# Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Director

The Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Director is an annual award given by the Houston Film Critics Society.

## Winners
### 2000s

| Year | Winner and nominees | Film |
| 2007 | Tim Burton | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
| 2007 | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| 2007 | Sidney Lumet | Before the Devil Knows You're Dead |
| 2007 | Sean Penn | Into the Wild |
| 2008 | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
| 2008 | David Fincher | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
| 2008 | Ron Howard | Frost/Nixon |
| 2008 | Christopher Nolan | The Dark Knight |
| 2008 | Gus Van Sant | Milk |
| 2009 | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker |
| 2009 | James Cameron | Avatar |
| 2009 | Lee Daniels | Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire |
| 2009 | Clint Eastwood | Invictus |
| 2009 | Jason Reitman | Up in the Air |
| 2009 | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds |

### 2010s

| Year | Winner and nominees | Film |
| 2010 | David Fincher | The Social Network |
| 2010 | Darren Aronofsky | Black Swan |
| 2010 | Danny Boyle | 127 Hours |
| 2010 | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | True Grit |
| 2010 | Christopher Nolan | Inception |
| 2011 | Nicolas Winding Refn | Drive |
| 2011 | Woody Allen | Midnight in Paris |
| 2011 | Michel Hazanavicius | The Artist |
| 2011 | Terrence Malick | The Tree of Life |
| 2011 | Alexander Payne | The Descendants |
| 2012 | Ben Affleck | Argo |
| 2012 | Kathryn Bigelow | Zero Dark Thirty |
| 2012 | Tom Hooper | Les Misérables |
| 2012 | Steven Spielberg | Lincoln |
| 2012 | Quentin Tarantino | Django Unchained |
| 2013 | Alfonso Cuarón | Gravity |
| 2013 | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | Inside Llewyn Davis |
| 2013 | Paul Greengrass | Captain Phillips |
| 2013 | Steve McQueen | 12 Years a Slave |
| 2013 | Alexander Payne | Nebraska |
| 2014 | Richard Linklater | Boyhood |
| 2014 | Paul Thomas Anderson | Inherent Vice |
| 2014 | Wes Anderson | The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2014 | Damien Chazelle | Whiplash |
| 2014 | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Birdman |
| 2015 | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | The Revenant |
| 2015 | Lenny Abrahamson | Room |
| 2015 | Tom McCarthy | Spotlight |
| 2015 | George Miller | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| 2015 | Ridley Scott | The Martian |
| 2016 | Damien Chazelle | La La Land |
| 2016 | Barry Jenkins | Moonlight |
| 2016 | Kenneth Lonergan | Manchester by the Sea |
| 2016 | David Mackenzie | Hell or High Water |
| 2016 | Denis Villeneuve | Arrival |
| 2017 | Greta Gerwig | Lady Bird |
| 2017 | Guillermo del Toro | The Shape of Water |
| 2017 | Christopher Nolan | Dunkirk |
| 2017 | Jordan Peele | Get Out |
| 2017 | Steven Spielberg | The Post |
| 2018 | Alfonso Cuarón | Roma |
| 2018 | Bradley Cooper | A Star Is Born |
| 2018 | Barry Jenkins | If Beale Street Could Talk |
| 2018 | Yorgos Lanthimos | The Favourite |
| 2018 | Adam McKay | Vice |
| 2019 | Bong Joon-ho | Parasite |
| 2019 | Sam Mendes | 1917 |
| 2019 | Martin Scorsese | The Irishman |
| 2019 | Quentin Tarantino | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |
| 2019 | Lulu Wang | The Farewell |

### 2020s

| Year | Winner and nominees | Film |
| 2020 | Chloé Zhao | Nomadland |
| 2020 | Lee Isaac Chung | Minari |
| 2020 | Emerald Fennell | Promising Young Woman |
| 2020 | Regina King | One Night in Miami... |
| 2020 | Darius Marder | Sound of Metal |
| 2020 | Aaron Sorkin | The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
| 2021 | Jane Campion | The Power of the Dog |
| 2021 | Paul Thomas Anderson | Licorice Pizza |
| 2021 | Kenneth Branagh | Belfast |
| 2021 | Guillermo del Toro | Nightmare Alley |
| 2021 | Denis Villeneuve | Dune |
| 2022 | Daniel Kwan Daniel Scheinert | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 2022 | Martin McDonagh | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2022 | Baz Luhrmann | Elvis |
| 2022 | Steven Spielberg | The Fabelmans |
| 2022 | Todd Field | TÁR |
| 2022 | Sarah Polley | Women Talking |
| 2023 | Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer |
| 2023 | Greta Gerwig | Barbie |
| 2023 | Yorgos Lanthimos | Poor Things |
| 2023 | Alexander Payne | The Holdovers |
| 2023 | Martin Scorsese | Killers of the Flower Moon |