2025 Oscars slugfest: Experts say Ridley Scott is a dark horse to win Best Director [Watch]
Can 87-year-old filmmaker Ridley Scott claw his way to a Best Director triumph for “Gladiator II”? It’s not completely out of the question, say our five top Oscar experts from major media outlets: Gold Derby’s Debra Birnbaum, Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Variety’s Clayton Davis, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, and Indiewire’s Anne Thompson. Watch their 2025 Oscars slugfest video above.
“Ridley’s never won. People are hyper aware of that,” declares Davis. “When you’re a movie that’s gonna be doing well in the tech categories … and we have this year where there’s no obvious frontrunner, we end up with like an Ang Lee-by-accident second Oscar win for ‘Life of Pi.’ And that’s why I think that Ridley Scott is someone that everyone can coalesce around.”
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Hammond recalls moderating a “Gladiator II” screening for Academy voters (which had “the biggest turn-out” of any movie this year), and how Scott “came out to not just a standing ovation for him, but an enthusiastic one. I mean, I haven’t seen one like that in a while. And I think he thinks, ‘Sure, they’ll stand for me, but they won’t vote for me.'” Note that Scott has still never won an Oscar; when “Gladiator” (2000) claimed Best Picture, he was not listed as a producer.
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Some of the other top Best Director contenders include Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”), Sean Baker (“Anora”), Edward Berger (“Conclave”), Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Perez”), Denis Villeneuve (“Dune: Part Two”), and RaMell Ross (“Nickel Boys”). But what about any potential female nominees?
“It’s just that there’s not an obvious one,” remarks Birnbaum. “There are great films with great female directors, there’s just not one.” Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”) has the best odds at Gold Derby, followed by women filmmakers like Payal Kapadia (“All We Imagine as Light”) and Marielle Heller (“Nightbitch”).
As for international hopefuls, Feinberg says the Academy has been nominating “more and more” of them and brings up Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”). “He literally had to flee his country because of this movie and is not going back to Iran,” he tells the audience. “That’s the reason this is Germany’s Oscar entry. It’s kind of an irresistible narrative.”
Finally, Thompson declares that Baker is “a lock” for a nomination because “‘Anora,’ of all the movies that are playing right now, is the one that I’ve never met a person who didn’t like it. They love this movie. It is playing through the roof.” Who do YOU think will be nominated for the Best Director Oscar?
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