We are up to the Best Director Award given out at EYG. We do not always match what the Oscars do since we focus in on some genre specific film more than the Academy does. Still… here are previous winners:

“All Right, Mr. Deville, I am Ready for my Close Up” Award for Best Director

Previous Winners:  A.G. Inarritu (Birdman), Tim McCarthy (Spotlight), Damien Chazelle (La La Land), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Alfonso Cuarón (Roma), Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame), Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods)

#12. Guillermo Del Toro, Nightmare Alley. Even though I was split with this movie, the atmosphere and direction cannot be blamed. De Toro did an admirable job.

#11. Wes Anderson, French Dispatch. The four stories told each required a deft hand and Wes Anderson brought his specific quirks to the film. It was a wonderful film.

#10. Sian Heder, CODA. The film on Apple TV + featured a family of deaf people with one daughter who can hear and wants to sing. The shots of the ASL and its use was important to the story.

#9. James Gunn, The Suicide Squad. James Gunn managed his large cast extremely well, although when you just kill a bunch of them off, maybe it is not handling it that much. This is way better than the first Suicide Squad film and much of the credit goes to Gunn.

#8. Kenneth Branagh, Belfast. I did not expect to love this movie as much as I do. Kenneth Branagh has a great touch at the young humor and the powerful images.

#7. Jon M. Chu, In the Heights. With such a massive cast and so many dance routines and songs, a musical of this scope requires a sound director and John Chu made In the Heights a classic.

#6. Chloé Zhao, Eternals. Last year’s Oscar winner, Chloé did a tremendous job with a huge cast of Marvel heroes that nobody really knew. The look of Eternals was not the issue people had with this film.

#5. Denis Villeneuve, Dune. Dune was a passion project for Villeneuve and it showed. One of the largest scale films of the year, it will be interesting to see what Denis does with the scheduled sequel.

#4. Steven Spielberg, West Side Story. Taking a beloved classic film and rebooting it for a new age is tough, but Spielberg is one of the greatest of all time. I actually liked this way more than I did the original.

#3. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tick, Tick…Boom. As a directorial debut, Lin-Manuel did a fantastic job with the dance numbers and songs of the musical. He placed Andrew Garfield in a position where he had to sing and only found out later that he could. Gutsy.

#2. Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog. A Netflix film with a great cast and a powerhouse story, all mixed into a Western. She has a complex tale with some wonderful characters and a top notch performance from Benedict Cumberbatch.

#1. Jon Watts, Spider-Man: No Way Home. He had to manage so much. Characters from other films. A bunch of story. Aunt May’s death. And he brought out the best performance we have ever seen from Tom Holland, and he brought out the best Spidey performance from Andrew Garfield and he brought out Willem Dafoe’s raw and powerful performance. I can’t wait to see Jon Watts with FF.