4. David O. Russell - American Hustle
This is where it gets really hard. In fact, it's a god damned nightmare to try to make choices between the likes of David O. Russell, Martin Scorsese, Joel and Ethan Coen, Woody Allen, Spike Jonze, and Alexander Payne. All of these directors are highly esteemed auteurs among cinephiles (of which there are surely many in the Directors branch) and most them have been fairly successful in their past with the Academy. For my choice among these greats though, I decided to double down on my bet that American Hustle is going to be a major Academy Awards player, thus placing David O. Russell ahead of the competitive field. Russell has the feel of a director working in his prime. After his career seemed on the verge of collapse after the flop of I Heart Huckabees and his reputation of being a director who couldn't keep his cool (he has had infamously angry dustups with the likes of George Clooney and Lily Tomlin), Russell managed a remarkable comeback with the comeback-boxer story of The Fighter that earned him his first ever Best Director nomination. He followed that success last year with the enormously popular Silver Linings Playbook, which earned him his second Best Director nomination. It would seem then that Russell is on a role with the Academy, and even though American Hustle has yet to be seen, this is why I'm betting hard on the film to be a major awards season player. Russell has assembled an incredibly impressive cast for the film, and even more than his own Oscar successes, Russell has proven to have the Midas touch with getting his actors Oscar nominations (8 total in his last two movies). Whether it's the actors who have made Russell look good, or whether it really is Russell's brilliant direction doesn't matter, because either way, it's got to help Russell's odds.
Nomination Chances: 40%