AFT Awards: Best Director

This is the twentieth and final category of the 14th 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. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), Regina King (One Night in Miami), Darius Marder (Sound of Metal), Carlos López Estrada (Summertime), Radha Blank (The 40-Year-Old Version)

Runners-up:
Heidi Ewing (I Carry You with Me)
Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7)
Lawrence Michael Levine (Black Bear)
Edson Oda (Nine Days)
Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings)

The winner:
David Fincher (Mank) guided a marvelously invested and deeply compelling portrait of young Hollywood and all of its complex elements.

Other nominees:
Benh Zeitlin (Wendy)
Robert Machoian (The Killing of Two Lovers)
Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)
Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi)