Oscars 2015: Take our Best Director poll
Which of this year's candidates for the Best Director Academy Award do you think should take home the Oscar?
Watch trailers of the five nominated films by clicking on the embedded video players below; then, vote in our poll below on which you think should win!
For more info:
- Complete list of 2015 Academy Award nominations
- Downloadable Oscar Ballot (pdf) - For your Oscar party or office pool
- Complete CBSNews.com coverage: The Academy Awards
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"
Masterfully directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu ("Babel," "Amores Perros"), "Birdman" unspools for the most part in the manner of a single unbroken take, conjured from the last few days before Opening Night of a Broadway play. And not just any Broadway play: it's the make-or-break career move of a fading Hollywood star Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), who has put his life's blood into the production.
Taking place primarily within the confines of the theater's backstage, where actors, costumers, stagehands and reporters jostle, argue, fight or make out, the story is mostly told through Riggan's POV, though the camera often drifts away to eavesdrop on others' conversations.
Iñárritu won the Directors Guild Award for this treat of black comedy mixed with magical realism and powerful emotions.
- Directors Guild honors "Birdman" as year's best
- "American Sniper," "Birdman," "Boyhood" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel," among 2015 Oscar nominees for Best Picture nominees
- NYFF review: Actors, camera soar in surreal "Birdman"
- "Birdman" cast on "meta" Broadway-set drama
Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
Richard Linklater has made 18 features, including popular hits like "School of Rock" starring Jack Black, and his "Before" trilogy ("Before Sunrise," "Before Sunset" and "Before Midnight"), starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, about one romance spanning many years, which was nominated for two Oscars.
His most critically-acclaimed film yet, "Boyhood" follows a young boy and his family over the course of 12 years, as he grows from childhood through adolescence. What's remarkable about "Boyhood" is that it was shot over twelve years; the actors age right before our eyes. Time (and how it changes people) is the subject.
"The manipulation of time is the unique property of cinema," Linklater told "Sunday Morning."
Linklater has won the Golden Globe (Drama), BAFTA and National Society of Film Critics Awards, as well as prizes from critics groups in Boston, London, Los Angeles and New York City.
- Filmmaker Richard Linklater on "Boyhood" and time
- Richard Linklater on directing daughter Lorelei in "Boyhood"
- Richard Linklater takes filmmaking very seriously
- Why director Richard Linklater kept "Boyhood" a secret for 12 years
- Richard Linklater's "outlaw ethos"
- Portrait of a family: Director Richard Linklater on making "Boyhood"
- "Boyhood" wins best picture, director at BAFTA Awards
- Golden Globes 2015: "Boyhood," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" win top honors
- N.Y. film critics pick "Boyhood" as year's best
- Review: "Boyhood": A film whose time has come
Bennett Miller, "Foxcatcher"
Directed by Bennett Miller ("Capote," "Moneyball"), "Foxcatcher" is based on an incredible true-crime story instigated by the heir to a family fortune, and tells how satisfying his elusive dreams brings tragedy to others.
The film is in equal parts about personal bests, a search for a father figure, patriotism, hubris and jealousy, all joined in the tale of an athlete looking for a purpose in a country that may not consider wrestling a real career (unless it's performed in a Thunderdome with much spilling of blood).
Miller won the Best Director prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
- NYFF review: "Foxcatcher" a winner
- "Foxcatcher" clinches rave reviews from critics
- "Foxcatcher" cast dishes on filming experience
Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" is Wes Anderson's typically stylized comedy set at an opulent resort in the Eastern European Republic of Zubrowka between the Wars. Ralph Fiennes plays the hotel concierge who is framed for murder after one of his conquests is found dead under mysterious circumstances.
The film has been nominated for nine Oscars. Anderson has already won awards for Best Screenplay from the Golden Globes, BAFTA, Writers Guild, New York and Los Angeles film critics,
Bill Murray, who has appeared in each of Anderson's films since "Rushmore," says actors know exactly what to expect when you walk onto one of the director's surreal sets.
"He knows exactly what he wants to do. He's very clear. There's very little that you're forced to improvise," Murray told CBS News.
- Bill Murray on reuniting with Wes Anderson for "Grand Budapest Hotel"
- "The Grand Budapest Hotel" stars on director Wes Anderson
- Gallery: The films of Wes Anderson
Morten Tyldum, "The Imitation Game"
Norwegian Morten Tyldum's first English-language film, "The Imitation Game," tells the long-classified story of how British mathematician Alan Turing broke the Nazis' Enigma Code, helping to speed the end of World War II.
Tyldum's previous films include "Headhunters, "Fallen Angels" and "Buddy."
Tyldum won Best Director honors from the Hollywood Film Awards.
- Why telling Alan Turing's story was "hugely" important for Cumberbatch
- Benedict Cumberbatch on "Imitation Game," fame and fans
- Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Turing and Enigma
- Keira Knightley on cracking the code of a WWII heroine
- Harvey Weinstein on "Imitation Game," "American Sniper," Selma controversy
The 87th annual Academy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood.
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