It's time to crown the winner for Best Director at the 2024 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards
2024 has offered a fun variety in theaters this year as each season offered a big movie event of its own that really struck a chord with moviegoers. It's been a year of unique visions making their way to screens, and a year that made competition for the best of the best truly tough. There was something good to see in theaters pretty much every week, and those behind the scenes have been working hard to deliver on their vision as best as they possibly can. With great results for many of the biggest releases, of course.
Looking back on it all, there were a few directors that really stood out from the rest of the pack. Thanks to giant monsters hitting the screen in new ways, musicals coming to life for the first time, sequels telling an even grander part of a long running saga, old heroes uniting for a wild multiverse adventures, and to an on-screen personality that splits herself in two, it's been a fun year for movies and the directors who shared their visions. But there really was only one director who could be crowned as the best of the year.
And the winner for the 2024 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Director is...
Takashi Yamazaki for Godzilla Minus One!
Takashi Yamazaki has had one heck of a 2024. With Toho celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise, fans got to see the very first Godzilla film of the Reiwa era. Godzilla Mins One was a major makeover that imagined a Godzilla that had attacked Japan shortly after World War II. It was a highly emotional and impacting film, and ultimately has gone on to be one of the most critically and commercially successful films in the entire history of the Godzilla franchise. And that success would not have been possible without writer and director Takashi Yamazaki.
Through interviews from before and after the release of Godzilla Minus One, it was clear that Yamazaki had nothing but love and respect for the Godzilla franchise. This was already evident by the story the film was telling, but it became even more clear in how well fans have received the film since it first hit theaters. It was such a success that it earned the first Academy Award win in Godzilla's history, and even enjoyed multiple runs in theaters with two different versions of the film (with the Black and White one showing off more of Yamazaki's directorial eye).
It was an incredibly competitive year with lots of very successful directors, but even with all of the new faces, Yamazaki's work still had left so much impact with fans that we're still thinking about Godzilla Minus One all this time later. It didn't quite release on time for Yamazaki to get recognized for his directorial efforts with the 2023 ComicBook Golden Issue Awards, but now we're here to give it its proper due with the 2024 ComicBook Golden Issue Awards.
The nominees for the 2024 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Director are...