Oscars 2016: Predicting All The Winners

4. Achievement In Directing

The Nominees: George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), Lenny Abrahamson (Room), Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Adam McKay (The Big Short), Alejandro G. Iñárritu (The Revenant)

Who Will Win? George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Who Should Win? George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

OK, I've made some gambles on this list, but this by far the biggest. While I think every single person nominated here is wholly deserving of their place (yes, there's glaring ommissions, but at least there's no obvious person you'd want to swap out), I'm leaning towards George Miller taking Best Director home.

Why? Well, his direction is much more showy than most of the competition (although as I said in my review of Spotlight, restraint was kinda the point there) and the sheer amount of work he put into the highly troubled production over many years is so well documented that his part in making this surprise Oscar movie is clear. The other favourite is Iñárritu, who certainly is in with a shot (he even fought similar things to Miller), but I think his win last year may work against him in this category.