Tracking the Oscar race for best director

Oscar voters usually choose their best pictures based upon who directs them, so award seers must pay special attention to this category while tracking the top derby. Over the past 20 years, the awards for best picture and director split only four times. That's 80% overlap. That's impressive.

To predict best picture, it's smart to think backward from the directors' category. Last year, "The Hurt Locker" won both races in part because it was time, finally, for a woman to win the helmer's trophy and the woman out front happened to be Kathryn Bigelow, the ex-wife of her chief rival, James Cameron ("Avatar"), the one-time "king of the Oscars" (back when "Titanic" swept) who is notoriously crusty and, some think, in need of a good humbling. Academy members, like everybody else, like to root for the underdog, so Bigelow's personal story probably had a lot to do with her Oscar romp.

Back in 2001, "A Beautiful Mind" won best picture and director even though the movie was under widespread media attack for having sugar-coated its real-life story. That's how hellbent Hollywood was to give Ron Howard his overdue Oscar for best director and so "A Beautiful Mind" got to go along for the ride in the corresponding best-picture race.

Being overdue is often a key factor to win. This year the prevailing view seems to be it should be David Fincher's turn since he previously proved himself a master of provocative little indies ("Zodiac") and big-studio epics starring A-Listers (best picture nominee "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button").

However, there are other top contenders who are also notable directors overdue for Oscar glory: Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Nolan and Peter Weir.

BEST DIRECTOR
(Front-runners)
Ben Affleck, "The Town"
Darren Aronofsky, "Black Swan"
Danny Boyle, "127 Hours"
James L. Brooks, "How Do You Know"
Lisa Cholodenko, "The Kids Are All Right"
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, "True Grit"
Clint Eastwood, "Hereafter"
David Fincher, "The Social Network"
Tom Hooper, "The King's Speech"
Christopher Nolan, "Inception"
David O. Russell, "The Fighter"
Lee Unkrich, "Toy Story 3"
Peter Weir, "The Way Back"
Edward Zwick, "Love & Other Drugs"

Ed Zwick: Anne Hathaway 'in bloom' in 'Love and Other Drugs'

“There is a moment in every actor’s life,” believes director Edward Zwick, “when they reach the height of their powers and are expressing the height of their beauty and creativity -– they’re in bloom.”

That time is now for Anne Hathaway, says Zwick. Her performance in the filmmaker’s latest project, “Love and Other Drugs” -- the Nov. 24 romantic comedy about a charming pharmaceutical sales rep (Jake Gyllenhaal) who falls for an artist afflicted by early onset Parkinson's disease (Hathaway) -- has already sparked some awards buzz.

Zwick had long been a fan of Hathaway’s work before casting her in his latest film. He said he was particularly struck by her “artistically brave” performance in Shakespeare in the Park, and called her for a meeting.

“We met and it became so clear to me that there were aspects to her that hadn’t changed, having to do with her humor and her earthiness,” he said.

Hathaway, 27, has already earned one Academy Award nomination for her gritty role in 2008’s “Rachel Getting Married.” Her most recent turn is equally deserving, says Zwick, who said the actress immediately dived into researching her character by spending time with Parkinson’s patients.

“I didn’t have to ask her to do it. It was just understood,” he said. “When you’re working with an actor of her seriousness, there was never even an assumption that she wouldn’t. I was planning on introducing her to people because I knew she would want to. I mean, Denzel Washington spent all night long in military tanks when we did ‘Courage Under Fire.’ God knows Matt Damon wanted to find out what it was like to be in the military [for that same film]. And Tom Cruise wanted to become expert in the swords [in ‘The Last Samurai’]. It’s almost an understood expectation.”

--Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal star in "Love and Other Drugs." Credit: 20th Century Fox.

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