# AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Director

The AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Director is one of the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards presented annually by the AARP since the awards' inception in 2002. The award honors the best director over the age of fifty. The Best Director Award is one of the seven original trophies issued by AARP the Magazine, along with awards for Best Movie for Grownups, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Foreign Film, Best Documentary, and Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up.

## Winners and Nominees

    indicates the winners.

### 2000s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2001 (1st) | Robert Altman | Gosford Park |
| 2001 (1st) | Michael Mann | Ali |
| 2001 (1st) | Ridley Scott | Black Hawk Down |
| 2001 (1st) | Tony Scott | Spy Game |
| 2002 (2nd) | Roman Polanski | The Pianist |
| 2002 (2nd) | Phillip Noyce | Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American |
| 2002 (2nd) | Manoel de Oliveira | I'm Going Home |
| 2002 (2nd) | Martin Scorsese | Gangs of New York |
| 2002 (2nd) | Steven Spielberg | Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can |
| 2003 (3rd) | Joel Schumacher | Phone Booth |
| 2003 (3rd) | Clint Eastwood | Mystic River |
| 2003 (3rd) | Alan Rudolph | The Secret Lives of Dentists |
| 2003 (3rd) | Ridley Scott | Matchstick Men |
| 2003 (3rd) | Jim Sheridan | In America |
| 2004 (4th) | Mike Nichols | Closer |
| 2004 (4th) | Clint Eastwood | Million Dollar Baby |
| 2004 (4th) | Taylor Hackford | Ray |
| 2004 (4th) | Michael Mann | Collateral |
| 2004 (4th) | Martin Scorsese | The Aviator |
| 2004 (4th) | Ousmane Sembène | Moolaadé |
| 2005 (5th) | Steven Spielberg | Munich |
| 2005 (5th) | Woody Allen | Match Point |
| 2005 (5th) | Ron Howard | Cinderella Man |
| 2005 (5th) | Ang Lee | Brokeback Mountain |
| 2005 (5th) | Fernando Meirelles | The Constant Gardener |
| 2006 (6th) | Clint Eastwood | Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima |
| 2006 (6th) | Bill Condon | Dreamgirls |
| 2006 (6th) | Stephen Frears | The Queen |
| 2006 (6th) | Paul Greengrass | United 93 |
| 2006 (6th) | Martin Scorsese | The Departed |
| 2007 (7th) | Tony Gilroy | Michael Clayton |
| 2007 (7th) | Joel and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| 2007 (7th) | Paul Haggis | In the Valley of Elah |
| 2007 (7th) | Mike Nichols | Charlie Wilson's War |
| 2007 (7th) | Julian Schnabel | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly |
| 2008 (8th) | Gus Van Sant | Milk |
| 2008 (8th) | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
| 2008 (8th) | Jonathan Demme | Rachel Getting Married |
| 2008 (8th) | Ron Howard | Frost/Nixon |
| 2008 (8th) | John Patrick Shanley | Doubt |
| 2009 (9th) | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker |
| 2009 (9th) | Lee Daniels | Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire |
| 2009 (9th) | Clint Eastwood | Invictus |
| 2009 (9th) | Nora Ephron | Julie & Julia |
| 2009 (9th) | Rob Marshall | Nine |
| 2009 (9th) | Nancy Meyers | It's Complicated |

### 2010s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2010 (10th) | Danny Boyle | 127 Hours |
| 2010 (10th) | Paul Greengrass | Green Zone |
| 2010 (10th) | Paul Haggis | The Next Three Days |
| 2010 (10th) | Tony Scott | Unstoppable |
| 2010 (10th) | John Wells | The Company Men |
| 2011 (11th) | Stephen Daldry | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close |
| 2011 (11th) | Woody Allen | Midnight in Paris |
| 2011 (11th) | George Clooney | The Ides of March |
| 2011 (11th) | Cameron Crowe | We Bought a Zoo |
| 2011 (11th) | Terrence Malick | The Tree of Life |
| 2011 (11th) | Martin Scorsese | Hugo |
| 2012 (12th) | Steven Spielberg | Lincoln |
| 2012 (12th) | Kathryn Bigelow | Zero Dark Thirty |
| 2012 (12th) | Ang Lee | Life of Pi |
| 2012 (12th) | David O. Russell | Silver Linings Playbook |
| 2012 (12th) | Gus Van Sant | Promised Land |
| 2013 (13th) | Alfonso Cuarón | Gravity |
| 2013 (13th) | J.C. Chandor | All Is Lost |
| 2013 (13th) | Stephen Frears | Philomena |
| 2013 (13th) | Paul Greengrass | Captain Phillips |
| 2013 (13th) | Nicole Holofcener | Enough Said |
| 2014 (14th) | Richard Linklater | Boyhood |
| 2014 (14th) | Clint Eastwood | American Sniper |
| 2014 (14th) | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) |
| 2014 (14th) | James Marsh | The Theory of Everything |
| 2014 (14th) | Ira Sachs | Love is Strange |
| 2015 (15th) | Ridley Scott | The Martian |
| 2015 (15th) | Todd Haynes | Carol |
| 2015 (15th) | Alejandro González Iñárritu | The Revenant |
| 2015 (15th) | David O. Russell | Joy |
| 2015 (15th) | Steven Spielberg | Bridge of Spies |
| 2016 (16th) | Kenneth Lonergan | Manchester by the Sea |
| 2016 (16th) | Clint Eastwood | Sully |
| 2016 (16th) | David Mackenzie | Hell or High Water |
| 2016 (16th) | Martin Scorsese | Silence |
| 2016 (16th) | Denzel Washington | Fences |
| 2017 (17th) | Guillermo del Toro | The Shape of Water |
| 2017 (17th) | Kenneth Branagh | Murder on the Orient Express |
| 2017 (17th) | Reginald Hudlin | Marshall |
| 2017 (17th) | Ridley Scott | All the Money in the World |
| 2017 (17th) | Steven Spielberg | The Post |
| 2018 (18th) | Spike Lee | BlacKkKlansman |
| 2018 (18th) | Kenneth Branagh | All is True |
| 2018 (18th) | Alfonso Cuaron | Roma |
| 2018 (18th) | Peter Farrelly | Green Book |
| 2018 (18th) | Mimi Leder | On the Basis of Sex |
| 2019 (19th) | Martin Scorsese | The Irishman |
| 2019 (19th) | Noah Baumbach | Marriage Story |
| 2019 (19th) | Fernando Meirelles | The Two Popes |
| 2019 (19th) | Sam Mendes | 1917 |
| 2019 (19th) | Quentin Tarantino | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |

### 2020s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Aaron Sorkin | The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Lee Daniels | The United States vs. Billie Holiday |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Regina King | One Night in Miami... |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Spike Lee | Da 5 Bloods |
| 2020/21 (20th) | George C. Wolfe | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
| 2021 (21st) | Jane Campion | The Power of the Dog |
| 2021 (21st) | Kenneth Branagh | Belfast |
| 2021 (21st) | Guillermo del Toro | Nightmare Alley |
| 2021 (21st) | Steven Spielberg | West Side Story |
| 2021 (21st) | Denis Villeneuve | Dune |
| 2022 (22nd) | Baz Luhrmann | Elvis |
| 2022 (22nd) | James Cameron | Avatar: The Way of Water |
| 2022 (22nd) | Todd Field | TÁR |
| 2022 (22nd) | Gina Prince-Bythewood | The Woman King |
| 2022 (22nd) | Steven Spielberg | The Fabelmans |
| 2023 (23rd) | Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer |
| 2023 (23rd) | Ben Affleck | Air |
| 2023 (23rd) | Michael Mann | Ferrari |
| 2023 (23rd) | Alexander Payne | The Holdovers |
| 2023 (23rd) | Martin Scorsese | Killers of the Flower Moon |
| 2024 (24th) | Jacques Audiard | Emilia Pérez |
| 2024 (24th) | Pedro Almodóvar | The Room Next Door |
| 2024 (24th) | Edward Berger | Conclave |
| 2024 (24th) | James Mangold | A Complete Unknown |
| 2024 (24th) | Ridley Scott | Gladiator II |