# Critics' Choice Documentary Award for Best Director

The Critics' Choice Documentary Award for Best Director is one of the awards presented annually by Critics Choice Association since the awards debuted in 2016.

## Winners and nominees

Table key :
| indicates the winner | ‡ Indicates the winner of Best Documentary Feature |

### 2010s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2016 (1st) | Ezra Edelman | O.J.: Made in America‡ |
| 2016 (1st) | Ron Howard | The Beatles: Eight Days a Week |
| 2016 (1st) | Kirsten Johnson | Cameraperson |
| 2016 (1st) | Keith Maitland | Tower |
| 2016 (1st) | Clay Tweel | Gleason |
| 2016 (1st) | Roger Ross Williams | Life, Animated |
| 2017 (2nd) | Evgeny Afineevsky | Cries from Syria |
| 2017 (2nd) | Frederick Wiseman | Ex Libris: The New York Public Library |
| 2017 (2nd) | Amir Bar-Lev | Long Strange Trip |
| 2017 (2nd) | Matthew Heineman | City of Ghosts |
| 2017 (2nd) | Bill Morrison | Dawson City: Frozen Time |
| 2017 (2nd) | Doug Nichol | California Typewriter |
| 2017 (2nd) | Jeff Orlowski | Chasing Coral |
| 2017 (2nd) | Irene Taylor Brodsky | Beware the Slenderman |
| 2017 (2nd) | Ceyda Torun | Kedi |
| 2017 (2nd) | Agnès Varda and JR | Faces Places |
| 2018 (3rd) | Morgan Neville | Won't You Be My Neighbor?‡ |
| 2018 (3rd) | Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi | Free Solo |
| 2018 (3rd) | Bing Liu | Minding the Gap |
| 2018 (3rd) | Kimberly Reed | Dark Money |
| 2018 (3rd) | Rudiger Suchsland | Hitler's Hollywood |
| 2018 (3rd) | Tim Wardle | Three Identical Strangers |
| 2019 (4th) | Peter Jackson | They Shall Not Grow Old |
| 2019 (4th) | Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert | American Factory |
| 2019 (4th) | Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts | For Sama |
| 2019 (4th) | John Chester | The Biggest Little Farm |
| 2019 (4th) | Feras Fayyad | The Cave |
| 2019 (4th) | Todd Douglas Miller | Apollo 11‡ |
| 2019 (4th) | Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang | One Child Nation |

### 2020s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2020 (5th) | Kirsten Johnson | Dick Johnson Is Dead‡ |
| 2020 (5th) | Garrett Bradley | Time |
| 2020 (5th) | Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk | Athlete A |
| 2020 (5th) | Victor Kossakovsky | Gunda |
| 2020 (5th) | James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham | Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution |
| 2020 (5th) | Dawn Porter | John Lewis: Good Trouble |
| 2020 (5th) | Benjamin Ree | The Painter and the Thief |
| 2021 (6th) | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin | The Rescue |
| 2021 (6th) | Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson | Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)‡ |
| 2021 (6th) | Liz Garbus | Becoming Cousteau |
| 2021 (6th) | Jessica Kingdon | Ascension |
| 2021 (6th) | Stanley Nelson Jr. and Traci A. Curry | Attica |
| 2021 (6th) | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Flee |
| 2021 (6th) | Edgar Wright | The Sparks Brothers |
| 2022 (7th) | Ryan White | Good Night Oppy‡ |
| 2022 (7th) | Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio | George Carlin's American Dream |
| 2022 (7th) | Margaret Brown | Descendant |
| 2022 (7th) | Sara Dosa | Fire of Love |
| 2022 (7th) | Reginald Hudlin | Sidney |
| 2022 (7th) | Brett Morgen | Moonage Daydream |
| 2022 (7th) | Laura Poitras | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed |
| 2022 (7th) | Daniel Roher | Navalny |
| 2023 (8th) | Davis Guggenheim | Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie‡ |
| 2023 (8th) | Maite Alberdi | The Eternal Memory |
| 2023 (8th) | Madeleine Gavin | Beyond Utopia |
| 2023 (8th) | Matthew Heineman | American Symphony |
| 2023 (8th) | Amanda McBaine | The Mission |
| 2023 (8th) | Steve McQueen | Occupied City |
| 2024 (9th) | Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui | Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story‡ |
| 2024 (9th) | Josh Greenbaum | Will & Harper |
| 2024 (9th) | Ron Howard | Jim Henson Idea Man |
| 2024 (9th) | Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie | Sugarcane |
| 2024 (9th) | Natalie Rae and Angela Patton | Daughters |
| 2024 (9th) | Benjamin Ree | The Remarkable Life of Ibelin |

## Multiple nominations

| Nominations | Director |
| 2 | Jimmy Chin |
| 2 | Ron Howard |
| 2 | Kirsten Johnson |
| 2 | Benjamin Ree |
| 2 | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi |