movieminis

These matchups were vote on by the MovieMinis Staff.

This final four is a bit different than the rest of the brackets. While “Best Superhero Villains” did have subcategories, the entries from each were mixed from the beginning. With “Best Big Budget Directing,” the subcategories were laid out as the four sections of the brackets, so these final four are the winners of their specific subcategories.

In the superhero directing subcategory, Ryan Coogler came out on top for his direction of Black Panther, upsetting Christopher Nolan’s work on The Dark Knight, which many thought deserved a Best Director nomination ten years ago. While there was some heated disagreement among the staff, and while the vote was very tight, it’s difficult to say that Coogler isn’t deserving. He bested both of the Russo brothers outings in the MCU before taking on and taking down Nolan. Ryan Coogler is our official winner of the best superhero directing subcategory.

In the franchise directing subcategory, #1 seed Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King easily beat #2 seed Matt Reeves for War for the Planet of the Apes. As the only person in this bracket to have won the Best Director Oscar — four other contenders (in another subcategory) were nominated — this was expected. Peter Jackson is our official winner of the best franchise directing subcategory.

In the original/prestige/non-franchise studio directing subcategory, George Miller beat Christopher Nolan (Inception) for a second time, after beating Nolan’s Dunkirk direction last round, to earn a spot in the final four. That leaves Nolan, the director with the most entries in this bracket, entirely out of the top four. But it is quite hard to argue against Miller’s efforts for Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the best action films of all time. And after #1 seed David Fincher was knocked out in the first round, Miller was the highest seed left. George Miller is our official winner of the best original/prestige/non-franchise studio directing subcategory. (We know that Mad Max is a franchise, but Fury Road is a slightly separated story, the only film of the series released in the 21st century and more tonally consistent with the entries of the subcategory.)

In the animated directing subcategory, Up stepped forward as the clear favorite. After Pixar dominated the entries with six, it was clear that it was going to come down to a Pixar film. The only question was which one. And after Up beat WALL-E and Toy Story 3 didn’t make it to the Elite Eight, it all seemed wrapped up. Pete Docter and Bob Peterson are our official winners of the best animated directing subcategory.

Now for the fun part, the mixing of the subcategories. Ryan Coogler will have some terribly tough competition in Peter Jackson. And how fun of a matchup is Mad Max: Fury Road vs. Up? We bet you never put those two in the same sentence.

Stay tuned for the round 4 results, which will be posted next week on Friday, April 6!

Featured image via Marvel/New Line Cinema/Pixar/Warner Bros.