Director Nominees (in alphabetical order)
GEORGE CLOONEY
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (Warner Independent Pictures)
Clooney's three nominations this year (as Director, Supporting actor for Syriana, and co-writer of Good Night, And Good Luck) are his first.
PAUL HAGGIS
CRASH (Lions Gate)
This is his first nomination in this category. He was nominated last year for his Adapted Screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, and is also nominated this year for this film in the Best Picture and Original Screenplay categories.
ANG LEE
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Focus Features)
This is his Lee's third Oscar nomination, and the second in the Director category. Lee was also nominated for directing and producing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Three of Lee's films were nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar Award, all representing Taiwan: “The Wedding Banquet” (1993), “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994), and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which won the Oscar.
BENNETT MILLER
CAPOTE (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
This is the first Oscar nomination for Miller, who previously had made one feature, the documentary “The Cruise.”
STEVEN SPIELBERG
MUNICH (Universal/DreamWorks)
This is Steven Spielbergs 11 Oscar nomination and the sixth in this category. His other Directing nominations are for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Schindlers List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), these last two resulting in Oscars. His Best Picture nominations were for E.T., The Color Purple (1985), Schindlers List, for which he took home an Oscar, Saving Private Ryan and this film. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1986 for consistently high quality of motion picture production.
