Best Director, 2004
(Click on the linked film titles for reviews of the corresponding films.)
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Nominee Clint Eastwood Million Dollar Baby 5:2 |
Won the Golden Globe despite The Aviator's victory in the Best Picture race. His reputation as an artist has slowly but surely matched his inviolable credibility as a star. Million Dollar Baby is probably not a movie anyone else could have directed, at least without turning it into outright schmaltz. |
Basically just that he's won before while Scorsese hasn't. |
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Taylor Hackford Ray 50:1 |
His Mama will vote for him, if she's alive and an Academy member. So will Helen Mirren. That's two votes right there.
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The other 6,000 or so members who won't consider voting for him, even for a sec.
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Mike Leigh Vera Drake 45:1 |
Brenda Blethyn will vote for him. For all I know, he has a good personality.
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Don't make me say it.
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Alexander Payne Sideways 6:1 |
If Eastwood and Scorsese split the Grand Old Man vote, which conceivably could happen, Payne might be carried to victory by
a groundswell of young turks and pinot lovers.
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Eastwood and Scorsese could split the Grand Old Man vote and still wind up leagues ahead of the competition. Even the young
turks want to work with those two more than they want to play a schlub in a Payne film (though that could change).
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Martin Scorsese The Aviator 2:1 |
Thirty years of plaudits since Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the first of his films to enjoy a major brush with Oscar. Legions of Academy members who were inspired by Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to join these professions in the first place. The no-win streak. The most-nominated picture. |
Scorsese has never been as popular on the West Coast or in the industry as he is on the East Coast and in film-nerd circles,
none of whom have a big lobby in the Academy.
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