5 directors not to forget come awards season

Continuing our series on movies not to forget come awards season, Flickreel takes a look at five directors worthy of an Oscar nomination.

Patty Jenkins: Wonder Woman

It’s been a notable year for female directors in film, what with Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit earning rave reviews and Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman becoming the highest-grossing superhero origin story ever. What’s more, Wonder Woman is now the biggest female-lead superhero movie of all time, as well as the biggest live-action movie directed by a woman. Jenkins deserves every ounce of success for crafting an emotional, humorous, and visually arresting blockbuster with an empowering heroine at its core. Her directorial feat is a major step forward for women behind the camera, despite what James Cameron says.

Christopher Nolan: Dunkirk

Dunkirk is a movie that’s all about the director’s vision and Christopher Nolan has outdone himself with what might be his magnum opus. Of course it’s hard to say if the film ranks atop his filmography, seeing how he also directed Memento, The Dark Knight, and Inception. That being said, Nolan couldn’t score a Best Director nomination for any of the aforementioned films. He’s been nominated twice for screenwriting and once for producing, but his eye for visual storytelling has been overlooked time after time. Hopefully the Academy will correct that this year and nominate Nolan already.

Jordan Peele: Get Out

When it was announced that one half of Key & Peele would be directing a horror picture, audiences thought they knew what they were going to get: a thriller with a satirical edge. While Get Out gave us plenty of thrills and laughs, but it also delivered something more: a relevant commentary in an age of Black Lives Matter, Oscars So White, and Donald Trump. Peele has additionally proven his versatile skills as a filmmaker, juggling different tones and genres without ever missing a beat. 

Benny and Josh Safdie: Good Time  

With their latest collaboration, Benny and Josh Safdie have established themselves as one of the finest filmmaking duos this side of the Coen brothers. Like many Coen brothers movies, Good Time tells the story of a crime gone horribly wrong. Rather than imitating the Coens, however, the Safdies distinguish their film with a look and feel that’s all their own. The results are intense, disturbing, and unpredictable, not to mention one of the most exhilarating times you’ll have at the movies all year.

Edgar Wright: Baby Driver

Baby Driver is the kind of action comedy that could only come from the unique mind of Edgar Wright. The film is like Drive meets Dirty Dancing, which might sound like an unlikely combination at first. With Wright at the helm, though, everything blends perfectly with energized action, a self-aware sense of humor, and one of the most carefully assembled soundtracks of recent memory.

Be sure to check out our roundup of all of the articles we’ve written on subjects pertinent to the Oscars 2018.