From Jordan Peele To Daniels: The Joy Of 'Weird' Directors Getting Oscar Nominations

This year's Oscar nominations are out, and they are both full of surprises and also kind of expected? Sure, some favorite and acclaimed performances and movies got snubbed, and "RRR" got outright done dirty by the Academy, but most of the nominees were movies that critics and experts had called for months as having real shots, from "Elvis," to "Banshees of Inisherin," and Brendan Fraser.

Then there's "Everything Everywhere All At Once," the type of movie many people hoped would get some sort of recognition, but few genuinely believed would get an actual nomination, let alone 11. And yet, the Oscars now have the chance to actually reward the best movie of the year, one that has stunning visuals, a mesmerizing story, one of the best casts of the year, tear-jerking emotional scenes, and also some of the most absurd, cuckoo bananas, ridiculous moments in a film.

With all these nominations, the Academy is finally recognizing what over a billion people have known since March 13, 2014 — that the two dudes who directed the "Turn Down for What" video would one day be nominated for an Oscar.

There is a satisfaction that comes with seeing filmmakers you've followed for a while get mainstream awards season recognition. But there is an even bigger type of joy in seeing filmmakers who started out doing hilariously weird projects get prestigious recognition alongside titans of the industry like Steven Spielberg.

You see, Todd Field and Ruben Östlund started out with gripping independent dramas before their nominations, Martin McDonagh with dramatic stage plays, but out of this year's nominees only Daniels made their feature directorial debut with a movie where Harry Potter played a farting corpse.  

Most award shows are incredibly self-serious affairs, where they (understandably) reward what their voting members consider the best or most "important" movies of the year. Of course, this makes it incredibly amusing where said important films are deemed to be those made not by established filmmakers with a body of serious and lauded work, or even by newcomers who nevertheless managed to make that same type of film, but by filmmakers who made their own type of weird little movies that happened to be universally liked and lauded until they get awards. 

Something similar happened when Jordan Peele got nominated for an Oscar for his work on "Get Out." While the recognition was great and the movie was definitely among the best of the year, it is hilarious that most voters likely only knew the director as the guy from the sketch-comedy show, "Key and Peele." So while acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (who, sure, had made weird movies, but was also already nominated for "Pan's Labyrinth") ended up winning Best Director, only Peele (who still won Best Original Screenplay) can say he played Meegan and Wendell Sanders in "Key and Peele."

Peele may not have gone back to make sketch comedy since he started making feature films, but he has only increased the weirdness of his work since then. Let's hope that if "Everything Everywhere All At Once" ends up taking some awards home, Daniels continue to prove that you can make acclaimed (and financially successful!) movies that win awards yet also feature sausage fingers and Raccacoonie.