Newbie directors

The 2010 Oscar nominations boast plenty of first-timers, ranging from 80-year-old veteran Christopher Plummer to Gabourey Sidibe making her acting debut. Most striking: Three of the four acting categories boast a nominee working with a first-time director -- Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart,” Woody Harrelson in Oren Moverman’s “The Messenger” and Colin Firth in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man.”

Each movie represented a personal mission for the filmmakers. Here’s how they were rewarded for their passion.

-- Glenn Whipp

‘A SINGLE MAN’ with singular determination

Fashion designer Tom Ford quit his job as Gucci creative director in 2004, announcing that he planned to go into movies. He bought the rights to Christopher Isherwood’s novel “A Single Man” in 2006, burned through 15 drafts finishing the script and then, after his investors bailed, sank $7 million of his own money into the production.

“When I work on something, it’s a personal expression,” Ford says. “Using my own money gave me complete creative control.”

Ford says the story of George, the middle-aged gay man dealing with grief and mortality played by lead actor nominee Firth, contains many autobiographical elements, right down to the way George’s preparation for suicide mimics the manner a relative of his actually died. All the artwork and furniture seen in George’s house came from Ford’s own Neutra-designed L.A. home.

“Everything from the nail brush to the family photos are mine,” Ford says. “It came from budget necessity, but it’s also the way I am. This movie came from a deep place within me.”

‘CRAZY HEART’ grows from strong musical roots

Writer-director Scott Cooper had a very specific music mix in mind when he created country singer Bad Blake, a blend born from a childhood going to bluegrass festivals with his parents and listening to Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley on the radio.

Remembers Cooper: “I told Jeff [Bridges] that Bad is Kris Kristofferson, handsome and charismatic. He’s Waylon Jennings, with the vest and the sweat, haunting the stage behind those aviator shades. And he’s Townes Van Zandt and Billy Joe Shaver, anti-establishment musicians that didn’t care if they were playing for two people or 2,000 . . . “

Cooper speaks of these musicians with reverence and affection. He wrote “Crazy Heart” after a fruitless bid to secure the rights to make a movie about country legend Merle Haggard. And though Cooper says his tastes run more now toward jazz, the type of country blues that T-Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton created for his movie runs deep in his veins.

Of all the accolades the film has received, Cooper cherishes the praise from his family the most. At his request, 20th Century Fox sent a print to Cooper’s Virginia hometown so his parents and “170 of their closest friends” could watch the movie.

“What a feeling when your parents are as proud of you as they are now,” Cooper says, “and to direct a movie about something that was so much a part of our lives growing up.”

What’s remarkable, says supporting actress nominee Gyllenhaal, is that Cooper’s connection to the material never prevented his actors from changing it.

“A lot of first-time directors decide before you get there what the scenes are going to be about,” Gyllenhaal says. “But Scott just let the scenes roll. Jeff and I never played the scenes the same way twice -- ever.”

Cooper says his harshest critic thinks Bridges succeeded. “My 89-year-old grandmother told me, ‘Scott, I’ve seen a lot of drunks, and I don’t know anybody who could have played one as well as Jeff Bridges.’ ”

‘THE MESSENGER’ brings news that must be delivered but is hard to live with

Oren Moverman co-wrote “The Messenger” with Alessandro Camon in 2007, then shot it as his directorial debut and spent the following year promoting it.

“It’s been an enormous privilege, on one level,” Moverman says. “But also, it’s meant living with the tough themes of the movie. . . . For me, living with death and hearing . . . stories about it has made life a little clearer.”

Moverman and Camon hit on the film’s idea during a conversation about politics and war. The Israeli-born Moverman and Italian-born Camon were baffled by the Pentagon policy prohibiting media coverage of the return of soldiers’ remains. Camon thought a film about casualty notification officers would be a way to explore the cost of war and the more universal themes of death and grief. Moverman was struck by the contradictions inherent in the notifying team’s task.

“They’re trained for war, and now they’re in a situation that’s all about emotions.”

Adds supporting actor nominee Harrelson: “There’s a profound patriotism to these people that’s beyond anything I could imagine.”

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