Beverly Hills (California), Feb 09: Legendary US filmmaker Martin Scorsese, nominated for a best directing Oscar for "The Aviator," has said he was glad never to have won one of cinema's top honours in the past.
But Scorsese, 62, always the bridesmaid and never the bride at the Academy Awards despite four previous Best Director nods and two for Best Adapted Screenplay, said he would be thrilled to win a statuette at long last.
"It would be wonderful to win, I think," the maker of classics such as "Taxi Driver" (1976) and Goodfellas" (1990) said ahead of the annual Oscar nominees luncheon.
But he added, "It probably is better I didn't win in the '70s or mid-'80s or something. My view on making films is somewhat different in a way, and I think maybe it's something that ... I was not able to handle at the time.
"But I look back and the films that I've made were made without having won a Best Director Oscar, and there's no doubt about it -- that some were harder to make than others.
"Had i gotten an Oscar, maybe I would have gotten maybe an extra two days shooting, maybe a couple, you know what I'm saying?" the wry New Yorker quipped.
The filmmaker said he was hopeful this year that his biopicture of US billionaire Howard Hughes' life, which leads the nominees for the 77th Annual Academy Awards with 11 nods, would win the top prizes.
"But you really have to keep (things) in perspective. To win would be really wonderful. If not, hopefully the picture could garner a few nods which would help the picture," he said adding that winning had its drawbacks.
Bureau Report
