Examine the Work of Russell, Scorsese, & More in Keyframe's Best Director Showdown Video | No Film School

The 2014 Academy Awards are now exactly two weeks away, which means advertisements, TV spots, interviews, and talk show appearances featuring nominated films and their actors are reaching their seasonal apices. But over at Keyframe, they've put together a video that pits each Best Director nominee against each other in a fight to see which one is most deserving of the Oscar. Continue on to take a closer look at the directorial styles, performances, and artistic approaches of some of the most talented directors working today.

Competing for the Oscar this year is David O. Russell (American Hustle), Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), Alexander Payne (Nebraska), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), and Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street). These are all supremely talented directors who have made exceedingly great films, but which one is more deserving to win? Author of the article, Kevin B. Lee comes right out of the gate saying Russell does.

But, quite honestly, that question is neither here nor there, to me. (I stopped my lust for competition and winning when I got cut from the basketball team in high school.) Keyframe's video is so helpful not necessarily for determining a winner, but to understand the craft of filmmaking through examining the techniques of each director, dissecting their films, and comparing their end results. The ways in which each director employs tone; the way they engage with their actors (Lee describes Russell as a quarterback -- energetic and alive), and their aptitude for aiding each actor in taking a character, that was at one point just words on a page, and turning it into a living, breathing human being with a soul that can be either crushed or saved.

Take a look at the video below:

Be sure to check out Keyframe's full article for more insight into each film.

What do you think about the points the video brought up about each film? Do you agree with the opinions posed in the Keyframe article? Let us know in the comments below.

oscars directing stevemcqueen alexanderpayne Martin Scorsese academyawards directors alfonsocuarón David O Russell

What's the Hype With 'Interstellar' Revisiting Cinemas After a Decade in 70mm IMAX?

Here's Why You Need to Revisit 'Interstellar' in 70mm IMAX

Celebrate the love and hope at the center of Nolan's space epic in the format it was meant to be seen.

If we know anything about Christopher Nolan, he likes to go big. Nolan started with smaller-scale stories (as many of us do) with early noir adjacent works like Following, Memento, and Insomnia, then started going and staying big with his illusionist drama The Prestige. Since then, the scale has been various degrees of massive, with the biggest scope in his time-and-space sprawling epic, Interstellar.

While Interstellarmight not be everyone's favorite Nolan outing, there's no denying it's an impressive feat of filmmaking and his most emotional—if watching Matthew McConaughey's Cooper desperately try to reach his family through quantum space-time doesn't make you cry at least a little bit, what's going on, dude?

With Interstellar'sIMAX release, it's a great time to shed some tears in a public setting in one of the most prestigious film formats around. As we mentioned in our film gauge piece, Nolan loves shooting on film and utilizes 65mm intentionally to provoke a tone of massive scale. In that regard, Interstellar was made for 70mm IMAX. That goes without saying, dawg. That being said, other factors make Interstellar a perfect movie to revisit in theaters while you can.

Let's break down the release further below.

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