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Oscar pundits say movies like ARGO that get a best picture nomination, but no directing nod, are films that directed themselves.

In the case of ARGO, which premiered Aug. 31, 2012 at the Telluride Film Festival, the directors branch snub of Ben Affleck remains one of Oscar’s nastiest insults ever.

ARGO, from Warner Bros. & Smokehouse Pictures, was Oscar’s first best picture winner in seven years to not also win for directing. The last one was CRASH in ’06, but that was a very different story. Its director, Paul Haggis (RED HOT), got a directing nod, but then lost. Affleck didn’t even get into the race. ARGO was the first best picture winner in 23 years not to have received a directing nom. The previous one was DRIVING MISS DAISY, which won in 1990 and had nine noms — but nothing for director Bruce Beresford (BREAKER MORANT).

DAISY differed from ARGO in that it did have lead acting nods for Morgan Freeman and for Jessica Tandy, who won. ARGO didn’t have a lead actress, but it did have a lead actor around whom the entire film revolved  — Affleck, who also produced it with George Clooney & Grant Heslov. And that made ARGO Oscar’s first best picture winner without a directing or lead acting nom since GRAND HOTEL won best picture in 1932.

Nonetheless, ARGO did get seven Academy noms and won for picture, adapted screenplay & film editing. Media coverage at the time focused on Affleck’s snub by the directors’ branch. The branch members were mainly top Hollywood directors, an older and very elite group. Affleck was best known then as an actor although he’d made his directorial debut in ’07 with GONE BABY GONE. Those Oscar branchers may have been offended that a young actor could just walk in and take home a directing Oscar.

Perhaps, they also didn’t appreciate ARGO’s joke when Affleck (as CIA agent Tony Mendez) asks John Goodman (as makeup artist John Chambers) if you can teach someone to direct in just one day. “You can teach a rhesus monkey to be a director in a day,” is his quick reply as the camera reveals a stunned looking Affleck.

Other major awards groups, however, were happy to applaud Affleck’s directing, including BAFTA, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes & Directors Guild of America.

Despite much speculation, it’s still unclear why Academy directors didn’t, at least, nominate Affleck. If Affleck was hurt by their snub, he never said so. He joked that it didn’t bother him since he’d also been snubbed by his colleagues in the actors’ branch.

Critics, however, were great fans of Affleck & ARGO. Rotten Tomatoes critics are Certified Fresh at 96%. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times,  with four out of four stars, wrote: “It is so easy to manufacture a thriller from chases and gunfire, and so very hard to fine-tune it out of exquisite timing…”