After becoming the 13th person to win two Directors Guild of America Awards, Alfonso Cuaron is poised to join an even more exclusive group: two-time Best Director BAFTA winners.
The “Roma” director is our odds-on favorite to take home the prize at Sunday’s ceremony, with 31/10 odds over Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite”), Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”), Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”) and Pawel Pawlikowski (“Cold War”). He previously won for his direction of “Gravity” (2013), for which he also won the Oscar.
Only eight people have double Best Director BAFTA Awards, the most wins in the category. The most recent to join this club was Joel Coen, who took home his second statuette for “No Country for Old Men” (2007) to go with his win for “Fargo” (1996). (His brother Ethan Coen co-directed “No Country for Old Men,” but Joel helmed “Fargo” solo.)
SEE DGA Awards: Complete winners list in all 11 categories
None of the eight two-time champs have gone on to win the Oscar for both films. Five have gone 1 for 2, while three went 0 for 2. Alan Parker received BAFTAs for “Midnight Express” (1978) and “The Commitments” (1991), but wasn’t nominated for the latter at the Oscars. Same for Louis Malle with “Au revoir les enfants” (1988), who also won the BAFTA for “Atlantic City” (1981), which yielded his sole Oscar bid. Peter Weir earned Oscar nominations for both of his BAFTA winners, “The Truman Show” (1998) and “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003), but lost to Steven Spielberg (“Saving Private Ryan”) and Peter Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”), respectively.
All this to say, given Cuaron’s utter domination of the director race this season, he could be the first person to translate his two BAFTA wins into Oscar wins. Unsurprisingly, he’s way out front in our Oscar odds as well.
Here are the two-time Best Director BAFTA winners (*** denotes Best Director Oscar win).
1. John Schlesinger, “Midnight Cowboy” (1969)***, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1971)
2. Roman Polanski, “Chinatown” (1974), “The Pianist” (2002)***
3. Woody Allen, “Annie Hall” (1977)***, “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986)
4. Alan Parker, “Midnight Express” (1978), “The Commitments” (1991)
5. Louis Malle, “Atlantic City” (1981), “Au revoir les enfants” (1988)
6. Joel Coen, “Fargo” (1996), “No Country for Old Men” (2007, shared with Ethan Coen)***
7. Peter Weir, “The Truman Show” (1998), “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003)
8. Ang Lee, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), “Brokeback Mountain” (2005)***
PREDICT the BAFTA Awards now; change them until February 10
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