2007 Diva Cup Awards: Best Director

And the nominees are...

Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Anderson has massive balls taking an Upton Sinclair novel and ditching the last 2/3 of it to say what he wants to say. The great thing about this move: it works. Brilliantly.
Key Scene: The oil well fire

Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that the Coen Brothers could make a serious, grown-up thriller without their usual shenanigans, and do it better than any of their contemporaries.
Key Scene: The showdown between Anton and Llewelyn

David Fincher, Zodiac
Fincher takes his sweet time showing us everything needed to unravel the case...and it's definitely worth the wait. I've never been more completely engrossed in a 2 1/2 hour film.
Key Scene: The rainy night in the cellar

Sidney Lumet, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Who said that you had to go out quietly in old age? Sidney Lumet, at age 83, has made a thriller not only better than any of the young'n directors, but that also stands among the best in an already accomplished filmography.
Key Scene: The robbery gone wrong.

Joe Wright, Atonement
With Atonement, Wright has made, for the first time in a long, long while, a costume drama that doesn't jerk off in it's own beauty and a romance that actually feels romantic.
Key Scene: The library scene...I was impressed that Wright is more concerned with feeling, allowing the shots to go out of focus with the passion, than he is with the conventions of the British costume picture.

If Only There Were Six: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Utterly brilliant way of turning an uncinematic story into a completely cinematic film.

Rest of the Top 10: Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...Paul Greengrass, The Bourne Ultimatum...Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street...Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz

BRONZE
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

SILVER
Sidney Lumet, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

GOLD
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men