By significance, quality, timelessness, etc...

Best Picture

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Clean sweep. The most successful franchise in AMPAS history. First fantasy win. Top box office.

2. Chicago

First musical to win BP in 35 years. Kicked off a wave of musicals (with help from Moulin Rouge!)

3. Slumdog Millionaire

Won 8 out of 10 Oscars. All Indian cast. No nominated actors. Hard to argue its success. Time will tell if its remembered.

4. Gladiator

Summer release, sword and sandal epic. Kicked off a wave of big budget historical based Oscar hopefuls but as of yet, all pretenders to the throne.

5. The Departed

Perfect blend of art and commerce.

6. Million Dollar Baby

Eastwood and Haggis and the Oscar season haven't been the same since.

7. No Country for Old Men

Violent, gritty, proved you don't have to compromise to win Best Picture.

8. Crash

Famous for its infamy.

9. American Beauty

Alabtross for Mendes and Spacey and pretty much everyone involved.

10. A Beautiful Mind

Meaningless win.

Best Director

1. Peter Jackson

No one has reaped the benefits of a Best Director win as much as PJ. And he earned it.

2. Martin Scorsese

Seemingly endless nominations and finally a big win.

3. Clint Eastwood

You can't fight the Clint. Don't even try.

4. The Coen Brothers

After years of love from die-hard fans and critics, they win big.

5. Steven Soderbergh

A double nominee in the year of his win.

6. Ang Lee

A watershed moment in Best Director history.

7. Sam Mendes

Albatross.

8. Danny Boyle

Too soon to tell what this win means.

9. Ron Howard

Meaningless.

10. Roman Polanski

More of a career achievement Oscar than anything.

On a timelessness basis, I would argue that Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, and Chicago have aged better than everything else you've mentioned. Maybe it's cuz they're older...idk.

I certainly hear more about Crash than ROTK or The Departed, but that could be academia in play (same with A Beautiful Mind).

I actually think M$B is the least memorable of the BP winners. Has anyone here watched M$B in the last two years? Didn't think so.

As far as director goes...

Soderbergh belongs with Polanski, really. After Solaris bombed, he found a place with Oceans 11 sequels and HDNet concepts. He's a non-player in future Oscar races (if the botched Che release says anything...Del Toro should've been nominated/won).

Scorsese, Lee, Eastwood, Mendes, Howard, Jackson, The Coen Brothers...at least we still consider their films contenders.

ROTK will be #1 from this decade because Lord of the Rings is timeless.

If I were to create a 1-10 ranking on each separate area, the rankings would probably be different Torri. I tried to come to an average.

As for Soderbergh, I think the double nomination for Erin Brockovich and Traffic was enough to keep him out the bottom.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2. The Departed
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Chicago
5. Gladiator
6. American Beauty
7. A Beautiful Mind
8. Million Dollar Baby
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. Crash

1. Peter Jackson
2. Martin Scorsese
3. The Coen Brothers
4. Ron Howard
5. Ang Lee
6. Sam Mendes
7. Steven Soderbergh
8. Clint Eastwood
9. Roman Polanski
10. Danny Boyle

Directors Chip?

In terms of cultural significance:

1. Gladiator
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. Chicago
4. Crash
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. American Beauty
7. The Departed
8. A Beautiful Mind
9. Million Dollar Baby
10. No Country for Old Men

1. Martin Scorsese
2. Clint Eastwood
3. Peter Jackson
4. Ang Lee
5. Steven Soderbergh
6. The Coen Brothers
7. Roman Polanski
8. Ron Howard
9. Danny Boyle
10. Sam Mendes

1. Gladiator

2. No Country for Old Men

3. Slumdog Millionaire

4.The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

5. The Departed

6. American Beauty

7. Million Dollar Baby

8. Chicago

9. A Beautiful Mind

10. Crash

===============================

1. Danny Boyle

2. The Coen Brothers

3. Martin Scorsese

4. Ang Lee

5. Peter Jackson

6. Sam Mendes

7. Steven Soderbergh

8. Clint Eastwood

9. Ron Howard

10. Roman Polanski

Best Picture
01. No Country for Old Men
02. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
03. Slumdog Millionaire
04. American Beauty
05. The Departed
06. Gladiator
07. A Beautiful Mind
08. Million Dollar Baby
09. Chicago
10. Crash

Best Director
01. Roman Polanski
02. The Coen Brothers
03. Peter Jackson
04. Clint Eastwood
05. Martin Scorsese
06. Steven Soderbergh
07. Danny Boyle
08. Sam Mendes
09. Ang Lee
10. Ron Howard

Masterpieces:
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2. No Country For Old Men

Great films that are flawed:
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. American Beauty
5. The Departed

Very good films:
6. Chicago
7. Million Dollar Baby
8. A Beautiful Mind

Decent, but really doesn't age all that well:
9. Gladiator

Terrible for it's prestige, but as regular drama, just silly and overcooked:
10. Crash

Visionary genius:
1. Peter Jackson

Master craftsmen:
2. The Coen Brothers
3. Roman Polanski
4. Ang Lee
5. Danny Boyle

Great work as usual, but he could do this in his sleep:
6. Martin Scorsese

Great work that he's only followed through with once ever since:
7. Sam Mendes

Very talented man, albeit with organization problems:
8. Steven Soderbergh

Great work that elevates an extremely hokey story:
9. Clint Eastwood

Competent craftsman that contributes nothing to his films:
10. Ron Howard

You know, No Country is really the only great film out of the lot.

I consider a "great" film to be a potential masterpiece that has a few glaring flaws. No Country is pretty flawless to me. ROTK had Saruman in the theatrical version, but that's not glaring.

And I still haven't seen Slumdog.

Will report after March 11th.

Good

Chicago
Crash
The Departed


Bad

No Country for Old Men
Gladiator
American Beauty
A Beautiful Mind
Million Dollar Baby
Slumdog Millionaire
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Poor bradley.

You've lost all of your sense!

I want to hug him because of Chicago but ROTK creates feelings of rage. I'm mostly sexually confused over the inclusion of Crash.

There Will Be Blood > No Country For Old Men. But not by much. Can't complain with the last one winning. After all, it could have been JUNO...

Howard is really interesting. He goes back and forth between not caring at all about Oscars and creating the baitiest films possible.

I'm going to get beat up for this but Cinderella Man was really really good.

I remember the studio offering a money back guarantee if you didn't like the film. So sad it didn't go anywhere.

Yeah, you know...it is to the point of me thinking - maybe he doesn't really care and just makes films he likes/wants to make?

I mean he said that one of the reasons to do The Da Vinci Code was spending lots of time in Paris and shootng inside of the Louvre (because judging by the boring film, the story couldn't have been the reason).

I keep going back and forth on them. I dunno. I don't love either, but like both a lot and truly appreciate the work that went into them.

However, I am certain on one thing - There Will Be Blood is better-directed.

Eh, that's debatable. The Coens are BRILLIANT at design and tension.

I'm also curious how much say Grazer has over Howard's choices. He allowed The Missing to happen.

Yess...the tension is the reason why NCFOM stayed ahead for me for most of the time. I mean not only is NCFOM is a very good film with some deeper underlying themes - it is also a damn good suspenseful thriller. There Will Be Blood has its slow parts, IMO. Not everything works.

But the first 10-15 minutes, the burning oil, the bowling alley scenes - masterful. I've gotta give it to Anderson here. Also, Bardem was cool and all....but DDL delivered clearly the best performance of 2007, any category.