Making sense of the Oscars' directing race

PTA seems poised to receive his long-denied reward. However, he faces stiff competition from other auteurs.

- Glenn Whipp

ALFRED HITCHCOCK NEVER WON AN OSCAR FOR directing. Neither did Stanley Kubrick nor Robert Altman nor Sidney Lumet nor Federico Fellini nor Orson Welles. It's a group almost as distinguished as the list of winners. But we're likely going to cross one name off that ignominious list this year Paul Thomas Anderson.

1. PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON, 'ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER'

Anderson has three Oscar nominations for directing "There Will Be Blood," "Phantom Thread" and "Licorice Pizza." That feels light. He has 11 Oscar nominations in all, including five as a writer and three as a producer. He has never won. That feels wrong. So with "One Battle After Another," he checks off both of the main boxes that Oscar winners often possess he directed the year's best movie and he's well overdue for an honor. Like Sean Baker for "Anora" last year, Anderson likely will come home with an armful of Oscars, as he also produced and wrote the movie.

2. JAFAR PANAHI, 'IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT'

Panahi has never been nominated for an Oscar, though his films have won the top prizes at the Venice Film Festival ("The Circle"), the Berlin Film Festival ("Taxi") and, this year, the Cannes Film Festival ("It Was Just an Accident"). That movie's withering takedown of the cruelty and corruption of authoritarianism packs a punch; it's also unexpectedly funny in its clear-eyed social critique. Panahi has been imprisoned by the Iranian government many times for speaking out and was recently again sentenced, in absentia, to a year in prison on charges of "propaganda activities against the system." Like we needed another reason to celebrate the man and his work.