Best Director

Steven Spielberg: Karen Ballard

Steven Spielberg

Light and loose. These aren't words that leap to mind when thinking about one of history's great tragedies. But that's how Eric Bana remembers some days on the set of Munich, Steven Spielberg's taut thriller about the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the Israeli-ordered assassinations that followed. ''I think Steven realized that this was such a pressure cooker that there was no way [we] could have survived without humor,'' says Bana, who plays a stoic Israeli soldier dispatched to kill the Arabs deemed responsible for the massacre. ''We had plenty of Naked Gun moments.'' After Spielberg learned that costar Daniel Craig had been chosen as the next James Bond, the actor was serenaded with the infamous theme music in the middle of a scene. ''He likes to keep everybody on their toes,'' says Craig, ''and I think that kind of pays off in the result.''

Keeping the cast and crew sharp yet upbeat was just part of the balancing act for Spielberg, 59, who has three Academy Awards at home (for directing and producing 1993's Schindler's List, and for directing 1998's Saving Private Ryan). Munich manages to be as thrilling as Spielberg's other '05 directorial contribution — featuring a certain springy Scientologist — while remaining grounded in real, polarizing events and the requisite philosophical questions about murder and justice. The movie was shot in glamorous locations like Paris and Malta, but the look is gritty and kinetic to capture the era it depicts. The performances, though compelling, are naturalistic and refreshingly spare.

Bana lovingly calls Spielberg a ''freak'' — the ambitious film was shot in just three months. ''There's no other word for him.'' Here's a few: How about three-time winner of a Best Director Oscar?