According to Rope of Silicon‘s Brad Brevet, the five likeliest nominees for Best Director are The Artist‘s Michel Hazanavicius (but of course! obvious front-runner!), Hugo‘s Martin Scorsese (a pass to Brother Marty for indulging himself to the tune of 127 minutes and $175 million), War Horse‘s Steven Spielberg, The DescendantsAlexander Payne (deserved) and Midnight in Paris‘s Woody Allen.

I not only disagree — I strenuously object. But what’s the point of repeating myself? The top three slots belong to Moneyball‘s Bennett Miller, Payne and (I don’t care about any eligibility roadblocks) A Separation‘s Asghar Farhadi.