statistics cited involve directing work & feature films only

DAVID O. RUSSELL
54 years old | 6 films | 2 nominations
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

He's in the tiny club of globally worshipped auteurs with hit after critical hit and critical hit. Amour plays into his greatest strengths and yet somehow its warmer without softening the brutality.

BEST WORK
Amour or Caché. Now I'm suddenly torn. What say you?

WINNER

He's the only Oscar winning director of color and Mr Flexible when it comes to genre-hopping. He set himself a huge challenge here and people respect that.

BEST WORK
Brokeback Mountain with a side of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But so many great films, really.

Directors, like stars, find it easier to be nominated once Oscar has finally opened their hearts to them. Hot on the heels of equally fast-talking family-infighting drama The Fighter he's back again.

BEST WORK
My personal favorite is I ♥ Huckabees . Russell and I have very different feelings about his work.

With his seventh nomination he joins Martin Scorsese, Fred Zinneman and David Lean in a four way tie for 3rd most nominated Director of all time. That's fine company and this is fine film.

BEST WORK
The consensus is obviously Schindler's List but my favorite is Raiders of the Lost Ark 

It's a startling debut and his voice is totally fresh which is why his nomination came as such a shock. Usually it takes them awhile to come around. How on earth do you follow this up, though?

BEST WORK
This will prove difficult to top.   

 Snubbed? Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow seemed like locks to just about everyone for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty but it was not to be. Given the solid nomination counts for their pictures one guesses they were very close to making it here.