When Ben Affleck announced he was to try his hand at directing back in 2007 many people laughed at him. Affleck’s movie career had effectively been in decline since he made his name in Good Will Hunting back in 1996. Rather than taking on any roles of any sort of prestige he took any big money film that was chucked at him and ultimately this just left him with a rather poor looking CV.

Then in 2007 Affleck released Gone baby Gone, the tale of two private investigators searching for an abducted 4 year old girl. The movie was a critical smash, earning rave reviews from critics and fans alike and is seen by some as one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time.

Affleck followed this up in 2010 with The Town, a gritty crime movie about a group of bank robbers following a bank job. The movie was a success among critics and it earned Jeremy Renner an academy award nomination for best supporting actor. The movie was also a huge commercial success, flying to the top of the American movie charts and making 23 million dollars in its opening weekend.

So that brings us to now, after two fantastic movies Affleck took to directing again to make his masterpiece, Argo. The movie tells the story of 6 American officials trapped in Iran who’s only option of escape comes in the form of Ben Affleck and his idea of pretending they are a film crew scouting locations in the middle east. The movie has been fantastically received, Roger Ebert tipping it to win best picture at this years academy awards after its success at the Toronto film festival. The movie was voted fan favourite and this is often a pre cursor to the academy awards, the last five years winners have all won the same award.

So will history repeat itself this year and will Argo take home the big prize? It’s certainly a possibility, I saw the movie yesterday and it is one of the best movies that has been released this year. It faces some tough competition but it looks like the front runner as things stand.

If Affleck can win the award and possibly bag himself a golden statue as best director will he finally manage to shake off all those dreadful movies he made during his late acting career and establish himself as one of the greatest directors around today. I, for one think this could well be the case, Affleck is proving himself time and time again when it comes to his movies and I am fascinated as to what he will do next. Affleck has now put himself in the same league as Clooney and Eastwood of former actors who have found amazing success as directors and long may it continue.