# BAFTA Award for Best Direction

The BAFTA Award for Best Direction, formerly known as David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction, is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to a film director for a specific film.
BAFTA is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, and video games (and formerly also for children's film and television). Since 1968, selected films have been awarded with the BAFTA award for Best Direction at an annual ceremony.
In the following lists, the titles and names in bold with a gold background are the winners and recipients respectively; those not in bold are the remaining nominees. The winner is also the first name listed in each category.

## History

The award was originally known as David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction, in honour of British director David Lean.
There are no records showing any nominations, or a winner, for this award at the 39th British Academy Film Awards, presented in 1986 for films released in 1985.

## Winners and nominees
### 1960s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 1968 (22nd) | Mike Nichols | The Graduate |
| 1968 (22nd) | Lindsay Anderson | if.... |
| 1968 (22nd) | Carol Reed | Oliver! |
| 1968 (22nd) | Franco Zeffirelli | Romeo and Juliet |
| 1969 (23rd) | John Schlesinger | Midnight Cowboy |
| 1969 (23rd) | Richard Attenborough | Oh! What a Lovely War |
| 1969 (23rd) | Ken Russell | Women in Love |
| 1969 (23rd) | Peter Yates | Bullitt |

### 1970s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 1970 (24th) | George Roy Hill | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid |
| 1970 (24th) | Robert Altman | M*A*S*H |
| 1970 (24th) | David Lean | Ryan's Daughter |
| 1970 (24th) | Ken Loach | Kes |
| 1971 (25th) | John Schlesinger | Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| 1971 (25th) | Miloš Forman | Taking Off |
| 1971 (25th) | Joseph Losey | The Go-Between |
| 1971 (25th) | Luchino Visconti | Death in Venice |
| 1972 (26th) | Bob Fosse | Cabaret |
| 1972 (26th) | Peter Bogdanovich | The Last Picture Show |
| 1972 (26th) | William Friedkin | The French Connection |
| 1972 (26th) | Stanley Kubrick | A Clockwork Orange |
| 1973 (27th) | François Truffaut | Day for Night |
| 1973 (27th) | Luis Buñuel | The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie |
| 1973 (27th) | Nicolas Roeg | Don't Look Now |
| 1973 (27th) | Fred Zinnemann | The Day of the Jackal |
| 1974 (28th) | Roman Polanski | Chinatown |
| 1974 (28th) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Conversation |
| 1974 (28th) | Sidney Lumet | Murder on the Orient Express Serpico |
| 1974 (28th) | Louis Malle | Lacombe Lucien |
| 1975 (29th) | Stanley Kubrick | Barry Lyndon |
| 1975 (29th) | Sidney Lumet | Dog Day Afternoon |
| 1975 (29th) | Martin Scorsese | Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore |
| 1975 (29th) | Steven Spielberg | Jaws |
| 1976 (30th) | Miloš Forman | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 1976 (30th) | Alan J. Pakula | All the President's Men |
| 1976 (30th) | Alan Parker | Bugsy Malone |
| 1976 (30th) | Martin Scorsese | Taxi Driver |
| 1977 (31st) | Woody Allen | Annie Hall |
| 1977 (31st) | Richard Attenborough | A Bridge Too Far |
| 1977 (31st) | John G. Avildsen | Rocky |
| 1977 (31st) | Sidney Lumet | Network |
| 1978 (32nd) | Alan Parker | Midnight Express |
| 1978 (32nd) | Robert Altman | A Wedding |
| 1978 (32nd) | Steven Spielberg | Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
| 1978 (32nd) | Fred Zinnemann | Julia |
| 1979 (33rd) | Francis Ford Coppola | Apocalypse Now |
| 1979 (33rd) | Woody Allen | Manhattan |
| 1979 (33rd) | Michael Cimino | The Deer Hunter |
| 1979 (33rd) | John Schlesinger | Yanks |

### 1980s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 1980 (34th) | Akira Kurosawa | Kagemusha |
| 1980 (34th) | Robert Benton | Kramer vs. Kramer |
| 1980 (34th) | David Lynch | The Elephant Man |
| 1980 (34th) | Alan Parker | Fame |
| 1981 (35th) | Louis Malle | Atlantic City |
| 1981 (35th) | Bill Forsyth | Gregory's Girl |
| 1981 (35th) | Hugh Hudson | Chariots of Fire |
| 1981 (35th) | Karel Reisz | The French Lieutenant's Woman |
| 1982 (36th) | Richard Attenborough | Gandhi |
| 1982 (36th) | Costa-Gavras | Missing |
| 1982 (36th) | Mark Rydell | On Golden Pond |
| 1982 (36th) | Steven Spielberg | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial |
| 1983 (37th) | Bill Forsyth | Local Hero |
| 1983 (37th) | James Ivory | Heat and Dust |
| 1983 (37th) | Sydney Pollack | Tootsie |
| 1983 (37th) | Martin Scorsese | The King of Comedy |
| 1984 (38th) | Wim Wenders | Paris, Texas |
| 1984 (38th) | Roland Joffé | The Killing Fields |
| 1984 (38th) | Sergio Leone | Once Upon a Time in America |
| 1984 (38th) | Peter Yates | The Dresser |
| 1985 (39th) | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 1986 (40th) | Woody Allen | Hannah and Her Sisters |
| 1986 (40th) | Roland Joffé | The Mission |
| 1986 (40th) | Neil Jordan | Mona Lisa |
| 1986 (40th) | James Ivory | A Room with a View |
| 1987 (41st) | Oliver Stone | Platoon |
| 1987 (41st) | Richard Attenborough | Cry Freedom |
| 1987 (41st) | Claude Berri | Jean de Florette |
| 1987 (41st) | John Boorman | Hope and Glory |
| 1988 (42nd) | Louis Malle | Au revoir les enfants |
| 1988 (42nd) | Gabriel Axel | Babette's Feast |
| 1988 (42nd) | Bernardo Bertolucci | The Last Emperor |
| 1988 (42nd) | Charles Crichton | A Fish Called Wanda |
| 1989 (43rd) | Kenneth Branagh | Henry V |
| 1989 (43rd) | Stephen Frears | Dangerous Liaisons |
| 1989 (43rd) | Alan Parker | Mississippi Burning |
| 1989 (43rd) | Peter Weir | Dead Poets Society |

### 1990s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 1990 (44th) | Martin Scorsese | Goodfellas |
| 1990 (44th) | Woody Allen | Crimes and Misdemeanors |
| 1990 (44th) | Bruce Beresford | Driving Miss Daisy |
| 1990 (44th) | Giuseppe Tornatore | Cinema Paradiso |
| 1991 (45th) | Alan Parker | The Commitments |
| 1991 (45th) | Kevin Costner | Dances with Wolves |
| 1991 (45th) | Jonathan Demme | The Silence of the Lambs |
| 1991 (45th) | Ridley Scott | Thelma & Louise |
| 1992 (46th) | Robert Altman | The Player |
| 1992 (46th) | Clint Eastwood | Unforgiven |
| 1992 (46th) | James Ivory | Howards End |
| 1992 (46th) | Neil Jordan | The Crying Game |
| 1993 (47th) | Steven Spielberg | Schindler's List |
| 1993 (47th) | Richard Attenborough | Shadowlands |
| 1993 (47th) | Jane Campion | The Piano |
| 1993 (47th) | James Ivory | The Remains of the Day |
| 1994 (48th) | Mike Newell | Four Weddings and a Funeral |
| 1994 (48th) | Krzysztof Kieślowski | Three Colours: Red |
| 1994 (48th) | Quentin Tarantino | Pulp Fiction |
| 1994 (48th) | Robert Zemeckis | Forrest Gump |
| 1995 (49th) | Michael Radford | Il Postino: The Postman |
| 1995 (49th) | Mel Gibson | Braveheart |
| 1995 (49th) | Nicholas Hytner | The Madness of King George |
| 1995 (49th) | Ang Lee | Sense and Sensibility |
| 1996 (50th) | Joel Coen | Fargo |
| 1996 (50th) | Scott Hicks | Shine |
| 1996 (50th) | Mike Leigh | Secrets & Lies |
| 1996 (50th) | Anthony Minghella | The English Patient |
| 1997 (51st) | Baz Luhrmann | Romeo + Juliet |
| 1997 (51st) | James Cameron | Titanic |
| 1997 (51st) | Peter Cattaneo | The Full Monty |
| 1997 (51st) | Curtis Hanson | L.A. Confidential |
| 1998 (52nd) | Peter Weir | The Truman Show |
| 1998 (52nd) | Shekhar Kapur | Elizabeth |
| 1998 (52nd) | John Madden | Shakespeare in Love |
| 1998 (52nd) | Steven Spielberg | Saving Private Ryan |
| 1999 (53rd) | Pedro Almodóvar | All About My Mother |
| 1999 (53rd) | Neil Jordan | The End of the Affair |
| 1999 (53rd) | Sam Mendes | American Beauty |
| 1999 (53rd) | Anthony Minghella | The Talented Mr. Ripley |
| 1999 (53rd) | M. Night Shyamalan | The Sixth Sense |

### 2000s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 2000 (54th) | Ang Lee | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon |
| 2000 (54th) | Stephen Daldry | Billy Elliot |
| 2000 (54th) | Ridley Scott | Gladiator |
| 2000 (54th) | Steven Soderbergh | Erin Brockovich |
| 2000 (54th) | Steven Soderbergh | Traffic |
| 2001 (55th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
| 2001 (55th) | Robert Altman | Gosford Park |
| 2001 (55th) | Ron Howard | A Beautiful Mind |
| 2001 (55th) | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Amélie |
| 2001 (55th) | Baz Luhrmann | Moulin Rouge! |
| 2002 (56th) | Roman Polanski | The Pianist |
| 2002 (56th) | Stephen Daldry | The Hours |
| 2002 (56th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
| 2002 (56th) | Rob Marshall | Chicago |
| 2002 (56th) | Martin Scorsese | Gangs of New York |
| 2003 (57th) | Peter Weir | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World |
| 2003 (57th) | Tim Burton | Big Fish |
| 2003 (57th) | Sofia Coppola | Lost in Translation |
| 2003 (57th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2003 (57th) | Anthony Minghella | Cold Mountain |
| 2004 (58th) | Mike Leigh | Vera Drake |
| 2004 (58th) | Marc Forster | Finding Neverland |
| 2004 (58th) | Michel Gondry | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind |
| 2004 (58th) | Michael Mann | Collateral |
| 2004 (58th) | Martin Scorsese | The Aviator |
| 2005 (59th) | Ang Lee | Brokeback Mountain |
| 2005 (59th) | George Clooney | Good Night, and Good Luck |
| 2005 (59th) | Paul Haggis | Crash |
| 2005 (59th) | Fernando Meirelles | The Constant Gardener |
| 2005 (59th) | Bennett Miller | Capote |
| 2006 (60th) | Paul Greengrass | United 93 |
| 2006 (60th) | Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris | Little Miss Sunshine |
| 2006 (60th) | Stephen Frears | The Queen |
| 2006 (60th) | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Babel |
| 2006 (60th) | Martin Scorsese | The Departed |
| 2007 (61st) | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| 2007 (61st) | Paul Thomas Anderson | There Will Be Blood |
| 2007 (61st) | Paul Greengrass | The Bourne Ultimatum |
| 2007 (61st) | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | The Lives of Others |
| 2007 (61st) | Joe Wright | Atonement |
| 2008 (62nd) | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
| 2008 (62nd) | Stephen Daldry | The Reader |
| 2008 (62nd) | Clint Eastwood | Changeling |
| 2008 (62nd) | David Fincher | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
| 2008 (62nd) | Ron Howard | Frost/Nixon |
| 2009 (63rd) | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker |
| 2009 (63rd) | Neill Blomkamp | District 9 |
| 2009 (63rd) | James Cameron | Avatar |
| 2009 (63rd) | Lone Scherfig | An Education |
| 2009 (63rd) | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds |

### 2010s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 2010 (64th) | David Fincher | The Social Network |
| 2010 (64th) | Darren Aronofsky | Black Swan |
| 2010 (64th) | Danny Boyle | 127 Hours |
| 2010 (64th) | Tom Hooper | The King's Speech |
| 2010 (64th) | Christopher Nolan | Inception |
| 2011 (65th) | Michel Hazanavicius | The Artist |
| 2011 (65th) | Tomas Alfredson | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy |
| 2011 (65th) | Lynne Ramsay | We Need to Talk About Kevin |
| 2011 (65th) | Nicolas Winding Refn | Drive |
| 2011 (65th) | Martin Scorsese | Hugo |
| 2012 (66th) | Ben Affleck | Argo |
| 2012 (66th) | Kathryn Bigelow | Zero Dark Thirty |
| 2012 (66th) | Michael Haneke | Amour |
| 2012 (66th) | Ang Lee | Life of Pi |
| 2012 (66th) | Quentin Tarantino | Django Unchained |
| 2013 (67th) | Alfonso Cuarón | Gravity |
| 2013 (67th) | Paul Greengrass | Captain Phillips |
| 2013 (67th) | Steve McQueen | 12 Years a Slave |
| 2013 (67th) | David O. Russell | American Hustle |
| 2013 (67th) | Martin Scorsese | The Wolf of Wall Street |
| 2014 (68th) | Richard Linklater | Boyhood |
| 2014 (68th) | Wes Anderson | The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2014 (68th) | Damien Chazelle | Whiplash |
| 2014 (68th) | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Birdman |
| 2014 (68th) | James Marsh | The Theory of Everything |
| 2015 (69th) | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | The Revenant |
| 2015 (69th) | Todd Haynes | Carol |
| 2015 (69th) | Adam McKay | The Big Short |
| 2015 (69th) | Ridley Scott | The Martian |
| 2015 (69th) | Steven Spielberg | Bridge of Spies |
| 2016 (70th) | Damien Chazelle | La La Land |
| 2016 (70th) | Tom Ford | Nocturnal Animals |
| 2016 (70th) | Ken Loach | I, Daniel Blake |
| 2016 (70th) | Kenneth Lonergan | Manchester by the Sea |
| 2016 (70th) | Denis Villeneuve | Arrival |
| 2017 (71st) | Guillermo del Toro | The Shape of Water |
| 2017 (71st) | Luca Guadagnino | Call Me by Your Name |
| 2017 (71st) | Martin McDonagh | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri |
| 2017 (71st) | Christopher Nolan | Dunkirk |
| 2017 (71st) | Denis Villeneuve | Blade Runner 2049 |
| 2018 (72nd) | Alfonso Cuarón | Roma |
| 2018 (72nd) | Bradley Cooper | A Star Is Born |
| 2018 (72nd) | Yorgos Lanthimos | The Favourite |
| 2018 (72nd) | Spike Lee | BlacKkKlansman |
| 2018 (72nd) | Paweł Pawlikowski | Cold War |
| 2019 (73rd) | Sam Mendes | 1917 |
| 2019 (73rd) | Bong Joon-ho | Parasite |
| 2019 (73rd) | Todd Phillips | Joker |
| 2019 (73rd) | Martin Scorsese | The Irishman |
| 2019 (73rd) | Quentin Tarantino | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |

### 2020s

| Year | Director | Film |
| 2020 (74th) | Chloé Zhao | Nomadland |
| 2020 (74th) | Lee Isaac Chung | Minari |
| 2020 (74th) | Sarah Gavron | Rocks |
| 2020 (74th) | Shannon Murphy | Babyteeth |
| 2020 (74th) | Thomas Vinterberg | Another Round |
| 2020 (74th) | Jasmila Žbanić | Quo Vadis, Aida? |
| 2021 (75th) | Jane Campion | The Power of the Dog |
| 2021 (75th) | Paul Thomas Anderson | Licorice Pizza |
| 2021 (75th) | Audrey Diwan | Happening |
| 2021 (75th) | Julia Ducournau | Titane |
| 2021 (75th) | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Drive My Car |
| 2021 (75th) | Aleem Khan | After Love |
| 2022 (76th) | Edward Berger | All Quiet on the Western Front |
| 2022 (76th) | Park Chan-wook | Decision to Leave |
| 2022 (76th) | Todd Field | Tár |
| 2022 (76th) | Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 2022 (76th) | Martin McDonagh | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2022 (76th) | Gina Prince-Bythewood | The Woman King |
| 2023 (77th) | Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer |
| 2023 (77th) | Bradley Cooper | Maestro |
| 2023 (77th) | Jonathan Glazer | The Zone of Interest |
| 2023 (77th) | Andrew Haigh | All of Us Strangers |
| 2023 (77th) | Alexander Payne | The Holdovers |
| 2023 (77th) | Justine Triet | Anatomy of a Fall |
| 2024 (78th) | Brady Corbet | The Brutalist |
| 2024 (78th) | Jacques Audiard | Emilia Pérez |
| 2024 (78th) | Sean Baker | Anora |
| 2024 (78th) | Edward Berger | Conclave |
| 2024 (78th) | Coralie Fargeat | The Substance |
| 2024 (78th) | Denis Villeneuve | Dune: Part Two |