5. Ben Affleck
Argo has been sweeping through the awards season with a vengeance and has won the top two awards for Best Director and Best Picture at this year's Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, which are key indicators that Argo is en route to Oscar glory at the 85th Academy Awards. I must say that this year, the nominees for Best Director and Picture are well deserved. There aren't any seriously questionable choices, but rather a noticeable absence in these categories, and no one was expecting anyone to point out these absences except angry critics. However, when Ben Affleck won for Best Director at the Golden Globes he took it all in humility and said how grateful he was to be in such good company:
"I don't care what the award is, when they put your name next to the names that she just read off, it's an extraordinary thing in your life. These nominees are exceptional talents. I truly to God never thought I would be in the same breath as them. I want to thank them, and I want to thank the many talented people that weren't nominated. Paul Thomas Anderson who's like, I think, Orson Welles. There are so many others."
When I watched this, I, along with other PTA fans, rejoiced and applauded Affleck's shout out because the absence of PTA's name in the award ballots was finally recognized. It was almost a vindication of an obvious snub, but why is this a reason PTA should have been nominated for Oscar? If the Best Director of this past year specifically mentioned your name as being absent from the nominees' list in an acceptance speech and compared you to Orson Welles, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, wouldn't you think the Academy may have overlooked you? Although The Master wasn't Paul Thomas Anderson's best film, compared to the films that came out this past year, it stood out as a serious film for the serious film-goer - Affleck was one who took notice. The best part about Affleck's wins is even
he wasn't nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, which is really a head scratcher, but at least he has a Golden Globe and a BAFTA to keep him company.