As we do every year on this here blog, Oscar nominations lead to my Case Of series. What are they? Glad you asked. These are 35 posts covering the nominees for Picture, Director, and the four acting contests. For each one, I give you the case for the movie/director/actor winning and the case against it with a verdict tidying it up. It’s like a trial, but no one goes to prison.
It began with the ten Best Picture contenders and now alternates alphabetically between the hopefuls in the other five races. The BP nominee posts are up and they’re readily available for your perusing pleasure. Today is our second entry in Best Director and that’s Brady Corbet for The Brutalist. If you missed my post covering Sean Baker from Anora, it’s linked at the bottom.
Previous Directing Oscar Nominations:
None
The Case for Brady Corbet:
Mr. Corbet is going the Ron Howard route as a child actor turned acclaimed filmmaker and he’s already got hardware to show for it. Yesterday he took home the BAFTA for his direction to go with his Golden Globe from a few weeks back. While Picture and Director often match, it seems his behind the camera achievement for The Brutalist could win him the latter even if the film doesn’t take the top prize.
The Case Against Brady Corbet:
7 out of the last 10 Golden Globe directing winners won the Oscar. It’s also a 70% ratio over the past decade for BAFTA. For DGA, it is 9 out of the last 10 and Corbet didn’t win that one. Instead it was Sean Baker for Anora. He also came up short at Critics Choice where Jon M. Chu (Wicked) was the unexpected victor.
The Verdict:
Corbet seemed like a relatively safe bet before DGA. Now it feels like a coin flip between Baker and him.
My Case Of posts will continue the third hopeful in Best Actress and that’s Mikey Madison in Anora…
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