10 Greatest Ever Oscar Shocks
5. Bob Fosse: Best Director
The first two instalments of the Godfather trilogy are as Oscar laden as they come. Two of the decade’s defining films, each snagged the best picture award, with Brando and De Niro (but not Pacino, on which more later) recognised for their shared role as Vito Corleone. Surprisingly, though, the first film did not garner a best director award for Francis Ford Coppola. This instead went to Bob Fosse, for musical masterpiece Cabaret.
This was a bold move on the part of the academy, and while Coppola would of course have been a worthy winner of the gold, Fosse was the right choice. A bleak and bawdy musical about Nazis, the film is all moving parts and breathtaking set pieces.
It took a certain type of singular creative talent to bring something like this together - frankly it could only have been genius control freak Fosse. That’s not to say that what Coppola achieved was in any way easy, but as far as bringing a vision to the screen, Cabaret could have been made only by someone with the nous and the brash confidence of Fosse.
Coppola would go on the scoop the statuette for Part II, and rightly so. Fosse would sadly die at age 60 in 1980. It’s heartening that a talent so singular received such recognition before then.