Directing is an all-encompassing job, requiring a painter’s eye, a psychologist’s understanding of people, a juggler’s coordination and a general’s big-picture focus.

As many responsibilities were undoubtedly shared behind the scenes by the five filmmakers honored with Oscar nominations this year for directing — Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”), Sean Baker (“Anora”), Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”), Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”) and James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”) — each brings something unique that sets them apart from their competitors.

For Baker, it’s controlled chaos. The impact of “Anora” relies upon the efficacy, and appeal, of a frantic, discombobulating narrative in which the film’s namesake sex worker (played by Mikey Madison) finds herself an unwitting tour guide through New York’s Brighton Beach neighborhood to locate Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the overprivileged son of a Russian oligarch with whom she eloped. In another filmmaker’s hands she might simply seem vulnerable,...