USA: OSCARS / BEST DIRECTOR CLIP REEL And the nominees for the Academy Award for best director are...

Record ID: 176338

  • Title: USA: OSCARS / BEST DIRECTOR CLIP REEL And the nominees for the Academy Award for best director are...
  • Date: 18th February 2013
  • Summary: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DIRECTOR ANG LEE AT 2013 OSCAR NOMINEES LUNCHEON
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2013 12:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVAC8V411OU8P64Q65AJ6S4P9IP3
  • Story Text: The Oscar nominated directors of 2013 are Michael Haneke for "Amour," Ang Lee for "Life of Pi," David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook," Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln," and Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."
    2013 has proved to be an unusual year for the Academy in the directing category, with the exclusion of "Argo" director Ben Affleck, who has won nearly every major directing award this season, including the top Directors Guild of America (DGA) prize. Since 1948, there have been only six occasions when the DGA winner has not gone on to win the Oscar for best director.
    Michael Haneke, age 70, received two Oscar nominations this year for "Amour," for original screenplay and best direction. The film tells the story of an elderly Parisian couple, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant), facing the difficult final months of Anne's life during terminal illness. Haneke, who is also known for 2001's "The Piano Teacher" and 1997's "Funny Games" and its 2007 Hollywood remake, as well as 2010's "The White Ribbon," which was nominated in the foreign language film category.
    "Amour" is Austria's nominee in the foreign language film field this year, and is the front-runner for the Oscar. "Amour" is nominated for a total of five Oscars this year.
    Ang Lee, 58, earned his third Oscar nomination for best director this year with "Life of Pi," having previously been nominated for the 2000 film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and winning for the 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain."
    "Life of Pi" is about a young teenage boy from India who survives a shipwreck that kills his family, and who finds himself drifting across the ocean in a lifeboat with a dangerous companion, a Bengal tiger. The film is nominated for a total of 11 nominations, including ones for cinematography and special effects, with much of the film, including the tiger, shot using green-screen technology and computer generated imagery (CGI).
    David O. Russell, 54, received two Oscar nominations this year for "Silver Linings Playbook," including best director and best original screenplay, and was previously nominated as director for his 2010 film "The Fighter." "Silver Linings Playbook" is about a well-meaning young man (Bradley Cooper) with bipolar disorder, and was written by Russell for his son, who also suffers from the condition. It is nominated for a total of eight nominations, including ones in all four acting categories, for Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Jacki Weaver, respectively for best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, and best supporting actress. It is also nominated for best picture.
    Steven Spielberg, 66, receives his seventh best director nomination for "Lincoln," having previously won for "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), and "Schindler's List" (1993), for which he also won a best picture Oscar as producer. "Lincoln," starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president of the United States, tells of his historic struggle to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in 1865. The biopic is nominated for a total of twelve nominations, including best picture, best actor, best supporting actress (Sally Field), best supporting actor (Tommy Lee Jones), and best adapted screenplay for Tony Kushner. Spielberg has directed several iconic American films and has been a critical and popular favorite over his four-decade-plus long career, with blockbuster films like Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993), as well as the first three films in the "Indiana Jones" film franchise. His previous directing Oscar nominations are for the films "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), And "Munich" (2005).
    And rounding out the category is newcomer Benh Zeitlin, 30, nominated for directing "Beasts of the Southern Wild," his first feature film. Also nominated for adapted screenplay, Zeitlin joins the industry heavyweights as director after "Beasts" became a critical darling and film festival favorite, after its successful debut at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film is based on Lucy Aliber's one-act play "Juicy and Delicious," and whimsically visualizes a young girl (Quvenzhan�Wallis) who uses her resourcefulness and lively imagination to help residents of her Louisiana swampland community cope with an impending flood. The film is nominated for a total of four Oscars, including best picture and a historic nod for best actress, to youngest ever nominee, Quvenzhan�Wallis, aged 9.
    The 85th Annual Academy Awards will be handed out in a live telecast ceremony from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 24th.
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