Oscar 2008 Predictions: Best Director, Screenplay
Richard Foreman / Miramax Films
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
By now the Coen brothers are veterans; they’ve been around for more than two decades and neither one has ever won a best director Oscar. Joel Coen was nominated in 1996 for Fargo, but lost to Anthony Minghella for The English Patient. (Until The Ladykillers in 2004, in which they were billed as directors, producers [along with a few other names], writers, and editors [as "Roderick Jaynes"], the Coen brothers shared credit for their films by naming Joel the director and Ethan the producer.)
It’s the Coens’ turn now — and they’ve won this year’s DGA Award, the first pair to do so since Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins won for West Side Story back in 1961 (or early 1962, whenever the DGA ceremony was held).
Fox Searchlight
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno
Diablo Cody’s comedy (directed by Jason Reitman) about a pregnant 15-year-old in search of the ideal parents for her upcoming child has won a number of best screenplay awards from US film critics. It’s also a "little" comedy — in a sea of heavy drama — that has gone on to become a crowd-pleasing box-office hit in the same manner as last year’s Little Miss Sunshine, which happened to be the winner of the best original screenplay Oscar.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
If it were the Golden Globes or a major film festival, my guess here would have been Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood. But unlike the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and world film festival juries, Academy members tend to vote for the same film in many categories, e.g., in recent years, The Departed with four wins out of five nominations, Million Dollar Baby with four wins out of seven nominations, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with eleven wins out of eleven nominations. (In 2005, Crash had to share the love with Brokeback Mountain.)
More importantly, the Academy’s best film of the year is almost invariably the winner of the best direction and best screenplay (whether original or adapted) awards.
Oscar 2008 Predictions: Best Film, Foreign Language Film, Animated Film
Oscar 2008 Predictions: Best Actor, Actress
Oscar 2008 Predictions: Technical Categories
Subscribe / Syndicate
Leave a Comment
Tags: 2008 Oscar, Academy Awards, Diablo Cody, Film Awards, Joel and Ethan Coen, Juno, No Country for Old Men, Oscar Predictions
Comments
Leave a Reply
NOTE:
All comments are moderated and may take some time before they are posted. Different views and opinions are welcome, but courtesy is imperative. Rude/crass/bigoted comments and name-calling of any sort will be immediately deleted.
Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
