The Oscars - Winning Pick for Best Director

What is it that goes into the Best Director award or even a nomination for it? If we acknowledge that film is a director's medium, then what is it that distinguished the merits of the film itself from the merits of the director that has executed its vision; indeed, HIS vision? In other words, how is it that a film could be nominated for Best Picture, or even win, while its director is ignored? Hey, we've seen it happen before. Not this year, though. Each and every one of the Best Director nominees directs a Best Picture candidate.

Let's take a look at the BetUS Sportsbook:

To Win Best Director

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire -450

David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button +400

Gus Van Sant - Milk +1200

Stephen Daldry - The Reader +2000

Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon +1000

DANNY BOYLE (-450 at BetUS) -- Boyle is the director with all the buzz. He has won the award from the L.A. Film Critics, the New York Film Critics, the Satellite Movie Awards, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, the African American Film Critics, the Southeastern Film Critics, and on and on and on. He has won from 21 different organizations, including the Directors Guild and the Golden Globes. The director of "Slumdog Millionaire" and former director of "Trainspotting" probably has a train here that is unstoppable.

Can anyone beat him?

DAVID FINCHER (+400 at BetUS) -- I see Fincher's constituency being some of the younger voters, who more fully appreciate the technology of his achievement. His film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," was very special effects-oriented, which is pretty much what the story demanded. Fincher is able to pull it off to make a movie most critics liked, of course some didn't. Some saw it as something derivative of "Forrest Gump" (although it could have been the other way around, since F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the short story on which the film is based). Regardless, there has to be certain respect for a director who dared to do what a lot of directors were too timid to touch. At best, though, the vote is split on this work. Fincher has won only from the National Board of Review.

RON HOWARD (+1000 at BetUS) -- The writer of "Frost/Nixon" has said that he meant for it to be inadaptable to the screen. Howard, of course, come along and does it. Is he a favorite of the Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, yet he was ignored as Best Director. On the other hand, he won the award for "A Beautiful Mind."

GUS VAN SANT (+1200 at BetUS) -- Van Sant is at the helm of a picture ("Milk") that has garnered eight nominations. He has won the award from the Boston Society of Film Critics as well as the San Francisco Film Critics (which was expected). This is the second nomination for Van Sant, who previously got a nod for "Good Will Hunting," which won an original screenplay Oscar for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Van Sant has also won a Razzie Award for his work on the "Psycho" remake. There are some people who feel that this category is the one most likely for "Milk" to get the ultimate recognition. I am not necessarily one of them, although I understand that there is sentiment in the Academy for rewarding a film in such a way that it would express their opposition to Proposition 8 in California.