15 Early Predictions For 2018 Oscars
7. Best Director: Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
Though the Academy clearly appreciates large parts of Christopher Nolan's movies, they've never once brought themselves to nominate him for Best Director (the most egregious omissions being for The Dark Knight and Inception).
One can certainly argue that this is due to the "silliness" of his Batman movies or the heady concepts of Inception and Interstellar, but his upcoming war film Dunkirk is a far more Oscar-friendly concoction, because the old white men of the Academy love nothing more than a great war movie.
Best Director is always a fiercely contested field, but Nolan could finally sneak in there and even snag the win if Dunkirk lives up to the potential of its premise and cast.
Sure, there's going to be immense competition from Denis Villeneuve, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg and countless more, but perhaps the Academy might feel Nolan is due if his latest hits the right notes.