due for another year of exact crossover.
We should probably talk about the actual nominees not just one of our all time favorite auteurs. So let's do that after the jump...
Some people around the web -- never me - though that Iñárritu backlash post the 3 wins for Birdman (2014) would prevent a big run for The Revenant (2015). The backlash is only in the head of the internet since the Academy has ALWAYS loved Iñárritu. Like Haynes with the Spirit Awards, when it comes to 'Alej G' -- hey-- Oscar is reliably interested. And they were even when he made them read subtitles. Every single one of Iñárritu's pictures has been Oscar nominated for something or other, even the Mexican ones. So expect a healthy tally for The Revenant on Thursday morning to finish out it's amazing week (huge box office & Globe dominance).
The internet has been annoyed with The Revenant's constant "we almost died. we were cold. we went without wi-fi. we suffered for our art" campaigning so I had a good laugh at this tweet this morning...
Guess Todd Haynes shoulda complained about how cold it was when they shot CAROL, huh
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) January 12, 2016
It suddenly had me reimagining Carol's campaign via Bring It On because nothing cheers the exhausted by the patriarchy soul up faster than a little Bring It On, you know?
FEATURE FILM DGA NOMINEES
- Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant (3 previous DGA nominations with 2 wins, one for commercial direction)
- Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
- Adam McKay - The Big Short
- George Miller - Mad Max Fury Road
- Ridley Scott - The Martian (3 previous DGA nominations)
Other than Ridley and Alejandro these are first timers for the DGA. It's tough to say who might win: The Globes say Iñárritu; Lifetime achievement says Scott; actual directing achievement says McCarthy or Miller; and McKay gets the "so happy to be nominated!" honors for graduating from silly but beloved comedies like Anchorman.
FIRST TIME FEATURE FILM DGA NOMINEES
- Fernando Coimbra - A Wolf at the Door
- Joel Edgerton - The Gift
- Alex Garland - Ex Machina
- Marielle Heller - The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- László Nemes - Son of Saul
This is a new category and a welcome one. Wonderful to see Garland and Heller (an actual woman with a camera. omg) represented.
This list also reminds us that if there's a "shock" on Oscar morning it could be László Nemes who just picked up a Globe for his Holocaust drama about a Hungarian Sodderkomando in the concentration camps who becomes obessed with the dead body of a young boy. Nemes's uncomfortable claustrophic drama is expected to be the frontrunner for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Further Reading: Nathaniel's Votes for Best Director
Oscar Predictions: Updated Best Director Chart