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Ang Lee a lock for Oscar ( article )
Tue, 28 Feb 2006 02:44:23 +1100 alt.showbiz.gossip
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Ang Lee a lock for Oscar
Oscar Picks: Best director By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun If Ang Lee wasn't such a humble man, he'd be beaming with confidence. He's the front-runner in the 2006 Oscar race for best director and he's left his fellow nominees in the dust back at the starting line. Lee, 51, has dominated this year's award season for his direction of Brokeback Mountain, his emotionally devastating look at a repressed love between two American cowboys in the 1960s and 70s. Brokeback Mountain is based on a short story by E. Annie Proulx and was adapted for the screen by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. The film has struck a chord with critics, audiences and film communities around the world. Lee received the Golden Lion at last year's Venice Film Festival the first of dozens of honours including the Los Angeles, New York and Broadcast Film Critics awards. Lee went into the 2001 Oscars with much the same acclaim for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon only to lose to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. It won't happen this year. Lee is not the man to beat. He's simply the man. Canada's own Paul Haggis more than deserves his nomination for directing Crash, his beautifully crafted story of simmering racial tension in Los Angeles. At 39, Bennett Miller is this year's youngest best director nominee for Capote. It's a powerful film that boasts staggering attention to detail, all the more impressive considering this is Miller's first attempt at directing a feature film. He doesn't need to take home the Oscar to know he's on a winning streak. George Clooney's nomination for directing Good Night, and Good Luck is just one of three making him the most-nominated man of the year. Clooney, 44, is also vying for a best original screenplay Oscar for Good Night, and Good Luck and a best supporting actor Oscar for Syriana. Steven Spielberg's Munich misfires on so many levels first promising to be a taut political thriller and then ending up an ill-conceived polemic. Spielberg, 59, has become one of those filmmakers who are nominated because of who they are rather than what they've accomplished with a specific film. His spot should have gone to Craig Brewer for Hustle & Flow or Joe Wright for Pride & Prejudice. SHOULD AND WILL WIN ANG LEE FOR BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN The Academy's love affair with Lee -- whose credits include Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- will be consummated this year with Brokeback Mountain. Lee has yet to announce his next film. THE OTHER NOMINEES FOR BEST DIRECTOR GEORGE CLOONEY Clooney, who cut his director's teeth on 2002's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, has yet to announce his next film as a director but has already committed to starring in Ocean's Thirteen, his favourite cash-cow franchise. PAUL HAGGIS He has a shelf full of Gemini Awards for his writing on Due South and a couple of Emmy Awards for his scripts for thirtysomething. Next he will direct Honeymoon with Harry, his newest original screenplay. BENNETT MILLER Capote has been a long-term dream project of Miller, Dan Futterman who wrote the screenplay and Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays author Truman Capote in the film. Bennett still hasn't committed to a follow-up film. STEVEN SPIELBERG After directing episodes of Marcus Welby and Night Gallery, he made his feature film debut with The Sugarland Express in 1974 and has never looked back. He has announced he will begin directing Indiana Jones 4 in 2007. p.valente...
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