Best Director: Guillermo del Toro

By Jordan Moreau

I've got a confession: I think The Shape of Water is overrated, and it baffles me that it received 13 nominations, the most of any film this year. The story seems like a ripoff of Beauty and the Beast, and the tone shifts dramatically between lighthearted and whimsical to dark and sinister, never truly sticking to one theme. However, it did get 13 nominations (just one under the record), so some people out there must have liked it.

After Guillermo del Toro won best director at the Golden Globes, he's the nearly unanimous front runner for the Oscars. For further proof, he also won the Directors Guild of America's top award. History has shown that the winner of this DGA honor has won the Oscars' Best Director 61 out of 69 times since the DGAs began. So yeah, he's a pretty safe bet.

If somehow del Toro does not win, I'd bet Christopher Nolan would be next in line for Dunkirk. The director's job is to put all the elements of the film together, like the story, acting, cinematography and music, and Nolan did a better job of authoring Dunkirk than del Toro did with The Shape of Water. Nolan made the artistic decision to have little dialogue in the film to immerse the viewer in the noises of the World War II battle. The sounds of bullets firing and planes dogfighting crash in the audience's ears, making Dunkirk a very tense and uncomfortable experience. The ceaseless ticking of the unseen pocket watch gives a sense of anxiety and hurriedness, while also highlighting the distortion of time between the land, sea and air storylines.

Despite my appreciation for Dunkirk, I don't think it's wise to bet against the Academy's love for Del Toro and The Shape of Water. It would also be awesome to see Jordan Peele or Greta Gerwig pull the upset win for Get Out or Lady Bird, both their solo directorial debuts, but the power of Del Toro is too strong.