Oscars Poll: Who Should Win Best Director?

Five filmmakers are up for best director at the 2020 Oscars, most of whom received other nominations across the Film Academy’s 23 other categories. 

Bong Joon Ho made Oscar history on two fronts with his noms: He’s the first Korean to be recognized in the best director category, and his film, Parasite, is the first-ever Korean best picture nominee. Bong also received a nod for best original screenplay, alongside Han Jin-won. 

Sam Mendes received a nom for directing 1917, a World War I-set film that follows two soldiers as they cross into enemy territory to try to save 1,600 of their fellow soldiers. He and his co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns were also nominated for best original screenplay. This year’s nods mark Mendes’ first Oscar mention in 20 years. (He won best director honors for his 2000 film, American Beauty.)

Joker leads this year’s Oscar nominees with 11 mentions throughout the Academy’s 24 categories. Todd Phillips’ origin story about the comic book villain earned him recognition for his work as a director and a screenwriter, alongside Scott Silver. Prior to Joker, Phillips was nominated for his Borat screenplay in 2007.

Legendary helmers Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese also nabbed best director noms for their most recent films, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman, respectively.

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With Scorsese’s latest nod, he increases his mark as the most-nominated living director in Academy history, with The Irishman securing his ninth best director nom, four short of breaking William Wyler’s all-time record. 

Parasite, 1917, Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman are all nominated for best picture.

Women directors were notably left out of this year’s Oscar nominees with Little Women‘s Greta Gerwig, Harriet‘s Kasi Lemmons, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood‘s Marielle Heller, Honey Boy‘s Alma Har’el, Hustlers‘ Lorene Scafaria and The Farewell‘s Lulu Wang among those who could have earned a nomination.

Who do you think should win for best director? Cast your vote below.

The 92nd Academy Awards will go hostless and is set to air on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.