Countdown to the Academy Awards: Who will get the Oscar for Best Director? (With Poll)

[Programming Note: The 82nd Annual Academy Awards telecast is this Sun., March 7 at 8 p.m. and Movies & TV Editor Joe Bardi will be live-blogging the event. Come share your thoughts and help Joe celebrate the movies by mercilessly picking on people much more famous and good-looking than he is.]

Yesterday I covered the race for Best Actor in a Lead Role, picking Crazy Heart's Jeff Bridges as the likely winner. (Check out the full list of Oscar hopefuls here.) Today, we turn our attention to the one category where some history could be made. Which auteur is about to cast Oscar in a lead role in their next opus? Check out my breakdown of the race after the break, and then vote for your favorite in our online poll.

And the nominees are:

This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.