# Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film

The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures is one of the annual Directors Guild of America Awards presented by the Directors Guild of America. With 3 wins out of 13 nominations, Steven Spielberg is both the most awarded and most nominated director of this category in the history of DGA, and the first director to receive DGA nominations in six consecutive decades. Additionally, Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the only director to win twice successively; he was awarded in 2015 and 2016 for his directorial achievements for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant, respectively. Three directing teams have shared the award: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007), and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

## Predicting the Oscar's outcome

Since its inception the award has predicted the winner of the Academy Award for Best Director on all but eight occasions:
* 1968 – Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter); lost to Carol Reed (Oliver!)
* 1972 – Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather); lost to Bob Fosse (Cabaret)
* 1985 – Steven Spielberg (The Color Purple); despite the film's 11 total Oscar nominations, Spielberg was not nominated for Best Director.
* 1995 – Ron Howard (Apollo 13); Howard was not nominated for the Oscar.
* 2000 – Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); lost to Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)
* 2002 – Rob Marshall (Chicago); lost to Roman Polanski (The Pianist)
* 2012 – Ben Affleck (Argo); Affleck was not nominated for the Oscar, although the film won Best Picture.
* 2019 – Sam Mendes (1917); lost to Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)

## Winners and nominees
### 1940s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 1948 (1st) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | A Letter to Three Wives |
| 1948 (1st) | Howard Hawks | Red River |
| 1948 (1st) | Anatole Litvak | The Snake Pit |
| 1948 (1st) | Fred Zinnemann | The Search |
| 1949 (2nd) | Robert Rossen | All the King's Men |
| 1949 (2nd) | Carol Reed | The Third Man |
| 1949 (2nd) | Mark Robson | Champion |
| 1949 (2nd) | Alfred L. Werker | Lost Boundaries |

### 1950s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 1950 (3rd) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | All About Eve |
| 1950 (3rd) | John Huston | The Asphalt Jungle |
| 1950 (3rd) | Vincente Minnelli | Father's Little Dividend |
| 1950 (3rd) | Billy Wilder | Sunset Boulevard |
| 1951 (4th) | George Stevens | A Place in the Sun |
| 1951 (4th) | László Benedek | Death of a Salesman |
| 1951 (4th) | Michael Gordon | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 1951 (4th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Strangers on a Train |
| 1951 (4th) | Elia Kazan | A Streetcar Named Desire |
| 1951 (4th) | Henry King | David and Bathsheba |
| 1951 (4th) | Mervyn LeRoy | Quo Vadis |
| 1951 (4th) | Anatole Litvak | Decision Before Dawn |
| 1951 (4th) | Vincente Minnelli | An American in Paris |
| 1951 (4th) | George Sidney | Show Boat |
| 1951 (4th) | Richard Thorpe | The Great Caruso |
| 1951 (4th) | William Wyler | Detective Story |
| 1952 (5th) | John Ford | The Quiet Man |
| 1952 (5th) | Charles Crichton | The Lavender Hill Mob |
| 1952 (5th) | George Cukor | Pat and Mike |
| 1952 (5th) | Michael Curtiz | I'll See You in My Dreams |
| 1952 (5th) | Cecil B. DeMille | The Greatest Show on Earth |
| 1952 (5th) | Hugo Fregonese | My Six Convicts |
| 1952 (5th) | Howard Hawks | The Big Sky |
| 1952 (5th) | Elia Kazan | Viva Zapata! |
| 1952 (5th) | Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen | Singin' in the Rain |
| 1952 (5th) | Henry King | The Snows of Kilimanjaro |
| 1952 (5th) | Akira Kurosawa | Rashomon |
| 1952 (5th) | Albert Lewin | Pandora and the Flying Dutchman |
| 1952 (5th) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 5 Fingers |
| 1952 (5th) | Vincente Minnelli | The Bad and the Beautiful |
| 1952 (5th) | George Sidney | Scaramouche |
| 1952 (5th) | Richard Thorpe | Ivanhoe |
| 1952 (5th) | Charles Vidor | Hans Christian Andersen |
| 1952 (5th) | Fred Zinnemann | High Noon |
| 1953 (6th) | Fred Zinnemann | From Here to Eternity |
| 1953 (6th) | Melvin Frank and Norman Panama | Above and Beyond |
| 1953 (6th) | Henry Koster | The Robe |
| 1953 (6th) | Walter Lang | Call Me Madam |
| 1953 (6th) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Julius Caesar |
| 1953 (6th) | Daniel Mann | Come Back, Little Sheba |
| 1953 (6th) | Jean Negulesco | Titanic |
| 1953 (6th) | George Sidney | Young Bess |
| 1953 (6th) | George Stevens | Shane |
| 1953 (6th) | Charles Walters | Lili |
| 1953 (6th) | Billy Wilder | Stalag 17 |
| 1953 (6th) | William Wyler | Roman Holiday |
| 1954 (7th) | Elia Kazan | On the Waterfront |
| 1954 (7th) | George Cukor | A Star Is Born |
| 1954 (7th) | Edward Dmytryk | The Caine Mutiny |
| 1954 (7th) | Stanley Donen | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers |
| 1954 (7th) | Melvin Frank and Norman Panama | Knock on Wood |
| 1954 (7th) | Samuel Fuller | Hell and High Water |
| 1954 (7th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Rear Window |
| 1954 (7th) | Henry King | King of the Khyber Rifles |
| 1954 (7th) | Anthony Mann | The Glenn Miller Story |
| 1954 (7th) | Jean Negulesco | Three Coins in the Fountain |
| 1954 (7th) | George Seaton | The Country Girl |
| 1954 (7th) | Don Siegel | Riot in Cell Block 11 |
| 1954 (7th) | William A. Wellman | The High and the Mighty |
| 1954 (7th) | Robert Wise | Executive Suite |
| 1954 (7th) | Billy Wilder | Sabrina |
| 1955 (8th) | Delbert Mann | Marty |
| 1955 (8th) | Richard Brooks | Blackboard Jungle |
| 1955 (8th) | John Ford | The Long Gray Line |
| 1955 (8th) | Elia Kazan | East of Eden |
| 1955 (8th) | Henry Koster | A Man Called Peter |
| 1955 (8th) | Joshua Logan | Picnic |
| 1955 (8th) | Daniel Mann | The Rose Tattoo |
| 1955 (8th) | Mark Robson | The Bridges at Toko-Ri |
| 1955 (8th) | John Sturges | Bad Day at Black Rock |
| 1955 (8th) | Charles Vidor | Love Me or Leave Me |
| 1955 (8th) | Billy Wilder | The Seven Year Itch |
| 1956 (9th) | George Stevens | Giant |
| 1956 (9th) | Michael Anderson | Around the World in 80 Days |
| 1956 (9th) | John Huston | Moby Dick |
| 1956 (9th) | Joshua Logan | Bus Stop |
| 1956 (9th) | Daniel Mann | Teahouse of the August Moon |
| 1956 (9th) | King Vidor | War and Peace |
| 1956 (9th) | Robert Wise | Somebody Up There Likes Me |
| 1956 (9th) | William Wyler | Friendly Persuasion |
| 1957 (10th) | David Lean | The Bridge on the River Kwai |
| 1957 (10th) | George Cukor | Les Girls |
| 1957 (10th) | Stanley Donen | Funny Face |
| 1957 (10th) | José Ferrer | The Great Man |
| 1957 (10th) | John Huston | Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison |
| 1957 (10th) | Elia Kazan | A Face in the Crowd |
| 1957 (10th) | Stanley Kramer | The Pride and the Passion |
| 1957 (10th) | Anthony Mann | Men in War |
| 1957 (10th) | Leo McCarey | An Affair to Remember |
| 1957 (10th) | Robert Mulligan | Fear Strikes Out |
| 1957 (10th) | John Sturges | Gunfight at the O.K. Corral |
| 1957 (10th) | Fred Zinnemann | A Hatful of Rain |
| 1958 (11th) | Vincente Minnelli | Gigi |
| 1958 (11th) | George Abbott and Stanley Donen | Damn Yankees |
| 1958 (11th) | Richard Brooks | The Brothers Karamazov |
| 1958 (11th) | Delmer Daves | Cowboy |
| 1958 (11th) | Edward Dmytryk | The Young Lions |
| 1958 (11th) | Richard Fleischer | The Vikings |
| 1958 (11th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Vertigo |
| 1958 (11th) | Martin Ritt | The Long, Hot Summer |
| 1958 (11th) | George Seaton | Teacher's Pet |
| 1958 (11th) | William Wyler | The Big Country |
| 1959 (12th) | William Wyler | Ben-Hur |
| 1959 (12th) | Charles Barton | The Shaggy Dog |
| 1959 (12th) | Frank Capra | A Hole in the Head |
| 1959 (12th) | Richard Fleischer | Compulsion |
| 1959 (12th) | John Ford | The Horse Soldiers |
| 1959 (12th) | Howard Hawks | Rio Bravo |
| 1959 (12th) | Alfred Hitchcock | North by Northwest |
| 1959 (12th) | Leo McCarey | Rally Round the Flag, Boys! |
| 1959 (12th) | Otto Preminger | Anatomy of a Murder |
| 1959 (12th) | Douglas Sirk | Imitation of Life |
| 1959 (12th) | George Stevens | The Diary of Anne Frank |
| 1959 (12th) | Billy Wilder | Some Like It Hot |
| 1959 (12th) | Fred Zinnemann | The Nun's Story |

### 1960s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 1960 (13th) | Billy Wilder | The Apartment |
| 1960 (13th) | Richard Brooks | Elmer Gantry |
| 1960 (13th) | Vincent J. Donehue | Sunrise at Campobello |
| 1960 (13th) | Lewis Gilbert | Sink the Bismarck! |
| 1960 (13th) | Walter Lang | Can-Can |
| 1960 (13th) | Delbert Mann | The Dark at the Top of the Stairs |
| 1960 (13th) | Carol Reed | Our Man in Havana |
| 1960 (13th) | Alain Resnais | Hiroshima mon amour |
| 1960 (13th) | Charles Walters | Please Don't Eat the Daisies |
| 1960 (13th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Psycho |
| 1961 (14th) | Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins | West Side Story |
| 1961 (14th) | Marlon Brando | One-Eyed Jacks |
| 1961 (14th) | Frank Capra | Pocketful of Miracles |
| 1961 (14th) | Jack Clayton | The Innocents |
| 1961 (14th) | Peter Glenville | Summer and Smoke |
| 1961 (14th) | John Huston | The Misfits |
| 1961 (14th) | Elia Kazan | Splendor in the Grass |
| 1961 (14th) | Henry Koster | Flower Drum Song |
| 1961 (14th) | Stanley Kramer | Judgment at Nuremberg |
| 1961 (14th) | Philip Leacock | Hand in Hand |
| 1961 (14th) | Mervyn LeRoy | A Majority of One |
| 1961 (14th) | Joshua Logan | Fanny |
| 1961 (14th) | Anthony Mann | El Cid |
| 1961 (14th) | Robert Mulligan | The Great Impostor |
| 1961 (14th) | Daniel Petrie | A Raisin in the Sun |
| 1961 (14th) | Robert Stevenson | The Absent-Minded Professor |
| 1961 (14th) | Peter Ustinov | Romanoff and Juliet |
| 1961 (14th) | William Wyler | The Children's Hour |
| 1962 (15th) | David Lean | Lawrence of Arabia |
| 1962 (15th) | Robert Aldrich | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? |
| 1962 (15th) | Morton DaCosta | The Music Man |
| 1962 (15th) | Stanley Kubrick | Lolita |
| 1962 (15th) | Lewis Milestone | Mutiny on the Bounty |
| 1962 (15th) | Robert Mulligan | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 1962 (15th) | Ralph Nelson | Requiem for a Heavyweight |
| 1962 (15th) | Arthur Penn | The Miracle Worker |
| 1962 (15th) | Tony Richardson | A Taste of Honey |
| 1963 (16th) | Tony Richardson | Tom Jones |
| 1963 (16th) | Federico Fellini | 8½ |
| 1963 (16th) | Elia Kazan | America America |
| 1963 (16th) | Ralph Nelson | Lilies of the Field |
| 1963 (16th) | Martin Ritt | Hud |
| 1964 (17th) | George Cukor | My Fair Lady |
| 1964 (17th) | Peter Glenville | Becket |
| 1964 (17th) | John Huston | The Night of the Iguana |
| 1964 (17th) | Stanley Kubrick | Dr. Strangelove |
| 1964 (17th) | Robert Stevenson | Mary Poppins |
| 1965 (18th) | Robert Wise | The Sound of Music |
| 1965 (18th) | Sidney J. Furie | The Ipcress File |
| 1965 (18th) | Sidney Lumet | The Pawnbroker |
| 1965 (18th) | John Schlesinger | Darling |
| 1965 (18th) | Elliot Silverstein | Cat Ballou |
| 1966 (19th) | Fred Zinnemann | A Man for All Seasons |
| 1966 (19th) | Richard Brooks | The Professionals |
| 1966 (19th) | John Frankenheimer | Grand Prix |
| 1966 (19th) | Lewis Gilbert | Alfie |
| 1966 (19th) | James Hill | Born Free |
| 1966 (19th) | Norman Jewison | The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming |
| 1966 (19th) | Claude Lelouch | A Man and a Woman |
| 1966 (19th) | Silvio Narizzano | Georgy Girl |
| 1966 (19th) | Mike Nichols | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| 1966 (19th) | Robert Wise | The Sand Pebbles |
| 1967 (20th) | Mike Nichols | The Graduate |
| 1967 (20th) | Robert Aldrich | The Dirty Dozen |
| 1967 (20th) | Richard Brooks | In Cold Blood |
| 1967 (20th) | James Clavell | To Sir, with Love |
| 1967 (20th) | Stanley Donen | Two for the Road |
| 1967 (20th) | Norman Jewison | In the Heat of the Night |
| 1967 (20th) | Stanley Kramer | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner |
| 1967 (20th) | Arthur Penn | Bonnie and Clyde |
| 1967 (20th) | Stuart Rosenberg | Cool Hand Luke |
| 1967 (20th) | Joseph Strick | Ulysses |
| 1968 (21st) | Anthony Harvey | The Lion in Winter |
| 1968 (21st) | Paul Almond | Isabel |
| 1968 (21st) | Stanley Kubrick | 2001: A Space Odyssey |
| 1968 (21st) | Jiří Menzel | Closely Watched Trains |
| 1968 (21st) | Paul Newman | Rachel, Rachel |
| 1968 (21st) | Roman Polanski | Rosemary's Baby |
| 1968 (21st) | Carol Reed | Oliver! |
| 1968 (21st) | Gene Saks | The Odd Couple |
| 1968 (21st) | William Wyler | Funny Girl |
| 1968 (21st) | Franco Zeffirelli | Romeo and Juliet |
| 1969 (22nd) | John Schlesinger | Midnight Cowboy |
| 1969 (22nd) | Richard Attenborough | Oh! What a Lovely War |
| 1969 (22nd) | Costa-Gavras | Z |
| 1969 (22nd) | George Roy Hill | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid |
| 1969 (22nd) | Dennis Hopper | Easy Rider |
| 1969 (22nd) | Gene Kelly | Hello, Dolly! |
| 1969 (22nd) | Sam Peckinpah | The Wild Bunch |
| 1969 (22nd) | Larry Peerce | Goodbye, Columbus |
| 1969 (22nd) | Sydney Pollack | They Shoot Horses, Don't They? |
| 1969 (22nd) | Haskell Wexler | Medium Cool |

### 1970s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 1970 (23rd) | Franklin J. Schaffner | Patton |
| 1970 (23rd) | Robert Altman | M*A*S*H |
| 1970 (23rd) | Arthur Hiller | Love Story |
| 1970 (23rd) | David Lean | Ryan's Daughter |
| 1970 (23rd) | Bob Rafelson | Five Easy Pieces |
| 1971 (24th) | William Friedkin | The French Connection |
| 1971 (24th) | Peter Bogdanovich | The Last Picture Show |
| 1971 (24th) | Stanley Kubrick | A Clockwork Orange |
| 1971 (24th) | Robert Mulligan | Summer of '42 |
| 1971 (24th) | John Schlesinger | Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| 1972 (25th) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Godfather |
| 1972 (25th) | John Boorman | Deliverance |
| 1972 (25th) | Bob Fosse | Cabaret |
| 1972 (25th) | George Roy Hill | Slaughterhouse-Five |
| 1972 (25th) | Martin Ritt | Sounder |
| 1973 (26th) | George Roy Hill | The Sting |
| 1973 (26th) | Bernardo Bertolucci | Last Tango in Paris |
| 1973 (26th) | William Friedkin | The Exorcist |
| 1973 (26th) | George Lucas | American Graffiti |
| 1973 (26th) | Sidney Lumet | Serpico |
| 1974 (27th) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Godfather Part II |
| 1974 (27th) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Conversation |
| 1974 (27th) | Bob Fosse | Lenny |
| 1974 (27th) | Sidney Lumet | Murder on the Orient Express |
| 1974 (27th) | Roman Polanski | Chinatown |
| 1975 (28th) | Miloš Forman | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 1975 (28th) | Robert Altman | Nashville |
| 1975 (28th) | Stanley Kubrick | Barry Lyndon |
| 1975 (28th) | Sidney Lumet | Dog Day Afternoon |
| 1975 (28th) | Steven Spielberg | Jaws |
| 1976 (29th) | John G. Avildsen | Rocky |
| 1976 (29th) | Sidney Lumet | Network |
| 1976 (29th) | Alan J. Pakula | All the President's Men |
| 1976 (29th) | Martin Scorsese | Taxi Driver |
| 1976 (29th) | Lina Wertmüller | Seven Beauties |
| 1977 (30th) | Woody Allen | Annie Hall |
| 1977 (30th) | George Lucas | Star Wars |
| 1977 (30th) | Herbert Ross | The Turning Point |
| 1977 (30th) | Steven Spielberg | Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
| 1977 (30th) | Fred Zinnemann | Julia |
| 1978 (31st) | Michael Cimino | The Deer Hunter |
| 1978 (31st) | Hal Ashby | Coming Home |
| 1978 (31st) | Warren Beatty and Buck Henry | Heaven Can Wait |
| 1978 (31st) | Paul Mazursky | An Unmarried Woman |
| 1978 (31st) | Alan Parker | Midnight Express |
| 1979 (32nd) | Robert Benton | Kramer vs. Kramer |
| 1979 (32nd) | Woody Allen | Manhattan |
| 1979 (32nd) | James Bridges | The China Syndrome |
| 1979 (32nd) | Francis Ford Coppola | Apocalypse Now |
| 1979 (32nd) | Peter Yates | Breaking Away |

### 1980s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 1980 (33rd) | Robert Redford | Ordinary People |
| 1980 (33rd) | Michael Apted | Coal Miner's Daughter |
| 1980 (33rd) | David Lynch | The Elephant Man |
| 1980 (33rd) | Richard Rush | The Stunt Man |
| 1980 (33rd) | Martin Scorsese | Raging Bull |
| 1981 (34th) | Warren Beatty | Reds |
| 1981 (34th) | Hugh Hudson | Chariots of Fire |
| 1981 (34th) | Louis Malle | Atlantic City |
| 1981 (34th) | Mark Rydell | On Golden Pond |
| 1981 (34th) | Steven Spielberg | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| 1982 (35th) | Richard Attenborough | Gandhi |
| 1982 (35th) | Taylor Hackford | An Officer and a Gentleman |
| 1982 (35th) | Wolfgang Petersen | Das Boot |
| 1982 (35th) | Sydney Pollack | Tootsie |
| 1982 (35th) | Steven Spielberg | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial |
| 1983 (36th) | James L. Brooks | Terms of Endearment |
| 1983 (36th) | Bruce Beresford | Tender Mercies |
| 1983 (36th) | Ingmar Bergman | Fanny and Alexander |
| 1983 (36th) | Lawrence Kasdan | The Big Chill |
| 1983 (36th) | Philip Kaufman | The Right Stuff |
| 1984 (37th) | Miloš Forman | Amadeus |
| 1984 (37th) | Robert Benton | Places in the Heart |
| 1984 (37th) | Norman Jewison | A Soldier's Story |
| 1984 (37th) | Roland Joffé | The Killing Fields |
| 1984 (37th) | David Lean | A Passage to India |
| 1985 (38th) | Steven Spielberg | The Color Purple |
| 1985 (38th) | Ron Howard | Cocoon |
| 1985 (38th) | John Huston | Prizzi's Honor |
| 1985 (38th) | Sydney Pollack | Out of Africa |
| 1985 (38th) | Peter Weir | Witness |
| 1986 (39th) | Oliver Stone | Platoon |
| 1986 (39th) | Woody Allen | Hannah and Her Sisters |
| 1986 (39th) | Randa Haines | Children of a Lesser God |
| 1986 (39th) | James Ivory | A Room with a View |
| 1986 (39th) | Rob Reiner | Stand by Me |
| 1987 (40th) | Bernardo Bertolucci | The Last Emperor |
| 1987 (40th) | James L. Brooks | Broadcast News |
| 1987 (40th) | Lasse Hallström | My Life as a Dog |
| 1987 (40th) | Adrian Lyne | Fatal Attraction |
| 1987 (40th) | Steven Spielberg | Empire of the Sun |
| 1988 (41st) | Barry Levinson | Rain Man |
| 1988 (41st) | Charles Crichton | A Fish Called Wanda |
| 1988 (41st) | Mike Nichols | Working Girl |
| 1988 (41st) | Alan Parker | Mississippi Burning |
| 1988 (41st) | Robert Zemeckis | Who Framed Roger Rabbit |
| 1989 (42nd) | Oliver Stone | Born on the Fourth of July |
| 1989 (42nd) | Woody Allen | Crimes and Misdemeanors |
| 1989 (42nd) | Rob Reiner | When Harry Met Sally... |
| 1989 (42nd) | Phil Alden Robinson | Field of Dreams |
| 1989 (42nd) | Peter Weir | Dead Poets Society |

### 1990s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 1990 (43rd) | Kevin Costner | Dances with Wolves |
| 1990 (43rd) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Godfather Part III |
| 1990 (43rd) | Barry Levinson | Avalon |
| 1990 (43rd) | Martin Scorsese | Goodfellas |
| 1990 (43rd) | Giuseppe Tornatore | Cinema Paradiso |
| 1991 (44th) | Jonathan Demme | The Silence of the Lambs |
| 1991 (44th) | Barry Levinson | Bugsy |
| 1991 (44th) | Ridley Scott | Thelma and Louise |
| 1991 (44th) | Oliver Stone | JFK |
| 1991 (44th) | Barbra Streisand | The Prince of Tides |
| 1992 (45th) | Clint Eastwood | Unforgiven |
| 1992 (45th) | Robert Altman | The Player |
| 1992 (45th) | James Ivory | Howards End |
| 1992 (45th) | Neil Jordan | The Crying Game |
| 1992 (45th) | Rob Reiner | A Few Good Men |
| 1993 (46th) | Steven Spielberg | Schindler's List |
| 1993 (46th) | Jane Campion | The Piano |
| 1993 (46th) | Andrew Davis | The Fugitive |
| 1993 (46th) | James Ivory | The Remains of the Day |
| 1993 (46th) | Martin Scorsese | The Age of Innocence |
| 1994 (47th) | Robert Zemeckis | Forrest Gump |
| 1994 (47th) | Frank Darabont | The Shawshank Redemption |
| 1994 (47th) | Mike Newell | Four Weddings and a Funeral |
| 1994 (47th) | Robert Redford | Quiz Show |
| 1994 (47th) | Quentin Tarantino | Pulp Fiction |
| 1995 (48th) | Ron Howard | Apollo 13 |
| 1995 (48th) | Mike Figgis | Leaving Las Vegas |
| 1995 (48th) | Mel Gibson | Braveheart |
| 1995 (48th) | Ang Lee | Sense and Sensibility |
| 1995 (48th) | Michael Radford | Il Postino: The Postman |
| 1996 (49th) | Anthony Minghella | The English Patient |
| 1996 (49th) | Joel Coen | Fargo |
| 1996 (49th) | Cameron Crowe | Jerry Maguire |
| 1996 (49th) | Scott Hicks | Shine |
| 1996 (49th) | Mike Leigh | Secrets and Lies |
| 1997 (50th) | James Cameron | Titanic |
| 1997 (50th) | James L. Brooks | As Good as It Gets |
| 1997 (50th) | Curtis Hanson | L.A. Confidential |
| 1997 (50th) | Steven Spielberg | Amistad |
| 1997 (50th) | Gus Van Sant | Good Will Hunting |
| 1998 (51st) | Steven Spielberg | Saving Private Ryan |
| 1998 (51st) | Roberto Benigni | Life Is Beautiful |
| 1998 (51st) | John Madden | Shakespeare in Love |
| 1998 (51st) | Terrence Malick | The Thin Red Line |
| 1998 (51st) | Peter Weir | The Truman Show |
| 1999 (52nd) | Sam Mendes | American Beauty |
| 1999 (52nd) | Frank Darabont | The Green Mile |
| 1999 (52nd) | Spike Jonze | Being John Malkovich |
| 1999 (52nd) | Michael Mann | The Insider |
| 1999 (52nd) | M. Night Shyamalan | The Sixth Sense |

### 2000s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 2000 (53rd) | Ang Lee | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon |
| 2000 (53rd) | Cameron Crowe | Almost Famous |
| 2000 (53rd) | Ridley Scott | Gladiator |
| 2000 (53rd) | Steven Soderbergh | Erin Brockovich |
| 2000 (53rd) | Steven Soderbergh | Traffic |
| 2001 (54th) | Ron Howard | A Beautiful Mind |
| 2001 (54th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
| 2001 (54th) | Baz Luhrmann | Moulin Rouge! |
| 2001 (54th) | Christopher Nolan | Memento |
| 2001 (54th) | Ridley Scott | Black Hawk Down |
| 2002 (55th) | Rob Marshall | Chicago |
| 2002 (55th) | Stephen Daldry | The Hours |
| 2002 (55th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
| 2002 (55th) | Roman Polanski | The Pianist |
| 2002 (55th) | Martin Scorsese | Gangs of New York |
| 2003 (56th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2003 (56th) | Sofia Coppola | Lost in Translation |
| 2003 (56th) | Clint Eastwood | Mystic River |
| 2003 (56th) | Gary Ross | Seabiscuit |
| 2003 (56th) | Peter Weir | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World |
| 2004 (57th) | Clint Eastwood | Million Dollar Baby |
| 2004 (57th) | Marc Forster | Finding Neverland |
| 2004 (57th) | Taylor Hackford | Ray |
| 2004 (57th) | Alexander Payne | Sideways |
| 2004 (57th) | Martin Scorsese | The Aviator |
| 2005 (58th) | Ang Lee | Brokeback Mountain |
| 2005 (58th) | George Clooney | Good Night, and Good Luck |
| 2005 (58th) | Paul Haggis | Crash |
| 2005 (58th) | Bennett Miller | Capote |
| 2005 (58th) | Steven Spielberg | Munich |
| 2006 (59th) | Martin Scorsese | The Departed |
| 2006 (59th) | Bill Condon | Dreamgirls |
| 2006 (59th) | Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris | Little Miss Sunshine |
| 2006 (59th) | Stephen Frears | The Queen |
| 2006 (59th) | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Babel |
| 2007 (60th) | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| 2007 (60th) | Paul Thomas Anderson | There Will Be Blood |
| 2007 (60th) | Tony Gilroy | Michael Clayton |
| 2007 (60th) | Sean Penn | Into the Wild |
| 2007 (60th) | Julian Schnabel | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly |
| 2008 (61st) | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
| 2008 (61st) | David Fincher | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
| 2008 (61st) | Ron Howard | Frost/Nixon |
| 2008 (61st) | Christopher Nolan | The Dark Knight |
| 2008 (61st) | Gus Van Sant | Milk |
| 2009 (62nd) | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker |
| 2009 (62nd) | James Cameron | Avatar |
| 2009 (62nd) | Lee Daniels | Precious |
| 2009 (62nd) | Jason Reitman | Up in the Air |
| 2009 (62nd) | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds |

### 2010s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 2010 (63rd) | Tom Hooper | The King's Speech |
| 2010 (63rd) | Darren Aronofsky | Black Swan |
| 2010 (63rd) | David Fincher | The Social Network |
| 2010 (63rd) | Christopher Nolan | Inception |
| 2010 (63rd) | David O. Russell | The Fighter |
| 2011 (64th) | Michel Hazanavicius | The Artist |
| 2011 (64th) | Woody Allen | Midnight in Paris |
| 2011 (64th) | David Fincher | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |
| 2011 (64th) | Alexander Payne | The Descendants |
| 2011 (64th) | Martin Scorsese | Hugo |
| 2012 (65th) | Ben Affleck | Argo |
| 2012 (65th) | Kathryn Bigelow | Zero Dark Thirty |
| 2012 (65th) | Tom Hooper | Les Misérables |
| 2012 (65th) | Ang Lee | Life of Pi |
| 2012 (65th) | Steven Spielberg | Lincoln |
| 2013 (66th) | Alfonso Cuarón | Gravity |
| 2013 (66th) | Paul Greengrass | Captain Phillips |
| 2013 (66th) | Steve McQueen | 12 Years a Slave |
| 2013 (66th) | David O. Russell | American Hustle |
| 2013 (66th) | Martin Scorsese | The Wolf of Wall Street |
| 2014 (67th) | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) |
| 2014 (67th) | Wes Anderson | The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2014 (67th) | Clint Eastwood | American Sniper |
| 2014 (67th) | Richard Linklater | Boyhood |
| 2014 (67th) | Morten Tyldum | The Imitation Game |
| 2015 (68th) | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | The Revenant |
| 2015 (68th) | Tom McCarthy | Spotlight |
| 2015 (68th) | Adam McKay | The Big Short |
| 2015 (68th) | George Miller | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| 2015 (68th) | Ridley Scott | The Martian |
| 2016 (69th) | Damien Chazelle | La La Land |
| 2016 (69th) | Garth Davis | Lion |
| 2016 (69th) | Barry Jenkins | Moonlight |
| 2016 (69th) | Kenneth Lonergan | Manchester by the Sea |
| 2016 (69th) | Denis Villeneuve | Arrival |
| 2017 (70th) | Guillermo del Toro | The Shape of Water |
| 2017 (70th) | Greta Gerwig | Lady Bird |
| 2017 (70th) | Martin McDonagh | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri |
| 2017 (70th) | Christopher Nolan | Dunkirk |
| 2017 (70th) | Jordan Peele | Get Out |
| 2018 (71st) | Alfonso Cuarón | Roma |
| 2018 (71st) | Bradley Cooper | A Star Is Born |
| 2018 (71st) | Peter Farrelly | Green Book |
| 2018 (71st) | Spike Lee | BlacKkKlansman |
| 2018 (71st) | Adam McKay | Vice |
| 2019 (72nd) | Sam Mendes | 1917 |
| 2019 (72nd) | Bong Joon-ho | Parasite |
| 2019 (72nd) | Martin Scorsese | The Irishman |
| 2019 (72nd) | Quentin Tarantino | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |
| 2019 (72nd) | Taika Waititi | Jojo Rabbit |

### 2020s

| Year | Winners and nominees | Film |
| 2020 (73rd) | Chloé Zhao | Nomadland |
| 2020 (73rd) | Lee Isaac Chung | Minari |
| 2020 (73rd) | Emerald Fennell | Promising Young Woman |
| 2020 (73rd) | David Fincher | Mank |
| 2020 (73rd) | Aaron Sorkin | The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
| 2021 (74th) | Jane Campion | The Power of the Dog |
| 2021 (74th) | Paul Thomas Anderson | Licorice Pizza |
| 2021 (74th) | Kenneth Branagh | Belfast |
| 2021 (74th) | Steven Spielberg | West Side Story |
| 2021 (74th) | Denis Villeneuve | Dune |
| 2022 (75th) | Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 2022 (75th) | Todd Field | Tár |
| 2022 (75th) | Joseph Kosinski | Top Gun: Maverick |
| 2022 (75th) | Martin McDonagh | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2022 (75th) | Steven Spielberg | The Fabelmans |
| 2023 (76th) | Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer |
| 2023 (76th) | Greta Gerwig | Barbie |
| 2023 (76th) | Yorgos Lanthimos | Poor Things |
| 2023 (76th) | Alexander Payne | The Holdovers |
| 2023 (76th) | Martin Scorsese | Killers of the Flower Moon |
| 2024 (77th) | Sean Baker | Anora |
| 2024 (77th) | Jacques Audiard | Emilia Pérez |
| 2024 (77th) | Edward Berger | Conclave |
| 2024 (77th) | Brady Corbet | The Brutalist |
| 2024 (77th) | James Mangold | A Complete Unknown |

## Directors with multiple wins
### 3 wins

* Steven Spielberg

### 2 wins

* Francis Ford Coppola
* Alfonso Cuarón
* Clint Eastwood
* Miloš Forman
* Ron Howard
* Alejandro González Iñárritu (consecutive)
* David Lean
* Ang Lee
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz
* Sam Mendes
* George Stevens
* Oliver Stone
* Robert Wise
* Fred Zinnemann

## Directors with multiple nominations

The following directors have received four or more nominations: