Oscars BETTING: Best Director

Which of these beard stroking buffoons is a bloody genius?

The Dee-reck-tours! Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood (3.05), Ethan Coen & Joel Coen - No Country for Old Men (2.38), Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton (14), Jason Reitman - Juno (16), Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (4.2)

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Time was when the bearded Coen Brothers were considered a bit too freaky for the Academy Award types, what with their zany films about murder, and possible behind the scenes spliff smoking ways. Not anymore though, marijuana might as well be legal as they lead the race to be crowned best Achievers in a Film, or some such weird title. That's Best Director to the rest of us.

BEST DIRECTOR

The Nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen - No Country for Old Men, Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton, Jason Reitman - Juno, Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

» Since 2000, the average age of the winning Director has been 55.1. That means it should be between the Coen Brothers (50 and 53) for No Country for Old Men, and Julian Schnabel (56), for The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

» 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. That counts out 30-year-old Jason Reitman (Juno).

» 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). Once again Scott has gone unnoticed (for American Gangster).

» 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). With No Country For Old Men the favourite for Best Picture, it should be the Coen Brothers.