This Year’s Best Director Category at the Oscars Breaks a 27-Year-Old Trend
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With the industry recovering from last year’s dual strikes, we were destined for an unusual crop of films celebrated at the Academy Awards, at least unusual in relation to past years. Not only are esoteric, genre-crossing films like Emilia Pérez and Anora Best Picture nominees, but they are also serious contenders to walk away on March 2nd with the top prize. You know it’s a bizarre Oscar season when a farcical, body horror satire in The Substance is receiving top-level consideration in the acting and directing categories. Perhaps this off-kilter Best Picture lineup, which also includes under-the-radar, word-of-mouth critical darlings like Nickel Boysand I’m Still Here, is a sign of the changing of the guards. At the very least, the Best Director lineup, which features five first-time nominees, the first time this has occurred in 27 years, shows that we don’t have to keep relying on the old masters to protect the sanctity of cinema.
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