15 Times The BAFTAs Corrected Huge Oscar Mistakes

12. The 2016 Best Director Field Is Fixed - 2016

Brokeback Mountain
20th Century Studios

At the 2016 Oscars, the Best Director field was a mess. The line-up was Lenny Abrahamson for Room, Alejandro G Inarittu for The Revenant, Tom McCarthy for Spotlight, Adam McKay for The Big Short, and George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road, with Inarittu eventually winning.

Only two of those directors definitely deserved to be there. Inarittu and Miller did absolutely stunning work on their movies, but Tom McCarthy's excessively restrained direction was the weakest link in the otherwise superb Spotlight, Abrahamson didn't do anything particularly striking with Room, and The Big Short mainly worked thanks to the screenplay, acting and editing, not thanks to McKay's direction.

The BAFTAs did a far better job with this field. The Oscar field was criticized for snubbing Ridley Scott and Todd Haynes for The Martian and Carol, respectively, but both were deservedly included here. Likewise, Steven Spielberg got a more than acceptable nomination for Bridge of Spies. This was a far, far better line-up overall.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.