Steven Spielberg: Oscar's favourite son or it's most overlooked auteur?
Hello, Islanders!
When it comes to the Oscar for Best Director, no one has a better winning percentage that the legendary John Ford, who batted 1.000, winning four Academy Awards in four nominations. But other directors haven’t been that – and I mean no disrespect by using this word – lucky.
Did you know that, despite five nominations, Alfred Hitchcock never won an Academy Award for Best Director? I know…it’s hard to imagine. Do you know what else is hard to imagine? That Mr. Steven Allan Spielberg has only won two Best Director Oscars! Surely there must be a mistake? Let’s find out.
The director with the most Best Director Academy Award nominations is William Wyler, who took home the top prize three times. Next is Martin Scorsese, with nine. In third place, in a two-way tie: the great Billy Wilder and Spielberg. Scorsese has won once, while Wilder and Spielberg each have two directing Oscars (Spielberg has a third Academy Award as a producer on Best Picture winner Schindler’s List). Only two, you ask? How is that possible? Here is what I think:
Steven Spileberg on location in South Texas, 1st March 1973, for The Sugarland Express
Spielberg received his first Best Director nomination for 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The award went to Woody Allen for Annie Hall, which would also go on to win Best Picture. This was Allen’s first nomination in this category (to date he has received seven nominations for Best Director). My thought is that at the time it was rare for the director of the eventual Best Picture winner to not win. A rare exception during the 1970s came when Bob Fosse won the directing award for Cabaret while Best Picture went to The Godfather. I think voters just got used to checking the corresponding boxes when they submitted their ballots. This wouldn’t be the first time Spielberg would lose to an actor turned director.
Steven Spielberg filming Raiders Of The Lost Ark
His next nomination came for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” an amazing rollercoaster ride of a film that still thrills today. A rolling boulder? The Ark of the Covenant? Nazis? What isn’t there to love? In another rare split, while Chariots of Fire was named Best Picture, the directing award went to Warren Beatty for Reds. Another actor! Of course, I say that tongue in cheek as, in my opinion, Reds is an epic piece of filmmaking.
Next up, one of the most popular films of all time, E.T. Another loss. To another former actor. The award went to Richard Attenborough for Gandhi. Again, the eventual Best Picture winner and, again, an epic in every sense of the word. Don’t believe me? Ask one of the 300,000 extras used.
Nomination number four came for 1985’s The Color Purple…..OOPS, my bad. More on this later. Let’s move on.
Nomination number four came for a film that had been on Spielberg’s radar for years, 1993’s Schindler’s List. A film detailing one of the most vile times in the history of the world, Spielberg’s achievements could no longer be ignored as he took home his first Best Director Oscar. What is even more amazing, in my opinion, is that Jurassic Park was released in the same year. Spielberg took home a second Oscar that night as Schindler’s List was also named Best Picture.
Next up for Spielberg, a nomination for 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. A gritty look at the horrors of World War II, the almost documentary feel of the film and powerful images earned the director his second Best Director Oscar. No disrespect to the other nominees that year, but Saving Private Ryan is one of the true great films of the 20th century, though apparently Academy voters didn’t think so as the Best Picture award went to Shakespeare in Love, which was highly marketed by the folks at Miramax. If you were surprised by this upset win, you have nothing on Harrison Ford, whose obvious disappointment when he opened the envelope was written all over his face.
Number six was earned for his work on 2005’s Munich. Another project close to Spielberg’s heart, Munich details the story of how the Israeli government secretly avenged the murders of their athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The winner that year was Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain. Not to diminish the amazing work of Ang Lee – the man has two directing Oscars – but this award always felt to me like a consolation prize from an Academy that wasn’t prepared to award the Best Picture award to a film with the subject matter of Brokeback Mountain. The Best Picture award went to Crash, one of the weakest – again, in my opinion – films to win the top prize.
Steven Spielberg filming Munich
2012’s Lincoln brought the director nomination number seven. A period piece detailing the final months of the 16th President’s life, the film is quite tame in tone when compared to much of Spielberg’s work. However, this time he again lost to Ang Li, who was recognized for The Life of Pi, a very visual film that, I think, overshadowed the subtlety of Lincoln.
Steven Spielberg on the set of Lincon
In 2021, Spielberg FINALLY got a directing nod for a film with Sharks in it when he was nominated for the musical West Side Story. Despite a flurry of Best Director wins for musicals in the 1960’s (My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver!), only two directors have taken home the top prize since 1970; Bob Fosse for Cabaret in 1973 and, in 2016, Damien Chazelle for La La Land, so even Spielberg had to know this wouldn’t be his year. While I personally felt that West Side Story was the Best film of the year, the directing award went to Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog. The Best Picture award went to CODA.
Steven Spielberg with Ansel Elgort on the set of West Side Story
Eight nominations are quite an achievement, especially in an industry where some directors never get the chance to direct eight films. That being said, in my opinion Spielberg should be in double digits, as he was passed over for two films in which he was a Director’s Guild nominee – Jaws and The Color Purple. In fact, he actually WON the DGA Award for The Color Purple! Sidney Pollock, who actually won the directing Oscar the year Spielberg was ignored, once commented that Spielberg would never win an Academy Award for directing because he wasn’t taken serious. The Color Purple is a film that deals with everything from incest to rape to racism, but I guess it wasn’t serious enough for the Academy! I also think he should have been nominated for Empire of the Sun. So, in retrospect, he should be only one nomination behind William Wyler. Who knows? With his consistently excellent body of work, he may surpass Wyler one day!
Steven Spielberg and Whoopi Goldberg filming The Color Purple
Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.
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