While “The King’s Speech” is the top choice of our panel of pundits to win Best Picture at the Oscars, David Fincher, the helmer of second-place “The Social Network,” is the clear frontrunner for Best Director. Of our 16 experts who weighed in on this race, 10 of them predict Fincher to win his first Oscar on Feb. 27. “The King’s Speech” director Hooper is the top choice of only three of the experts while Darren Aronosky (“Black Swan”) picks up two votes and Christopher Nolan (“Inception”) one.
Gold Derby received predictions for this category from: Thelma Adams (Us Weekly, Thelmadams.com), Lane Brown (New York Magazine Vulture), Scott Feinberg (ScottFeinberg.com), Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood), Dave Karger (Entertainment Weekly), Kevin Lewin (WENN), Michael Musto (Village Voice), Tom O’Neil (Gold Derby, L.A. Times The Envelope), Steve Pond (TheWrap), Paul Sheehan (Gold Derby), Keith Simanton (IMDB), Sasha Stone (AwardsDaily), Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood, Indie Wire), Bob Tourtellotte (Reuters), Chuck Walton (Fandango), and Susan Wloszczyna (USA Today). These breakdown as follows:
David Fincher, “The Social Network” — Brown, Feinberg, Hammond, Karger, O’Neil, Pond, Stone, Thompson, Tourtellotte, Walton
Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech” — Musto, Sheehan, Wloszczyna
Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan” — Adams, Simanton
Christopher Nolan, “Inception” — Lewin
