5. Martin Scorsese - The Wolf Of Wall Street
For the last, and very difficult, choice of likely Best Director nominees, I decided to pick Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street. Now the fact that out of all the very plausible nominees for Best Director, I picked the two directors of films which have yet to be seen by anybody may illustrate that I'm stupidly optimistic, but I do think there is a solid basis for both of these choices. While the legendary director got off to somewhat of a rocky start with the Academy early in his career (the lack of a nomination for Taxi Driver is still unfathomable to me), since 2002, he has been one of the Academy's favorite sons. In fact, every single feature film of Scorsese's with the exception of Shutter Island has been nominated for Best Picture (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Hugo), so the man is definitely on a roll. Now many pundits are concerned that the tone of The Wolf of Wall Street is simply too darkly comedic to receive any major Oscar play. The excellent trailers for the film released thus far certainly seem to confirm the edgy-comedic tone of Scorsese's latest, and while this may be a concern for its chances at landing a Best Picture nomination, I really don't see it as being an issue with the Directors branch. After all, this is the branch that has nominated directors for films like 8 & 1/2, Dr. Stangelove, and Being John Malkovich. The biggest obstacle I see in Mr. Scorsese landing yet another nomination is simply the competition. As I already mentioned a couple of times, this is a highly competitive Best Director field, and I could see a number of different names taking this slot. In particular, I was extremely close to including the Coen Brothers in this spot instead of Scorsese, but the supposed low key nature of Inside Llewyn Davis, as opposed to the apparent gonzo-stylings of The Wolf of Wall Street, made me decide in favor of Scorsese, as the Coen's more subtle work is not as commonly recognized. Even with their recent success with the Academy, the Coen's couldn't manage a Best Director nomination for A Serious Man, and I can see that path materializing again. Whoever does or doesn't end up making it though, it is going to be one hell of a race this year, and there are going to be a lot of disappointed people when the nominees are finally unveiled.
Nomination Chances: 35%