Oscar FACTS: Best Director

Which old man will it be this year?

When people talk about Hollywood and showbusiness, it should conjure images of youthfulness and glorious beautiful people rutting on a carpet made entirely of thousand dollar bills. And then you see the directors. Clint Eastwood, who now resembles an Egyptian mummy, or a cabbage. Martin Scorsese who has more eyebrow than head-hair. And Ridley Scott who could race marbles on the lines in his face. Not so glamourous then. Yet these men are reverred.

So what does it take to win the Best Director prize at the Oscars?

» Since 2000, the average age of the winning Director has been 55.1

» Since 1927, thirty-eight of the winning directors have been in their 40s, eighteen have been in their 30s, eighteen in their 50s, and the rest in their 60s.

» No one under 30 has ever won the thing - the youngest ever being Norman Taurog, who won in 1931 for the film Skippy. He was 32.

» Directors who have never won include: Robert Altman (five nominations), Ingmar Bergman (three nominations), Alfred Hitchcock (five nominations), Stanley Kubrick (four nominations), Sergio Leone (no nominations), Sidney Lumet (four nominations), David Lynch (three nominations), Terrence Malick (one nomination), and Ridley Scott (three nominations).

» On only six occasions in the last thirty years has the Best Director not directed the Best Film (Warren Beatty, 1981, Reds; Oliver Stone, 1989, Born on the Fourth of July; Steven Spielberg, 1998, Saving Private Ryan; Steven Soderbergh, 2000, Traffic; Roman Polanski, 2002, The Pianist; Ang Lee, 2005, Brokeback Mountain)

» No female director has ever won this award, and only three (Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Lina Wertmuller) have ever been nominated.

» Six people have been nominated for both Best Actor and Best Director for the same film, but nobody has won both. Four won Best Director but not Best Actor - Warren Beatty (Reds), Woody Allen (Annie Hall), Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves), and Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby). And two won Best Actor but not Best Director - Laurence Olivier (Hamlet) and Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful).

 

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