Trivia questions

[flip]

maybe sometimes people happen upon, or research, trivia that other people might find fun to guess at, so i'll start a thread and ask a question! i just did a quick bit of research (which means i might be wrong, but i'm pretty sure not) because i got interested in this question:

of directors who have had at least 3 of their films nominated for best picture... which directors have had the greatest fraction of their films nominated for best picture?

i would have needed a very large number of guesses to get even one of the top three... two directors have had 60% of all of their films nominated for best pic, and another has had 50%. when i count how many films someone directed, i've excluded shorts, concert films, and tv films of stage plays, along with 2021 films, really anything that never could have been nominated, or anything that hasn't had a chance yet.

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I'm thinking one has gotta be Cuaron or innaritu (sp?), if not both

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Looks like it's Innaritu but not Cuaron

Have looked up a lot of other directors but the closest I found was Warren Beatty (2/5). It's hard to think of directors who haven't directed many movies because there are lots of directors that have like 12 movies no one's heard of or whatever

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

James L. Brooks?

[flip]

ah, i missed inarritu! he has a lot of director credits on letterboxd but not many are features.

and james l brooks is tied for 2nd place!

the top four:

1. bob fosse (60%, 3 of 5 films: lenny, cabaret, all that jazz)
1. stephen daldry (60%, 3 of 5 films: the hours, extremely loud and incredibly close, the reader)
2. james l brooks (50%, 3 of 6 films: terms of endearment, as good as it gets, broadcast news)
2. alejandro gonzalez inarritu (50%, 3 of 6 films: babel, birdman, the revenant)

daldry's name would never have even occurred to me, and i thought inarritu and brooks had made more films (i looked into this because i just saw a brooks film and was surprised he had only directed six), i think i might have guessed fosse

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Figured it might be a brand new director so I checked recent nominations and aha! Jordan Peele, 1/2

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actually the #1 who i'd consider well known isn't contemporary, his films are all from the previous century

i just realized looking at imdb that i counted one film by the other director (the one i don't think i ever would have guessed) that i shouldn't have, so he should properly be at 60% too. he made a movie (a tv movie apparently) this year though.

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Figured it might be a brand new director so I checked recent nominations and aha! Jordan Peele, 1/2

i had a minimum of 3 nominations otherwise people like florian zeller (who directed the father last year) would win with 100%

[grabmymask]

What about Bob Fosse?

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Damian Chazelle has 2/4

[flip]

What about Bob Fosse?

yes! bob fosse has 3 nominations from 5 films

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the final director with 50%+, and 3 best pic noms, is stephen daldry. he has several credits that didn't meet my criteria (filmed plays, for example), so he looks like he has a lot of director credits, but not many are feature films. he has noms for the hours, the reader, and extremely loud and incredibly close

[grabmymask]

yep, never would’ve guessed him

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I've seen The Reader and I still didn't recognize that name

[flip]

i updated the post with the answers, and daldry definitely would have been someone i'd never have guessed too, i recognize the name but like curtis have only seen the reader. though he did make billy elliot -- haven't seen that either, but isn't it the kind of thing that gets academy noms? he might have been at 80% if that had happened.