13 Worst Films From Oscar-Winning Directors (and What to Watch Instead)
This year’s Oscar nominees are due to be announced tomorrow, February 8th, which means we’ll soon find out which films and their directors are in contention for last year’s best films. But what’s in Oscar’s nod? The list of directors who have never received an Oscar for directing is perhaps more revealing than the list of those who have. Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Pedro Almodovar, Howard Hawks, Jane Campion (so far) – no one has been recognized as worthy of cinema’s highest award. Mel Gibson, on the other hand, has a directing Oscar, as does Kevin Costner. This is normal, I suppose, but I’m not sure if any of them are in the same constellation as Federico Fellini. The bottom line is that the Oscars are not a perfect measure of genius, and one instance of genius is no guarantee of reliable quality. Even the best directors in the film industry have made very bad films or (even more obviously a sin) incredibly boring and tedious films. Life is too short for this kind of nonsense, so here are 13 Oscar-winning films you should probably avoid and 13 films you should watch instead.