Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine is, for my money, the director's best film in decades, and up there with his very best work. Most attention is turned towards a likely Best Actress win for Cate Blanchett, as well as a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Woody Allen. However, little has been said about Allen receiving a Best Director nomination, despite the assertion by many critics that this is Allen's strongest film in years even more so than Midnight in Paris, which earned Woody a Best Director nomination in 2012. Working against the film is its low-key nature. It doesn't have the epic scope of 12 Years A Slave or the mind-boggling technical mechanics of Gravity, so it may struggle to distinguish itself with such a crowded field that also includes David O. Russell (American Hustle), Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips), Alexander Payne (Nebraska) and Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street). It's a distinct outside possibility, along with Joel and Ethan Coen for Inside Llewyn Davis, but I'll be rooting for him anyway.