Best Director

Avatar	James Cameron	CC, *GG, DGA	1,1 [directing only]
The Hurt Locker	Kathryn Bigelow	*NYFC, *LAFC, *NSFC, *CC, GG, *DGA	0,0
Inglourious Basterds	Quentin Tarantino	CC, GG, DGA	1,0 [directing only]
Invictus	Clint Eastwood	*NBR, CC, GG	4,2
Precious	Lee Daniels	CC, DGA	0,0
Up in the Air	Jason Reitman	CC, GG, DGA	1,0

Every year I remind my readers that women are indeed making movies, and just as with the men, some of the movies are great and some of them suck. Here’s an incomplete list for 2009:

Amelia, Mira Nair

Bright Star, Jane Campion

Coco Before Chanel, Anne Fontaine

An Education, Lone Scherfig

Humpday, Lynn Shelton

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow

It’s Complicated, Nancy Meyers

Jennifer’s Body, Karyn Kusama

Julie and Julia, Nora Ephron

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Rebecca Miller

Sunshine Cleaning, Christine Jeffs

Whip It, Drew Barrymore

Except this year, a woman director is actually going to be nominated. (And folks, she’s going to win, too.) That’s right, Kathryn Bigelow will become the fourth woman nominated for Best Director in Oscar’s 82 years, after Lina Wertmuller (1976), Jane Campion (1993), and Sofia Coppola (2003). She has swept the critics’ awards and took the all-important Directors’ Guild prize, so I am one happy camper. (Overall, I did not care for The Hurt Locker, but I would say a film equals content plus execution, and while I didn’t care for the content, her execution was unimpeachable.) Bigelow will be competing against her ex-husband James Cameron, but please note that they are good friends and have deep respect for each other’s work, so let’s not be catty and spoil this historic first. Cameron made that movie that everyone on earth has seen (I haven’t yet, I’m holding out for as long as possible), and it’s gotten decent enough reviews that he’ll be rewarded for his crazy wizardry rather than punished for his excess. Juno director Jason Reitman will be invited back for deftly handling the melancholy humor of Up in the Air. Quentin Tarantino can’t miss out either, with his intoxicatingly cinematic historical fantasy.

There are literally only two other contenders for the final nomination, Clint Eastwood and Lee Daniels. Conventional wisdom says never bet against Eastwood, who has dominated the decade with a 2004 directing win, back-to-back films with two Oscar-winning performances each (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby), his WWII companion pieces in 2006, and both Changeling and Gran Torino last year. Yes, the man is a ridiculous force to be reckoned with (and he’s about to turn 80!) But while Invictus is certainly admired, it is not loved. Precious is loved. Daniels brought beautiful imagery to the escapist fantasies of his title character, and he found the nearly impossible balance between hope and despair in bringing this story to the screen. The film is neither saccharine nor too painful to watch, and for that tightrope walk, I say Lee Daniels will make the cut, and become the second African-American nominated in this category (after John Singleton.)