Da Nomineez

So the Oscar nominees are out. Somewhat noteworthy is the fact that the five nominees for Best Picture are the same as the five nominees for Best Director. This hardly ever happens; usually they'll nominate four directors from nominated pictures, and one director whose film isn't nominated for Best Picture. The weirdest moment came when Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture even though its director, Bruce Beresford, wasn't even nominated for Best Director, raising the question of how a movie could be the best of the year in spite of the immense handicap of a director who wasn't even among the top five directors.

This would seem to be a good time for renewing my argument that having a "Best Director" award makes no sense and that the Best Picture prize should go jointly to the producer and the director. Given the nature of a director's job on a movie -- supervising the whole production, rather than any single aspect of the production -- it doesn't really work to say that someone could be the best director if he didn't make the best movie.