MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director normally go hand in hand – why then does Sports Interaction (http://www.sportsinteraction.com) make The King’s Speech favorite for Best Picture, but The Social Network’s David Fincher favorite for Best Director?
The King’s Speech is a 1/5 favorite for Best Picture in the Oscar odds, but its director, Tom Hooper, is 5/4 against for Best Director. David Fincher is a clear 1/2 favorite for Best Director, but his movie The Social Network is second favorite for Best Picture at 7/2. What gives?
The Academy usually makes a strong connection between Best Director and Best Picture, with 59 out of 80 Best Picture winners also winning the Best Director Prize. So why isn’t Hooper favorite for Best Director when The King’s Speech is such a clear favorite for Best Picture?
Frank Doyle, a spokesman for Sports Interaction, suspects a hedge, a classic betting manoeuvre where bettors split their stake money to back two contenders. “I think voters of the Academy will follow a strategy similar to a bettor when a bettor hedges a bet. The King’s Speech is one of these incredibly Oscar-friendly movies, that's very, very hard to object to and very, very easy to like.
“But The Social Network is a movie that documents our times, which is what art is meant to do in the first place. So while The King’s Speech looks likely to win Best Picture, the Academy may wish to acknowledge The Social Network and can do that by making David Fincher Best Director.”
Is that fair? Sure, says Doyle. “It’s fairer than sports. When Green Bay won the Super Bowl, you didn’t see Terry Bradshaw hand the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin anything from Tiffany’s for being such a great coach. Hollywood has little to complain about when compared to the real world of professional sports.”
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