Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Ethan and Joel Coen - No Country For Old Men Joe Wright - Atonement Ridley Scott - American Gangster Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Tim Burton
Tim Burton has always been known for his Gothika, and some somewhat unconventional film making, being responsible for movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish and The Nightmare Before Christmas.And Sweeney Todd is no different, falling into both the unconventional and Gothika categories as Burton brings Stephen Sondheim’s much loved 1979 musical, note the word musical, to the big screen.Benjamin Barker is a men sent to prison in Australia after wrongly being accused of murder by Judge Turpin. After many years behind bars and now, under the name of Sweeney Todd, Barker returns to London to seek revenge on Turpin a find his family with the help of Mrs Lovett.

In the role of Todd is Burton’s favourite Johnny Depp, this being their sixth collaboration together, a man who has never sung professionally before this role.

Burton has produced a very unhollywood musical, if you are expecting something like Chicago then think again, it’s a dark, grisly tale of revenge.

For this picture Tim Burton has already received a National Board of Review award for Best Director.

Ethan and Joel Coen

No Country For Old Men is the first film by the Coen brother, who brought us Miller’s Crossing and Fargo, for a couple of years and is widely regarded as the front runner for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Local hunter and Vietnam veteran Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) has fallen on hard times.

But when he comes across a drug deal that has gone horribly wrong he steals the money that he finds.

But on his trail is hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) a merciless killer.

Following both of them is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) a man confronting a new and disturbing sense of violence as the body count begins to rise.

No Country For Old Men has achieved critical acclaim and the Coen brothers have already received the New York Film Critics Circle, San Francisco Film critics Circle and the Washington D.C Area Films Critic Association for Best Director.

Joe Wright

Joe Wright has become the golden boy of Working Title in such a short period of time.

Gone are the days when all British movies contained are Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis.

With just his second picture Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy Wright has landed a Globe nomination for Best Director and Best Picture, as well as a nod a piece for his two leads.

Atonement is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s much love novel which centres around two lovers Robbie and Cecila separated by class.

But the two are parted when Cecilia’s younger sister wrongly accuse Robbie of raping their cousin Lola.

Robbie is sent to prison. Cecilia turns her back on her family moving to London to become a nurse, and eventually working through the blitz.

After spending some time in prison Robbie is drafted into the army to fighting the Second World War and ends up at on the beaches at Dunkirk.

Wright has produced a truly classy movie, and it’s not often that you say that about British movies.

Along with Paul Greengrass, Joe Wright is leading the charge on producing high quality British movies that are competing with American pictures.

Ridley Scott

Based on the antics of drug lord of the seventies of Frank Lucas Ridley Scott brings the criminal caper American Gangster.

Frank Lucas (Washington) became a hero of Harlem New York in the seventies after masterminding a drug’s empire.

He was able to smuggle in heroin from Vietman and South East Asia and distributing it on to the street of New York City.

But Detective Richie Roberts has been given the job of heading the task force that will bring Lucas to justice and clean up the streets.

It has been a really great year for the crime movie with The Departed winning the Oscar as well as No Country For Old Men, the Assassination of Jesse James and Eastern Promises all hitting cinemas.

This is easily Scott’s best movie since Gladiator and this is partly due to Scott’s two leading men.

American Gangster is the first time Washington and Crowe have reunited since their 1995 movie Virtuosity and both deliver a powerhouse performance.

Scott has delivered a top quality movie that can sit with crime picture classics like Heat and The French Connection.

Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel is the least known director to have made this category for his movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Jean-Dominique Bauby AKA 'Jean-Do', the high-flying editor of French Elle and father of two, was renowned for his sense of humour and style, his joie de vivre and amorous energy, when, in an instant, his world was plunged into the depths of catastrophe.

At the age of forty three he suffered a massive stroke that paralysed his entire body, except his left eye.

Faced with a harrowing predicament, Jean-Do will use enormous courage and determination but, most of all, his soaring imagination to escape from his trap.

Tapping into the limitlessness of his memories, fantasies, wit and wishes, he finds a way to race through experiences of wonder and grief, sex and love, fatherhood and childhood, faith and questioning, ecstasy and absurdity--and touches the very essence of what it is to be human.

Along the way he is buoyed by a quintet of remarkable women: Céline, the mother of his children who remains devoted to him despite his betrayal; Inés, the girlfriend who still haunts him; Henriette and Marie, who give Jean-Do the power to re-connect with the world and his loved ones; and Claude, who becomes his ravishing literary assistant.

This is only the third film for the former artist and is perhaps his masterpiece producing a deeply moving movie with some superb cinematography.

Tip to win Best Director Ethan and Joel Coen.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw