The director list is much, much smaller. The reason for this is pretty obvious-with the acting Globes, there are fifteen nominees each year that will equal at most ten nominations (leaving a certain five snubbed performances), whereas the directors are both five, unless there's a tie at the Globes. Therefore, it's really just a case of the Globes liking certain directors more than the others.
In fact, it's so rare only 21 directors have received more than one nomination at the Globes and not received a subsequent nomination at the Oscars. I'm not profiling all 21, so I'm just going to do a write-up of the six people who have either received more than two misses at the Oscars or have never received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. For the record, though, Anthony Minghella, Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Zinnemann, Hal Ashby, James L. Brooks, John Huston, Martin Scorsese, Milos Forman, Richard Attenborough, Robert Redford, Robert Wise, Sidney Lumet, Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kubrick, and William Wyler all have two nominations that didn't translate with AMPAS. The remainder are...
6. Edward ZwickBest Director Golden Globe Nominations: Glory (1989) and Legends of the Fall (1994)
Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None
Zwick has made a career out of making Academy-friendly films that the Academy for which the Academy won't honor him. It's kind of hard to believe that the man who made not only Glory and Legends of the Fall but also Courage Under Fire, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond hasn't managed to get into Oscars good graces here. Glory, in particular, has to have been close to making the lineup, but for me it's all about Legends of the Fall, one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasure movies. Zwick has been far luckier in the Best Picture race, picking up a nomination for Traffic and his very own Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.
5. John Frankenheimer
Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1964)
Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None
If you can believe it, the legendary Frankenheimer never once received an Academy Award nomination, despite making The Manchurian Candidate, Birdman of Alcatraz, Seven Days in May, The Train, Grand Prix, and The Fixer. Frankenheimer is in fact the only person of these 21 directors to never have received an Oscar nomination in any category, even though on top of his pair of Globe nominations, he also received two DGA nominations, which are usually a great predictor of Oscar nominations. Of the two, my guess is that he was slightly closer for The Manchurian Candidate, not just because it's one of the best films ever made, but because it also scored a Film Editing nomination, which is a better predictor for Best Director than the Art Direction nomination earned for Seven Days in May.
4. Barbra Streisand
Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Yentl (1983) and The Prince of Tides (1991); Streisand won the trophy for Yentl
Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None
Yep, Streisand, who also showed up on our actors list, is also one of the most snubbed directors, and the only woman of the 21. She also managed to pull off a trophy at the Globes for Yentl and a DGA nomination at The Prince of Tides. It's really hard to tell what the Academy has against Streisand-her films aren't 100% up-their-alley, but it's difficult to imagine that sexism hasn't played a bit of a part in her persistent misses at the Oscars. Streisand can at least take comfort in the fact that she has received five nominations and two trophies, but based on her precursors, it's hard not to feel that that number would be higher with a male of a similar level of fame and filmic contributions.
3. Clint Eastwood
Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Bird (1988), Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Invictus (2009); Eastwood won trophies for Bird, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby
Best Director Academy Award Nominations: Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006); Eastwood won trophies for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby
Eastwood's support at the Oscars sometimes gets a bit overstated as a nominee. Sure, he's been hugely rewarded, but he's only really been successful at the Oscars with four films, whereas at the Globes he persistently gets nominated on far more occasions. The Globes, always a fan of giving a celebrity a reward, regularly give Best Director to an actor when they didn't even receive a nomination at the Oscars (Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Ben Affleck, and Clint all fall into this camp), which is probably why Clint scored for Bird. As for the other two, the far more "directorial vision" films United 93 and Precious prevailed, so it's hard to argue that Oscar made the correct choice.
2. Steven Spielberg
Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Color Purple (1985), Schindler's List (1993), Amistad (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012); Spielberg won trophies for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan
Best Director: Academy Award Nominations: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Lincoln (2012); Spielberg won trophies for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan
It's impossible not to look at that list of films and just be damn amazed. I have always loved Spielberg, though there was a time when my love waned (I blame Dawson's Creek, which I watched religiously due to a massive crush on Kerr Smith and a deep love for his relationship with Michelle Williams, but it was so horribly written and Dawson was so annoying, and clearly had no respect for film since he only doted on one director in a sea of thousands). However, it's hard to argue with either of these two lists. Trying to figure out which film he was the closest on is a crazy game-Jaws and The Color Purple were not only Best Picture nominees, but strong Best Picture nominees, and the directorial branch managed to throw out Spielberg in favor of two foreign directors those years (Spielberg can take comfort in knowing that he lost to Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa, but still). Those snubs are the stuff of legend, but I also suspect he was just as close for Amistad (he received a DGA nomination for Amistad as well, for the record, a sign of a close, close race). The sixth nomination, for the breathtaking A.I. (probably my favorite of all of his movies), was a surprise to me (I'd forgotten this happened), but considering Todd Field and Baz Luhrmann had Best Picture nominees and missed out as well as Spielberg (who has only once won a Best Director nomination without the film getting Best Picture nominated once, for Close Encounters), I don't think he was much in this race.
1. Rob Reiner
Best Director Golden Globe Nominations: Stand By Me (1986), When Hary Met Sally... (1989), A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995)
Best Director Academy Award Nominations: None
Christopher Nolan fans, I hate to break it to you, but your guy needs to get a little more Academy cold shoulder before he becomes the most-snubbed of directors. Like Jim Carrey and Shirley MacLaine, Reiner stands out like a sore thumb for his lack of Oscar nominations-Reiner received not only four Globe nominations without a corresponding nomination (equalled only by Spielberg) but also three DGA nominations without ever getting an Oscar nomination (equalled only by Nolan). Looking through his nominations, it seems obvious that A Few Good Men was the film he got closest to (Martin Brest, who missed at the Globes and the DGA Awards, was probably the one who bested him), as it's the only one of the four to gain a Best Picture slot (which gave Reiner as its producer his only Oscar nomination), though I have to wonder how close Stand By Me made it. It got a Best Picture nomination from the Globes, as well as a DGA nomination, and a screenplay nomination from the Oscars. 1986 was one of those rare years though where only three of the DGA nominees translated into the Oscars-both Reiner and Randa Haines (Children of a Lesser God) didn't succced with Oscar, and so it's hard to tell whether Reiner was in sixth or seventh place. 1989, when Reiner missed on his third Globe/DGA combination, was a year of directorial snubs, as the precursor-lacking success of Henry V meant that Reiner, Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) and Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) all missed out on the slot. While all of the focus that year was on Beresford (his film would win Best Picture) and Lee (whose snub smacked of racism) missing, it was in fact Reiner who was the only person who had pulled off both precursors, and could well have been the sixth place once again. Since American President and Ghosts of Mississippi, Reiner doesn't really make films that get nominated anymore, which means he'll likely never make it in this category again, but there's little to argue with the fact that, if anyone is due for an "old age" nomination, it's him.
And those are the most-snubbed directors-what are your thoughts? Are you as stunned as I that the guy who directed Rumor Has It and The Bucket List is the most snubbed director in Academy history? And do you think that Zwick, Streisand, or Reiner will ever make it into this category? Share in the comments!
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