AFT Awards: Best Director

This is the twenty-ninth category of the 5th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
The Adjustment Bureau, The Adventures of Tintin, Captain America: The First Avenger, Cars 2, Cedar Rapids, Certified Copy, The Descendants, Fast Five, 5 Days of War, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Griff the Invisible, The Guard, Happy Happy, The Help, Incendies, In the Land of Blood and Honey, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Peep World, Romantics Anonymous, Submarine, Thor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Turn Me On Goddamit, Warrior, When We Leave, The Whistleblower, Win Win, Young Adult

Runners-up:
Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)
Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In)
Michael Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Stephen Daldry (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)
Martin Scorsese (Hugo)

The winner:
Susanne Bier (In a Better World) crafted a magnificently interesting, awe-inspiring, and layered portrait of dysfunctional families and children.

Other nominees:
Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) created a highly stylized and captivating vision of crime. Mike Mills (Beginners) told a marvelous and beautiful story with grace and kindness. Steve McQueen (Shame) followed a theoretically despicable protagonist and turned him into a compelling and immensely watchable character. Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) captured one man’s inner battle with his own sanity with masterful visuals.