Oscars 2022: Best Director Predictions

As the pandemic wreaks havoc on festival and release schedules, the box office has returned in fits and starts, but the fall 2021 season brings a feast of plenty. The studios and specialty distributors saved their best for last, from the last Daniel Craig as James Bond event, “No Time to Die”, directed by never-nominated Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Canadian auteur Denis Villeneuve’s $165-million space epic “Dune”, starring Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet, and Zendaya, to Steven Spielberg’s update of the 1961 musical classic “West Side Story”, starring Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler. We can count on all three directors bringing their usual visual panache to the big screen.As always, A-list directors enter the Oscar race with an advantage over their competitors, especially with big-scale productions that command millions in studio marketing. Besides Villeneuve and Spielberg, other returning Oscar veterans include Joel Coen, who flies solo for black-and-white ...