GENIUS
DENIED
When
Martin Scorsese finally won the Oscar for Best Director in 2007
for his work on The Departed, it ended a losing streak
that spanned almost four decades. Until that point, it was
anyone’s guess if Scorsese would ever win an Oscar, or would
stay a perennial bridesmaid alongside seminal, legendary
filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman and Alfred
Hitchcock, who also never won Best Director Oscars. But as this
year’s ceremony speeds towards us, it appears that Christopher
Nolan may soon join their ranks. While Nolan has been nominated for three Oscars, he has yet to be nominated for Best Director like his cinematic brethren. I will let that sink in for a moment, and prompt Google and IMDb searches to see a who’s who of directors who have gotten into the nominee circle instead of him. Some directors obviously deserved to be nominated, but others paint a grim picture of despair.
But
before we discuss his snubs, let’s be clear that even though it
was spectacular, Batman Begins was never destined to
receive nominations outside of the technical categories (it
received a nod for Best Cinematography). The mindbending period
thriller The Prestige (released mere weeks after
The Departed) was also in the same boat, even though it
further proved Nolan’s commercial viability as a filmmaker (it
received nods for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography).
And even though I sadly have not seen it beginning to end, his
remake of Insomnia was never headed for the big dance
either. 
He
was first nominated in 2002 (alongside his brother Jonathan) for
Best Original Screenplay for Memento -- I want to call
this “mindbending” as well, but I think I may risk overusing the
word. He was new on the scene (having made the little-seen
Following previously), but the film was critically
acclaimed and also ended up being nominated for Best Editing as
well. Despite the film becoming far more than a cult classic,
Nolan ended up losing the award to Gosford Park, which
also happened to be nominated for Best Picture that evening. I
bet there are less than fifty current members of the Academy who
remember what that movie was about, and doubt most people
reading this article have even heard of it. I had to look it up
as even I had forgotten all about it (as it turns out, it was
directed by Altman). I am certain everyone remembers Memento.
And at the very least, he was nominated.Seven years later, he would be snubbed altogether.
Say
what you will about how you feel about the movie, but The
Dark Knight reinvigorated and forever changed the landscape
of comic book films, and cinema as a whole. It made an
astounding amount of money (over $530 million in North America
alone), was one of the most critically acclaimed films of the
year, helped kick start the IMAX craze that continues to be
whored out to this day, and proved that even in death, you could
still be wildly popular. Despite the accolades, awards and
nominations (and near record cleanup in the Supporting Actor
category for Heath Ledger), the film got trampled out of the
Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and most importantly, Best
Director spots. Looking back at all the nominees the film faced
in the various other ceremonies leading up to the Oscars that
year, overwhelming evidence suggests it was knocked out by the
rather forgettable Holocaust period drama The Reader,
which is best remembered for Kate Winslet spending most of the
film naked, or having sex with a minor (a role mind you, that
won her the Best Actress Oscar that year, and multiple Best
Supporting Actress awards at other ceremonies). The
Dark Knight did get nominated for eight awards that night
anyway (winning Supporting Actor for Ledger and Best Sound
Editing, and getting defeated consistently by Danny Boyle’s
Slumdog Millionaire, that year’s Best Picture winner). If
that was not a slap in the face by the Academy, I do not want to
know what is.It may seem like I am a little bitter about the snubbing and beating The Dark Knight took from the Academy, but just about everyone seemed pretty pissed about it too. How else to describe the rather sudden change to ten Best Picture nominees just a year later, or the outpouring of love and affection for James Cameron’s box office behemoth Avatar, which helped reshape the medium even further (and has helped usher in the cinematic plague known as 3D)? It may have been practically shot and killed the year it should have dominated (at least nomination wise), but it has helped other noteworthy films like District 9, Up, Toy Story 3 and Boyle’s own 127 Hours slide into nominations they would have missed otherwise. So perhaps being the martyr helped in the long term?
But
I digress, as now two years after that fiasco, and after
creating one of, if not the single most original film
of last year, Nolan has been snubbed yet again. He managed to
score Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominations for
Inception, but he missed out entirely on Best Director
yet again. The reason this time? So the Academy could fulfill
their obligation to try and nominate The Coen Brothers (for
their remake of True Grit) as much as they physically
can before they go back to making the kind of bizarre little
cult films they got appreciated for in the first place. Despite
the nominations, expect to see Nolan get crucified by The
King’s Speech, the assumed frontrunner and likely winner of
the evening. I would like to say his recent Writer’s Guild award
for Inception is a good sign, but The King’s Speech
was ineligible to be nominated for that award.So historical analysis aside, it brings me to the question I asked myself back before Scorsese won his long overdue Oscar: what does Nolan have to do to get nominated for Best Director, much less win? What hoops must he run through, what challenges must he overcome? Is the Academy testing him, egging him on to continue to be just as brilliant, if not better, with every new film he makes, just to ensure the last half dozen were not flukes? I know this may start to sound unnerving, and annoying, but it is quite mortifying and even disgusting to think that the very foundation that should be rewarding excellence like Nolan’s keeps putting him down.
But
clearly Nolan should not feel pressured to change his work ethic
or the style of films he makes. As history dictates, the Academy
rarely awards the right people. Scorsese was nominated for eight
Oscars, and only won once. Six of those nominations were for
Best Director -- Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ,
Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The
Departed. And just look at how legendary and revered the
majority of those titles have become since. Altman was nominated
seven times, with five of those being for director --
M.A.S.H., Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts and Gosford
Park. Kubrick was nominated thirteen(!) times♦,
with four going for Director -- Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A
Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.
Feeling exhausted yet? I know I am, and I have not even
mentioned Hitchcock’s many losses.But taking those films, their notoriety, and their place in film history, it should suggest that Nolan is better off not caring what the Academy thinks. He should just continue earning his place in film history. I have my doubts that he will eventually get nominated for a Best Director award, but a consistently great filmmaker like he has proven himself to be can only be passed over so many times before the Academy gives in. I would love to say it will happen with The Dark Knight Rises, but I am fairly certain that even if it is twice as great a film The Dark Knight was, he will still be waiting.
-- David
Baldwin♦ It would be silly for me not to note that Kubrick “won” for Best Visual Effects for 2001. As opposed to winning a Best Director award however, it was more an award as a collective. He supervised that aspect of filming, and merely collected the award on behalf of the entire team.
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