How can you vote for best director?

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Award season’s upon us with all that glossy part of art taking over.

I always wondered how you can determine best director?

Best actor or actress is easy. What you see on the screen is what you get, same with supporting.
Best score, evident.
Best song.
Best movie, best animated, best editing, best whatever, it’s there for the senses to pick up as you watch.
Best screenplay has become a bit weird. If there’s any part film studios seem like the worst run businesses, it’s screenplays where they can replace the original writer, then the second, then the third, then bring in a team, more often for a movie they act hysterically desperate, than they don’t with the screenwriting.
A screenplay together with editing, and that dude in charge of the cameras, the light, that’s where the movie is at for me. That’s the parts which either make them or break them. Look at last year’s Roma. It isn’t that new as far as overall goes. But the scrip, the editing, and the camera, make it into a wonder. The screenwriting makes a great movie unless someone fu**s up .Usually the studio pressuring the director.

But how do you judge a director in one of these award things?

We all know Steven Spielberg is a pretty good director, but how hard was it for him to direct The Post with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep? Wasn’t it a greater directorial achievement by
Luca Guadagnino to direct the youngsters Armie Hammer and Timothy Chalamet in Call me by your name?

How can you vote for a best director, unless you were there to watch him/her direct? It’s not really evident on the screen how many percent they had part in it to make it great.

[Diable Rouge]

At the Oscars, at least, only the Academy members towards whom awards are directed vote for the winner in each category, so directors decide who wins Best Director, producers Best Director etc, so the voters determine themselves what technical, artistic, and creative criteria are most appropriate to adjudge the greatest annual achievement.

[Ginger Yellow]

At the Oscars, at least, only the Academy members towards whom awards are directed vote for the winner in each category, so directors decide who wins Best Director, producers Best Director etc, so the voters determine themselves what technical, artistic, and creative criteria are most appropriate to adjudge the greatest annual achievement.

That's only true for nominations isn't it? I thought the whole academy does the final vote.

Best actor or actress is easy. What you see on the screen is what you get, same with supporting.

Don't really agree with this. Some actors don't appear to be doing much "acting" (in terms of portraying someone other than themselves/their general persona), they're just cast really well. Conversely other actors disappear into a role. Both may be incredible performances in their own right.

How can you vote for a best director, unless you were there to watch him/her direct? It’s not really evident on the screen how many percent they had part in it to make it great.

I suspect in practice (especially at the whole academy vote level or in audience awards) a lot of it is going to be based on factors that really should be attributed to the DP or the editor or the screenwriter. But if you watch a film knowledgeably in context, you can usually tease out things like coaxing performances out of a cast that properly belong to the director.