Kevin Smith On Ben Affleck's Oscar Snub

After the nominees were announced for the 85th annual Academy Awards this morning, there seem to be two big topics of conversation. One is that The Dark Knight Rises didn't receive a single nomination despite an aggressive promotional campaign by Warner Bros, and two is that Ben Affleck didn't receive a Best Director nomination for Argo. Comic Book Men's Kevin Smith, who is a friend of Ben Affleck and has directed him in a couple of movies, weighed in via Twitter with his thoughts. For his first tweet on the matter, Kevin Smith wrote, "So... ARGO directed itself?! For what it's worth, @BenAffleck, this ol' movie-maker still thinks you're one of the Best Directors of 2012..." Later, Kevin Smith added, "Remember, @BenAffleck: When DRIVING MISS DAISY won Best Picture, its director Bruce Beresford wasn't nominated either. #ArgoWillWinTheOscar" However, as Kevin Smith's followers weighed in with tweets of anger against the Academy, he pointed out that it wasn't the Academy that snubbed Ben Affleck. Smith wrote, "The Academy didn't snub Ben with no Best Director nod for ARGO: the directors who make up the Director's Branch didn't nominate him enough." Some discussion has also arisen over if directors tend to snub actors-turned-directors, but Kevin Smith pointed out that Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, and Clint Eastwood all won Academy Awards for Best Director.