For our seventeenth Rundown article, we present our predictions. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Directing as well as general commentary about the race. Next week, we’ll start off on Monday with our predictions for Best Sound.

Best Directing

Winner Predictions

• Belfast – Kenneth Branagh
• Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi
• Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson
• The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion (WL O) (PP O) (TB O) (TL O)
• West Side Story – Steven Spielberg

Runner-Up Predictions

• Belfast – Kenneth Branagh (WL O) (TL O)
• Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi (PP R) [New]
• West Side Story – Steven Spielberg (TB R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: The Directors Guild of America, bar none, is the single best Oscar prognosticator out there. Its winners go on to Oscar wins so frequently that we have to look at how they influence Best Picture to find much variance. In spite of her “thoughtless” words at the Critics Choice Association during one of her acceptance speeches, I don’t see any reason she won’t be anointed at the Oscars as well.
Peter J. Patrick: Campion is as sure a winner as any director in history. If there is an upset, it would have to be a bold one which points to Drive My Car‘s Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
Tripp Burton: Jane Campion is about as big of a lock as you get at the Oscars this year.
Thomas La Tourrette: This is probably the most set award of the evening. If anyone but Jane Campion wins it will be one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history. She is the first woman to receive two nominations in this category and will be the third woman to win, and the second in a row. She lost her first nomination to Steven Spielberg, but this year he will lose to her. Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryusuke Hamaguchi never stood a chance. The person who will probably come closest to her in the voting is Kenneth Branagh, also up for his second nom for directing, but he will not win here. Jane Campion easily wins.

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