15 Years Later, I am Nonetheless Not Over How the Oscars Denied David Fincher the Finest Director Award for His 2010 Masterpiece

Sadly, The Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences is considerably infamous for its distinctive capability to make confounding and infrequently occasions anger-inducing picks when selecting the Oscar winners every year. Movie followers angrily expressing their dismay on the Academy’s decisions on the evening of the awards has grow to be one thing of a historic custom. On the subject of the twenty first century, although, one explicit blunder stands above the remaining: Tom Hooper triumphing over David Fincher within the 2010 Finest Director race.

The choice to award Hooper for his work on The King’s Speech as a substitute of Fincher for The Social Network was definitely questionable on the time, however has grow to be way more egregious prior to now 15 years given the legacies of each movies and their filmmakers. Whereas The King’s Speech has light into some stage of obscurity with its director experiencing an up-and-down profession since his Oscar win, The Social Community is considered a contemporary masterpiece and the crowning achievement of Fincher’s legendary profession. Resulting from this, Fincher’s Finest Director loss on the 83rd Academy Awards has come to be often called the shining instance of the famed director’s supposed Oscar curse.

It would not be unfair to counsel that, in 2025, most individuals think about Hooper’s story of King George VI to be a wonderfully wonderful piece of Oscar bait that achieved its objectives on the time however failed to seek out any actual endurance within the tradition. It’s not a film that enormous swaths of movie followers have a deep and significant relationship to right this moment. Then again, The Social Community is broadly regarded as an unquestionably nice cinematic achievement. It’s a movie that continues to grow to be an increasing number of related with every passing 12 months, cemented by the truth that on the finish of 2019 it discovered itself at or close to the highest of many “Best of the Decade” lists.

Clearly, Fincher was a key motive for his movie’s spectacular stage of success. The truth is, The Social Community most probably wouldn’t have labored in the identical means with a unique director on the helm. Fincher operated as the right foil for the movie’s acclaimed screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin. The Se7en and Combat Membership director’s trademark darkish and cynical sensibility was wanted to carry out probably the most in Sorkin’s tremendous script. Fincher clearly had a deep understanding of the character of Mark Zuckerberg and the right strategy to painting him, to a level that we most likely did not even notice in 2010. The selections he made within the portrayal of Fb’s founder are key components within the movie’s continued relevancy, making it really feel like an important film that dares to dive in to what has grow to be a significant a part of the trendy human expertise.

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The post-2010 profession well being of Fincher and Hooper additionally helps the concept the incorrect director took house Oscar gold that 12 months. Whereas Hooper has proven he’s a succesful and proficient director all through his considerably inconsistent profession, Fincher remains to be universally acknowledged as a grasp of his craft. The King’s Speech director did obtain extra Oscar recognition after his Finest Director win with the releases of Les Misérables and The Danish Woman, although his profession has been pretty quiet since he directed the notorious 2019 adaptation of Cats. Fincher labored in movie sparingly all through the 2010s, however has launched 4 glorious films since The Social Community. Sadly, although, the Academy nonetheless has but to provide him his crowning second.

David Fincher Has Been Persistently Snubbed by the Academy All through His Profession

Gary Oldman as Mank in Mank. — Picture by way of Netflix

Lamentably, Fincher’s 2010 Oscar loss matches proper in with the legendary director’s disappointing history at the Oscars. In his profession, which spans greater than 30 years, he has been nominated simply 3 times with zero wins. Except for The Social Community, he was nominated for Finest Director for his work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Mank. In whole, Fincher’s 12 movies have garnered 40 nominations and 9 wins from the Academy. It is value noting that 31 of these nominations, and eight of the 9 wins, got here from the three movies that bought him a Finest Director nom. Along with his disowned debut, Alien 3, accounting for one visible results nomination, because of this Se7en, The Sport, Combat Membership, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Woman with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Woman, and The Killer had been solely worthy of eight nominations and one win, in keeping with the Academy.

Fincher’s misfortune on the Oscars lands him on the unusual and embarrassingly-long record of directors who did not — or have not — won a Best Director award. This record contains Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Lynch. The existence of this record alone proves the Academy typically makes the incorrect alternative. Whether or not or not Fincher someday makes it off the record, the very fact will at all times stay that his first Finest Director win ought to have come from The Social Community.