15 Times The BAFTAs Corrected Huge Oscar Mistakes
6. David Fincher Wins Best Director For The Social Network - 2011
Another one of those completely ridiculous wins is Tom Hooper scoring the Best Director gong for his entirely routine, acceptable-at-best direction of The King's Speech. That film winning Best Picture isn't as unjust as many would have you believe. Although it was definitely weaker than several of the other nominees, it is still a great movie, and let's be honest, the Oscars rarely give the Best Picture win to the very best of the field.
Still, the film's Best Director win is very hard to defend, especially since David Fincher's impeccable direction of The Social Network was in the same category. For some bizarre reason, the most Oscar-worthy directing job - Christopher Nolan's mesmerising work on Inception - wasn't nominated at all, so this Oscar should've been Fincher's to lose.
And sadly, with Fincher increasingly working in TV and considering his fairly middling cinematic output since The Social Network, it's looking questionable as to whether or not one of our most talented living filmmakers will ever be able to add an Oscar to his mantelpiece.
Still, the BAFTAs gave Fincher the win he deserved for Best Director. As the most successful British film of the year, The King's Speech dominated that ceremony, but they rightly held back from awarding Hooper the BAFTA here.