Traffic explores the business behind drug trafficking and the futile war fought against it. The character-driven drama is told through three overlapping stories from the Mexican drug cartels to the American users in suburbia. Michael Douglas stars as the new U.S. drug czar fighting the war on drugs politically and at home when his teenage daughter becomes a coke addict. Benicio Del Toro stars a morally ambiguous cop in Tijuana, while Don Cheadle plays a frustrated DEA agent. Catherine Zeta-Jones appears as the wife of an imprisoned trafficker who inherits the family business. Director Steven Soderbergh, who put the ensemble movie together through USA Films, has been named Best Director by National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Broadcast Film Critics Association.

For the full list of Best Director NominOptions, click here.

NominOptions

NominOptions allow traders to buy and sell the hottest Oscar contenders with exclusive securities centered around the 73rd Academy Awards. The leading contenders for nominations are being offered in the eight major award categories.

Thirteen HSX NominOptions will be issued in each of the eight major categories beginning Jan. 18. Each NominOption is offered at H$2.50. The NominOptions will halt trading at 11 p.m. PST on Monday, Feb. 12, in preparation for Tuesday, Feb. 13, when Oscar nominations will be announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Each option of a nominated film or star will cash out at H$6.50, while those NominOptions failing to secure a nomination will delist at H$0.00.