# Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Director

The Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Director is an annual award given by the Detroit Film Critics Society to honor the best director of that year.

## Winners

    indicates the winners.

### 2000s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2007 | Joel and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| 2007 | Paul Thomas Anderson | There Will Be Blood |
| 2007 | Tim Burton | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
| 2007 | Sean Penn | Into the Wild |
| 2007 | Jason Reitman | Juno |
| 2007 | Julian Schnabel | Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) |
| 2008 | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
| 2008 | Darren Aronofsky | The Wrestler |
| 2008 | Ron Howard | Frost/Nixon |
| 2008 | Christopher Nolan | The Dark Knight |
| 2008 | Andrew Stanton | WALL-E |
| 2009 | Pete Docter | Up |
| 2009 | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker |
| 2009 | Jason Reitman | Up in the Air |
| 2009 | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds |
| 2009 | Marc Webb | (500) Days of Summer |

### 2010s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2010 | Danny Boyle | 127 Hours |
| 2010 | David Fincher | The Social Network |
| 2010 | Debra Granik | Winter's Bone |
| 2010 | Tom Hooper | The King's Speech |
| 2010 | Christopher Nolan | Inception |
| 2010 | Edgar Wright | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World |
| 2011 | Michel Hazanavicius | The Artist |
| 2011 | Terrence Malick | The Tree of Life |
| 2011 | Jeff Nichols | Take Shelter |
| 2011 | Martin Scorsese | Hugo |
| 2011 | Nicolas Winding Refn | Drive |
| 2012 | David O. Russell | Silver Linings Playbook |
| 2012 | Ben Affleck | Argo |
| 2012 | Juan Antonio Bayona | The Impossible |
| 2012 | Kathryn Bigelow | Zero Dark Thirty |
| 2012 | Sarah Polley | Take This Waltz |
| 2013 | Alfonso Cuarón | Gravity |
| 2013 | David O. Russell | American Hustle |
| 2013 | Martin Scorsese | The Wolf of Wall Street |
| 2013 | Paul Greengrass | Captain Phillips |
| 2013 | Spike Jonze | Her |
| 2014 | Richard Linklater | Boyhood |
| 2014 | Wes Anderson | The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2014 | Damien Chazelle | Whiplash |
| 2014 | Jonathan Glazer | Under the Skin |
| 2014 | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) |
| 2015 | George Miller | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| 2015 | John Crowley | Brooklyn |
| 2015 | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | The Revenant |
| 2015 | Tom McCarthy | Spotlight |
| 2015 | Paolo Sorrentino | Youth |
| 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 | Denzel Washington | Fences |
| 2017 | Sean Baker | The Florida Project |
| 2017 | Paul Thomas Anderson | Phantom Thread |
| 2017 | Guillermo del Toro | The Shape of Water |
| 2017 | Greta Gerwig | Lady Bird |
| 2017 | Christopher Nolan | Dunkirk |
| 2017 | Jordan Peele | Get Out |
| 2018 | Adam McKay | Vice |
| 2018 | Bo Burnham | Eighth Grade |
| 2018 | Bradley Cooper | A Star is Born |
| 2018 | Alfonso Cuarón | Roma |
| 2018 | Paul Schrader | First Reformed |
| 2019 | Martin Scorsese | The Irishman |
| 2019 | Noah Baumbach | Marriage Story |
| 2019 | Bong Joon-ho | Parasite |
| 2019 | Quentin Tarantino | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |
| 2019 | Taika Waititi | Jojo Rabbit |

### 2020s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2020 | Chloé Zhao | Nomadland |
| 2020 | Lee Isaac Chung | Minari |
| 2020 | Regina King | One Night in Miami... |
| 2020 | Aaron Sorkin | The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
| 2020 | Spike Lee | Da 5 Bloods |
| 2021 | Lin-Manuel Miranda | tick, tick…BOOM! |
| 2021 | Sean Baker | Red Rocket |
| 2021 | Kenneth Branagh | Belfast |
| 2021 | David Lowery | The Green Knight |
| 2021 | Adam McKay | Don't Look Up |