85th Academy Awards

Best Director

Winners

Best Sup. Actress

Michel Haneke

Amour

'Amour' is anything but sentimental. Instead, it records the last months of human life with a level gaze that feels like the only honest and respectful response. And it marvels at how love holds the pieces of us together until the last. In a culture that knows only how to sell short-term pleasures, Haneke dares us to take the long view.
– Ty Burr

Ang Lee

Life of Pi

As a filmmaker, Lee seems to alternate between naturalism ('The Ice Storm,' 'Brokeback Mountain') and rapturous otherworlds ('Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' even 2008’s 'Lust, Caution'). Really, he’s just a master at creating unique cinematic planets, and so it is here.
– Ty Burr

David O. Russell

Silver Linings Playbook

Steven Spielberg

Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Ty Burr says ...

With Bigelow and Affleck out of the race, Spielberg should easily triumph, and in fact “Lincoln” is exactly the kind of movie the Academy likes to throw Oscars at: important, historical, good, good for you. “Lincoln” may ultimately be Daniel Day-Lewis’s and Tony Kushner’s film more than it is St. Steven’s, but Oscar periodically likes to show this director love, and here’s where it’ll happen. For all of Lee’s marvelous world-building in “Pi,” the film’s message is muddled.

Will win
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Should win
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Shouldn't be here
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Was robbed
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Janice Page says ...

Given that the worst thing about the otherwise first-rate “Lincoln” is its schmaltzy Spielbergian touches, from soldiers reciting the Gettysburg Address (hey, at least they cast some black people) to an ending that can’t resist making an aria of a son’s grief, it would be nice to see an upset in this category. But no Affleck and no Kathryn Bigelow equals no competition for Spielberg. Unless Harvey Weinstein can manage to . . . Nah.

Will win
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Should win
Michael Haneke, Amour

Shouldn't be here
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Was robbed
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom