Reflecting his longevity as a titan in the film industry, Steven Spielberg set an Oscars record today as the first person to earn Best Director nominations across six decades. The filmmaker picked up his eighth nod in the category thanks to West Side Story, which netted a total of seven nominations for this year’s awards.
The nomination allowed Spielberg to break a tie with fellow prolific filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who has earned nods in the category across five decades. Thus far, Spielberg has won two Best Director trophies: one in 1994 for Schindler’s List and the other for Saving Private Ryan in 1999. He has also been nominated for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1983), Munich (2006), and Lincoln (2013).
During the ceremony on Sunday, March 27th, Spielberg will go up against a competitive field made up of Kenneth Branagh (Belfast), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car), Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza), and Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog). See the full list of 2022 Oscar nominees here.
In her West Side Story review, Consequence Senior Entertainment Editor Liz Shannon Miller praised it for being “a technically perfect film.” She elaborated, “Every detail on screen, from the period-accurate production design to the costumes to the choreography and sound design, is flawlessly rendered by some of today’s best artisans, and regular Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kamiński’s cinematography is unmatched, using the full frame at all times, playing with depth of field and brilliant lighting choices in ways that only enhance the cast’s brilliant performances.”
