The movie Ron Howard desperately wanted an Oscar nomination for directing: “I thought I might sneak in”
Most of the time, the five nominees for ‘Best Director’ at the Academy Awards have helmed one of the ‘Best Picture’ nominees. It doesn’t always work out that way, as Ron Howard knows, but the most disappointing moment of his career wasn’t the first time he’d been left on the outside looking in.
The actor-turned-filmmaker has admitted on numerous occasions that he was crushed at being omitted from the shortlist for Apollo 13, and for good reason. It’s his favourite film that he’s ever made, and it was a ‘Best Picture’ contender, but for whatever reason, the powers-that-be didn’t see fit to include him.
On the plus side, the first time Howard was nominated for his directorial exploits, he claimed a double whammy when A Beautiful Mind won him two Oscars. It took him until his 15th feature to achieve it, and his victory would have made up for the disappointment that had eluded him so far.
However, Apollo 13 wasn’t the first time he felt like he was in with a shot. A decade previously, he’d directed a movie that boasted a 100% success rate at the Oscars after winning both of the prizes it was nominated for, but he’d nonetheless been filled with false hope that he could have had Cocoon aiming for a hat-trick.
For the first time in his career, Howard notched a Directors Guild of America nod for ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures’, and buoyed by his sci-fi dramedy’s enthusiastic reception and strong showing at the box office, he thought he had a decent shot at the biggest ceremony in town.
“I don’t feel like I was robbed or anything,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “But when I got the DGA nomination, I thought I might sneak in. I didn’t, and that was disappointing. I got a kick out of being mentioned in some articles as a candidate.”
Of the five filmmakers shortlisted for the DGA’s top honour that year, only two of them weren’t nominated for ‘Best Director’ at the Oscars. The other one had much more of a bone to pick than Howard, though, since Steven Spielberg won it for The Color Purple but didn’t even notch one of the picture’s 11 unsuccessful Oscar nominations, with the duo being phased out in favour of Ran‘s Akira Kurosawa and Kiss of the Spider Woman‘s Héctor Babenco.
Out of Africa‘s Sydney Pollack was awarded ‘Best Director’ by the Academy, with Witness‘ Peter Weir and Prizzi’s Honor‘s John Huston rounding out the trio of DGA nominees who also made it to the Oscars. Add Kurosawa and Babenco to the mix, and it’s easy to see why the guy who’d overseen a schmaltzy tale that was equal parts sentimental and supernatural didn’t make the cut, especially when Spielberg didn’t get a look-in, either.
In the end, Howard would have to wait another 16 years until he could call himself an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, which was worth it when he was able to call himself an Oscar-winning filmmaker by the time the show was over.
