4. 1989: Driving Miss Daisy vs. Oliver Stone & Born On The 4th of July
There once was a time when the director Oliver Stone was considered one of the great American filmmakers of his day. It's shocking, I know, but the '80s were so full of extravagance and cocaine use that I'm surprised there's still cocaine around today. In the late 1980s, Stone managed to do what few directors have done, which is to win a second Oscar. What was especially impressive about Stone was he managed to win his awards within a 3 year period. In 1989, Stone won his second award for the film Born on the 4th of July, a movie which showcased the acting chops of a young Tom Cruise, a Vietnam vet based on the true story of Ron Kovic. That same year, Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture, a film about race relationships between Miss Daisy and the professional narrator Morgan Freeman. Though its win was surprising at the time, one aspect that is shocking even now is that its director Bruce Beresford was not even nominated for Best Director that year. Since that time, not a single film has won Best Picture when its director had not been nominated. This year, Ben Affleck is hoping to remedy that.