Oscar Eye: 5 Reasons To Feel Optimistic About This Year's Awards Race

BEST DIRECTOR

During the podcast I recorded with The Film Experience more than one of us floated the idea that Michael Haneke could become a rare Lone Director, a helmer nominated for Best Director with a corresponding Best Picture nod for his film. I'm still not certain enough to predict that happening, but I do go back and forth thinking it's him or David O. Russell who will slip into that fifth slot. The other four, as ever, remain mortal locks.

MORTAL LOCK

Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

 

LIKELY CONTENDER

Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

 

STILL IN THE RUNNING

NONE

 

OUTSIDE CHANCE

Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Sam Mendes, Skyfall
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild