# Academy Award for Best Director

The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for Directing) is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry.
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with the award being split into "Dramatic" and "Comedy" categories; Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone won for 7th Heaven and Two Arabian Knights, respectively. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies. Nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the academy.
For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year. However, after the nomination of Michael Curtiz for two films, Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters, at the 11th Academy Awards, the rules were revised so that an individual could only be nominated for one film at each ceremony. That rule has since been amended, although the only director who has received multiple nominations in the same year was Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich and Traffic in 2000, winning the award for the latter.
The Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 91 films that won Best Picture and were also nominated for Best Director, 70 won the award. The award has been criticised in recent years for failing to recognise female directors. Of the 257 individual directors nominated in the history of the award, only 9 have been women; and only 3 of the 76 winners have been women.
Since its inception, the award has been given to 74 different directors or directing teams. As of the 97th Academy Awards ceremony, American filmmaker Sean Baker is the most recent winner in this category for his work on Anora.

## Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County, California; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.
Table key :
* Indicates the winner

### 1920s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1927/28 (1st) | Frank Borzage (Dramatic Picture) | 7th Heaven |
| 1927/28 (1st) | Herbert Brenon (Dramatic Picture) | Sorrell and Son |
| 1927/28 (1st) | King Vidor (Dramatic Picture) | The Crowd |
| 1927/28 (1st) | Lewis Milestone (Comedy Picture) | Two Arabian Knights |
| 1927/28 (1st) | Ted Wilde (Comedy Picture) | Speedy |
| 1927/28 (1st) | Charlie Chaplin (Comedy Picture) | The Circus |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Frank Lloyd | The Divine Lady |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Lionel Barrymore | Madame X |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Harry Beaumont | The Broadway Melody |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Irving Cummings | In Old Arizona |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Frank Lloyd | Drag |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Frank Lloyd | Weary River |
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Ernst Lubitsch | The Patriot |

### 1930s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1929/30 (3rd) | Lewis Milestone | All Quiet on the Western Front |
| 1929/30 (3rd) | Clarence Brown | Anna Christie |
| 1929/30 (3rd) | Clarence Brown | Romance |
| 1929/30 (3rd) | Robert Z. Leonard | The Divorcee |
| 1929/30 (3rd) | Ernst Lubitsch | The Love Parade |
| 1929/30 (3rd) | King Vidor | Hallelujah! |
| 1930/31 (4th) | Norman Taurog | Skippy |
| 1930/31 (4th) | Clarence Brown | A Free Soul |
| 1930/31 (4th) | Lewis Milestone | The Front Page |
| 1930/31 (4th) | Wesley Ruggles | Cimarron |
| 1930/31 (4th) | Josef von Sternberg | Morocco |
| 1931/32 (5th) | Frank Borzage | Bad Girl |
| 1931/32 (5th) | King Vidor | The Champ |
| 1931/32 (5th) | Josef von Sternberg | Shanghai Express |
| 1932/33 (6th) | Frank Lloyd | Cavalcade |
| 1932/33 (6th) | Frank Capra | Lady for a Day |
| 1932/33 (6th) | George Cukor | Little Women |
| 1934 (7th) | Frank Capra | It Happened One Night |
| 1934 (7th) | Victor Schertzinger | One Night of Love |
| 1934 (7th) | W. S. Van Dyke | The Thin Man |
| 1935 (8th) | John Ford | The Informer |
| 1935 (8th) | Henry Hathaway | The Lives of a Bengal Lancer |
| 1935 (8th) | Frank Lloyd | Mutiny on the Bounty |
| 1935 (8th) | Michael Curtiz (Write-in) | Captain Blood |
| 1936 (9th) | Frank Capra | Mr. Deeds Goes to Town |
| 1936 (9th) | Gregory La Cava | My Man Godfrey |
| 1936 (9th) | Robert Z. Leonard | The Great Ziegfeld |
| 1936 (9th) | W. S. Van Dyke | San Francisco |
| 1936 (9th) | William Wyler | Dodsworth |
| 1937 (10th) | Leo McCarey | The Awful Truth |
| 1937 (10th) | William Dieterle | The Life of Emile Zola |
| 1937 (10th) | Sidney Franklin | The Good Earth |
| 1937 (10th) | Gregory La Cava | Stage Door |
| 1937 (10th) | William A. Wellman | A Star Is Born |
| 1938 (11th) | Frank Capra | You Can't Take It with You |
| 1938 (11th) | Michael Curtiz | Angels with Dirty Faces |
| 1938 (11th) | Michael Curtiz | Four Daughters |
| 1938 (11th) | Norman Taurog | Boys Town |
| 1938 (11th) | King Vidor | The Citadel |
| 1939 (12th) | Victor Fleming | Gone with the Wind |
| 1939 (12th) | Frank Capra | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington |
| 1939 (12th) | John Ford | Stagecoach |
| 1939 (12th) | Sam Wood | Goodbye, Mr. Chips |
| 1939 (12th) | William Wyler | Wuthering Heights |

### 1940s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1940 (13th) | John Ford | The Grapes of Wrath |
| 1940 (13th) | George Cukor | The Philadelphia Story |
| 1940 (13th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Rebecca |
| 1940 (13th) | Sam Wood | Kitty Foyle |
| 1940 (13th) | William Wyler | The Letter |
| 1941 (14th) | John Ford | How Green Was My Valley |
| 1941 (14th) | Alexander Hall | Here Comes Mr. Jordan |
| 1941 (14th) | Howard Hawks | Sergeant York |
| 1941 (14th) | Orson Welles | Citizen Kane |
| 1941 (14th) | William Wyler | The Little Foxes |
| 1942 (15th) | William Wyler | Mrs. Miniver |
| 1942 (15th) | Michael Curtiz | Yankee Doodle Dandy |
| 1942 (15th) | John Farrow | Wake Island |
| 1942 (15th) | Mervyn LeRoy | Random Harvest |
| 1942 (15th) | Sam Wood | Kings Row |
| 1943 (16th) | Michael Curtiz | Casablanca |
| 1943 (16th) | Clarence Brown | The Human Comedy |
| 1943 (16th) | Henry King | The Song of Bernadette |
| 1943 (16th) | Ernst Lubitsch | Heaven Can Wait |
| 1943 (16th) | George Stevens | The More the Merrier |
| 1944 (17th) | Leo McCarey | Going My Way |
| 1944 (17th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Lifeboat |
| 1944 (17th) | Henry King | Wilson |
| 1944 (17th) | Otto Preminger | Laura |
| 1944 (17th) | Billy Wilder | Double Indemnity |
| 1945 (18th) | Billy Wilder | The Lost Weekend |
| 1945 (18th) | Clarence Brown | National Velvet |
| 1945 (18th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Spellbound |
| 1945 (18th) | Leo McCarey | The Bells of St. Mary's |
| 1945 (18th) | Jean Renoir | The Southerner |
| 1946 (19th) | William Wyler | The Best Years of Our Lives |
| 1946 (19th) | Clarence Brown | The Yearling |
| 1946 (19th) | Frank Capra | It's a Wonderful Life |
| 1946 (19th) | David Lean | Brief Encounter |
| 1946 (19th) | Robert Siodmak | The Killers |
| 1947 (20th) | Elia Kazan | Gentleman's Agreement |
| 1947 (20th) | George Cukor | A Double Life |
| 1947 (20th) | Edward Dmytryk | Crossfire |
| 1947 (20th) | Henry Koster | The Bishop's Wife |
| 1947 (20th) | David Lean | Great Expectations |
| 1948 (21st) | John Huston | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre |
| 1948 (21st) | Anatole Litvak | The Snake Pit |
| 1948 (21st) | Jean Negulesco | Johnny Belinda |
| 1948 (21st) | Laurence Olivier | Hamlet |
| 1948 (21st) | Fred Zinnemann | The Search |
| 1949 (22nd) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | A Letter to Three Wives |
| 1949 (22nd) | Carol Reed | The Fallen Idol |
| 1949 (22nd) | Robert Rossen | All the King's Men |
| 1949 (22nd) | William A. Wellman | Battleground |
| 1949 (22nd) | William Wyler | The Heiress |

### 1950s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1950 (23rd) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | All About Eve |
| 1950 (23rd) | George Cukor | Born Yesterday |
| 1950 (23rd) | John Huston | The Asphalt Jungle |
| 1950 (23rd) | Carol Reed | The Third Man |
| 1950 (23rd) | Billy Wilder | Sunset Boulevard |
| 1951 (24th) | George Stevens | A Place in the Sun |
| 1951 (24th) | John Huston | The African Queen |
| 1951 (24th) | Elia Kazan | A Streetcar Named Desire |
| 1951 (24th) | Vincente Minnelli | An American in Paris |
| 1951 (24th) | William Wyler | Detective Story |
| 1952 (25th) | John Ford | The Quiet Man |
| 1952 (25th) | Cecil B. DeMille | The Greatest Show on Earth |
| 1952 (25th) | John Huston | Moulin Rouge |
| 1952 (25th) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 5 Fingers |
| 1952 (25th) | Fred Zinnemann | High Noon |
| 1953 (26th) | Fred Zinnemann | From Here to Eternity |
| 1953 (26th) | George Stevens | Shane |
| 1953 (26th) | Charles Walters | Lili |
| 1953 (26th) | Billy Wilder | Stalag 17 |
| 1953 (26th) | William Wyler | Roman Holiday |
| 1954 (27th) | Elia Kazan | On the Waterfront |
| 1954 (27th) | Alfred Hitchcock | Rear Window |
| 1954 (27th) | George Seaton | The Country Girl |
| 1954 (27th) | William A. Wellman | The High and the Mighty |
| 1954 (27th) | Billy Wilder | Sabrina |
| 1955 (28th) | Delbert Mann | Marty |
| 1955 (28th) | Elia Kazan | East of Eden |
| 1955 (28th) | David Lean | Summertime |
| 1955 (28th) | Joshua Logan | Picnic |
| 1955 (28th) | John Sturges | Bad Day at Black Rock |
| 1956 (29th) | George Stevens | Giant |
| 1956 (29th) | Michael Anderson | Around the World in 80 Days |
| 1956 (29th) | Walter Lang | The King and I |
| 1956 (29th) | King Vidor | War and Peace |
| 1956 (29th) | William Wyler | Friendly Persuasion |
| 1957 (30th) | David Lean | The Bridge on the River Kwai |
| 1957 (30th) | Joshua Logan | Sayonara |
| 1957 (30th) | Sidney Lumet | 12 Angry Men |
| 1957 (30th) | Mark Robson | Peyton Place |
| 1957 (30th) | Billy Wilder | Witness for the Prosecution |
| 1958 (31st) | Vincente Minnelli | Gigi |
| 1958 (31st) | Richard Brooks | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof |
| 1958 (31st) | Stanley Kramer | The Defiant Ones |
| 1958 (31st) | Mark Robson | The Inn of the Sixth Happiness |
| 1958 (31st) | Robert Wise | I Want to Live! |
| 1959 (32nd) | William Wyler | Ben-Hur |
| 1959 (32nd) | Jack Clayton | Room at the Top |
| 1959 (32nd) | George Stevens | The Diary of Anne Frank |
| 1959 (32nd) | Billy Wilder | Some Like It Hot |
| 1959 (32nd) | Fred Zinnemann | The Nun's Story |

### 1960s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1960 (33rd) | Billy Wilder | The Apartment |
| 1960 (33rd) | Jack Cardiff | Sons and Lovers |
| 1960 (33rd) | Jules Dassin | Never on Sunday |
| 1960 (33rd) | Alfred Hitchcock | Psycho |
| 1960 (33rd) | Fred Zinnemann | The Sundowners |
| 1961 (34th) | Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins | West Side Story |
| 1961 (34th) | Federico Fellini | La Dolce Vita |
| 1961 (34th) | Stanley Kramer | Judgment at Nuremberg |
| 1961 (34th) | Robert Rossen | The Hustler |
| 1961 (34th) | J. Lee Thompson | The Guns of Navarone |
| 1962 (35th) | David Lean | Lawrence of Arabia |
| 1962 (35th) | Pietro Germi | Divorce Italian Style |
| 1962 (35th) | Robert Mulligan | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 1962 (35th) | Arthur Penn | The Miracle Worker |
| 1962 (35th) | Frank Perry | David and Lisa |
| 1963 (36th) | Tony Richardson | Tom Jones |
| 1963 (36th) | Federico Fellini | 8½ |
| 1963 (36th) | Elia Kazan | America America |
| 1963 (36th) | Otto Preminger | The Cardinal |
| 1963 (36th) | Martin Ritt | Hud |
| 1964 (37th) | George Cukor | My Fair Lady |
| 1964 (37th) | Michael Cacoyannis | Zorba the Greek |
| 1964 (37th) | Peter Glenville | Becket |
| 1964 (37th) | Stanley Kubrick | Dr. Strangelove |
| 1964 (37th) | Robert Stevenson | Mary Poppins |
| 1965 (38th) | Robert Wise | The Sound of Music |
| 1965 (38th) | David Lean | Doctor Zhivago |
| 1965 (38th) | John Schlesinger | Darling |
| 1965 (38th) | Hiroshi Teshigahara | Woman in the Dunes |
| 1965 (38th) | William Wyler | The Collector |
| 1966 (39th) | Fred Zinnemann | A Man for All Seasons |
| 1966 (39th) | Michelangelo Antonioni | Blowup |
| 1966 (39th) | Richard Brooks | The Professionals |
| 1966 (39th) | Claude Lelouch | A Man and a Woman |
| 1966 (39th) | Mike Nichols | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| 1967 (40th) | Mike Nichols | The Graduate |
| 1967 (40th) | Richard Brooks | In Cold Blood |
| 1967 (40th) | Norman Jewison | In the Heat of the Night |
| 1967 (40th) | Stanley Kramer | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner |
| 1967 (40th) | Arthur Penn | Bonnie and Clyde |
| 1968 (41st) | Carol Reed | Oliver! |
| 1968 (41st) | Anthony Harvey | The Lion in Winter |
| 1968 (41st) | Stanley Kubrick | 2001: A Space Odyssey |
| 1968 (41st) | Gillo Pontecorvo | The Battle of Algiers |
| 1968 (41st) | Franco Zeffirelli | Romeo and Juliet |
| 1969 (42nd) | John Schlesinger | Midnight Cowboy |
| 1969 (42nd) | Costa-Gavras | Z |
| 1969 (42nd) | George Roy Hill | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid |
| 1969 (42nd) | Arthur Penn | Alice's Restaurant |
| 1969 (42nd) | Sydney Pollack | They Shoot Horses, Don't They? |

### 1970s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1970 (43rd) | Franklin J. Schaffner | Patton |
| 1970 (43rd) | Robert Altman | M*A*S*H |
| 1970 (43rd) | Federico Fellini | Fellini Satyricon |
| 1970 (43rd) | Arthur Hiller | Love Story |
| 1970 (43rd) | Ken Russell | Women in Love |
| 1971 (44th) | William Friedkin | The French Connection |
| 1971 (44th) | Peter Bogdanovich | The Last Picture Show |
| 1971 (44th) | Norman Jewison | Fiddler on the Roof |
| 1971 (44th) | Stanley Kubrick | A Clockwork Orange |
| 1971 (44th) | John Schlesinger | Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| 1972 (45th) | Bob Fosse | Cabaret |
| 1972 (45th) | John Boorman | Deliverance |
| 1972 (45th) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Godfather |
| 1972 (45th) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Sleuth |
| 1972 (45th) | Jan Troell | The Emigrants |
| 1973 (46th) | George Roy Hill | The Sting |
| 1973 (46th) | Ingmar Bergman | Cries and Whispers |
| 1973 (46th) | Bernardo Bertolucci | Last Tango in Paris |
| 1973 (46th) | William Friedkin | The Exorcist |
| 1973 (46th) | George Lucas | American Graffiti |
| 1974 (47th) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Godfather Part II |
| 1974 (47th) | John Cassavetes | A Woman Under the Influence |
| 1974 (47th) | Bob Fosse | Lenny |
| 1974 (47th) | Roman Polanski | Chinatown |
| 1974 (47th) | François Truffaut | Day for Night |
| 1975 (48th) | Miloš Forman | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 1975 (48th) | Robert Altman | Nashville |
| 1975 (48th) | Federico Fellini | Amarcord |
| 1975 (48th) | Stanley Kubrick | Barry Lyndon |
| 1975 (48th) | Sidney Lumet | Dog Day Afternoon |
| 1976 (49th) | John G. Avildsen | Rocky |
| 1976 (49th) | Ingmar Bergman | Face to Face |
| 1976 (49th) | Sidney Lumet | Network |
| 1976 (49th) | Alan J. Pakula | All the President's Men |
| 1976 (49th) | Lina Wertmüller | Seven Beauties |
| 1977 (50th) | Woody Allen | Annie Hall |
| 1977 (50th) | George Lucas | Star Wars |
| 1977 (50th) | Herbert Ross | The Turning Point |
| 1977 (50th) | Steven Spielberg | Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
| 1977 (50th) | Fred Zinnemann | Julia |
| 1978 (51st) | Michael Cimino | The Deer Hunter |
| 1978 (51st) | Woody Allen | Interiors |
| 1978 (51st) | Hal Ashby | Coming Home |
| 1978 (51st) | Warren Beatty & Buck Henry | Heaven Can Wait |
| 1978 (51st) | Alan Parker | Midnight Express |
| 1979 (52nd) | Robert Benton | Kramer vs. Kramer |
| 1979 (52nd) | Francis Ford Coppola | Apocalypse Now |
| 1979 (52nd) | Bob Fosse | All That Jazz |
| 1979 (52nd) | Édouard Molinaro | La Cage aux Folles |
| 1979 (52nd) | Peter Yates | Breaking Away |

### 1980s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1980 (53rd) | Robert Redford | Ordinary People |
| 1980 (53rd) | David Lynch | The Elephant Man |
| 1980 (53rd) | Roman Polanski | Tess |
| 1980 (53rd) | Richard Rush | The Stunt Man |
| 1980 (53rd) | Martin Scorsese | Raging Bull |
| 1981 (54th) | Warren Beatty | Reds |
| 1981 (54th) | Hugh Hudson | Chariots of Fire |
| 1981 (54th) | Louis Malle | Atlantic City |
| 1981 (54th) | Mark Rydell | On Golden Pond |
| 1981 (54th) | Steven Spielberg | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| 1982 (55th) | Richard Attenborough | Gandhi |
| 1982 (55th) | Sidney Lumet | The Verdict |
| 1982 (55th) | Wolfgang Petersen | Das Boot |
| 1982 (55th) | Sydney Pollack | Tootsie |
| 1982 (55th) | Steven Spielberg | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial |
| 1983 (56th) | James L. Brooks | Terms of Endearment |
| 1983 (56th) | Bruce Beresford | Tender Mercies |
| 1983 (56th) | Ingmar Bergman | Fanny and Alexander |
| 1983 (56th) | Mike Nichols | Silkwood |
| 1983 (56th) | Peter Yates | The Dresser |
| 1984 (57th) | Miloš Forman | Amadeus |
| 1984 (57th) | Woody Allen | Broadway Danny Rose |
| 1984 (57th) | Robert Benton | Places in the Heart |
| 1984 (57th) | Roland Joffé | The Killing Fields |
| 1984 (57th) | David Lean | A Passage to India |
| 1985 (58th) | Sydney Pollack | Out of Africa |
| 1985 (58th) | Héctor Babenco | Kiss of the Spider Woman |
| 1985 (58th) | John Huston | Prizzi's Honor |
| 1985 (58th) | Akira Kurosawa | Ran |
| 1985 (58th) | Peter Weir | Witness |
| 1986 (59th) | Oliver Stone | Platoon |
| 1986 (59th) | Woody Allen | Hannah and Her Sisters |
| 1986 (59th) | James Ivory | A Room with a View |
| 1986 (59th) | Roland Joffé | The Mission |
| 1986 (59th) | David Lynch | Blue Velvet |
| 1987 (60th) | Bernardo Bertolucci | The Last Emperor |
| 1987 (60th) | John Boorman | Hope and Glory |
| 1987 (60th) | Lasse Hallström | My Life as a Dog |
| 1987 (60th) | Norman Jewison | Moonstruck |
| 1987 (60th) | Adrian Lyne | Fatal Attraction |
| 1988 (61st) | Barry Levinson | Rain Man |
| 1988 (61st) | Charles Crichton | A Fish Called Wanda |
| 1988 (61st) | Mike Nichols | Working Girl |
| 1988 (61st) | Alan Parker | Mississippi Burning |
| 1988 (61st) | Martin Scorsese | The Last Temptation of Christ |
| 1989 (62nd) | Oliver Stone | Born on the Fourth of July |
| 1989 (62nd) | Woody Allen | Crimes and Misdemeanors |
| 1989 (62nd) | Kenneth Branagh | Henry V |
| 1989 (62nd) | Jim Sheridan | My Left Foot |
| 1989 (62nd) | Peter Weir | Dead Poets Society |

### 1990s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 1990 (63rd) | Kevin Costner | Dances with Wolves |
| 1990 (63rd) | Francis Ford Coppola | The Godfather Part III |
| 1990 (63rd) | Stephen Frears | The Grifters |
| 1990 (63rd) | Barbet Schroeder | Reversal of Fortune |
| 1990 (63rd) | Martin Scorsese | Goodfellas |
| 1991 (64th) | Jonathan Demme | The Silence of the Lambs |
| 1991 (64th) | Barry Levinson | Bugsy |
| 1991 (64th) | Ridley Scott | Thelma & Louise |
| 1991 (64th) | John Singleton | Boyz n the Hood |
| 1991 (64th) | Oliver Stone | JFK |
| 1992 (65th) | Clint Eastwood | Unforgiven |
| 1992 (65th) | Robert Altman | The Player |
| 1992 (65th) | Martin Brest | Scent of a Woman |
| 1992 (65th) | James Ivory | Howards End |
| 1992 (65th) | Neil Jordan | The Crying Game |
| 1993 (66th) | Steven Spielberg | Schindler's List |
| 1993 (66th) | Robert Altman | Short Cuts |
| 1993 (66th) | Jane Campion | The Piano |
| 1993 (66th) | James Ivory | The Remains of the Day |
| 1993 (66th) | Jim Sheridan | In the Name of the Father |
| 1994 (67th) | Robert Zemeckis | Forrest Gump |
| 1994 (67th) | Woody Allen | Bullets over Broadway |
| 1994 (67th) | Krzysztof Kieślowski | Three Colours: Red |
| 1994 (67th) | Robert Redford | Quiz Show |
| 1994 (67th) | Quentin Tarantino | Pulp Fiction |
| 1995 (68th) | Mel Gibson | Braveheart |
| 1995 (68th) | Mike Figgis | Leaving Las Vegas |
| 1995 (68th) | Chris Noonan | Babe |
| 1995 (68th) | Michael Radford | Il Postino: The Postman |
| 1995 (68th) | Tim Robbins | Dead Man Walking |
| 1996 (69th) | Anthony Minghella | The English Patient |
| 1996 (69th) | Joel Coen | Fargo |
| 1996 (69th) | Miloš Forman | The People vs. Larry Flynt |
| 1996 (69th) | Scott Hicks | Shine |
| 1996 (69th) | Mike Leigh | Secrets & Lies |
| 1997 (70th) | James Cameron | Titanic |
| 1997 (70th) | Peter Cattaneo | The Full Monty |
| 1997 (70th) | Atom Egoyan | The Sweet Hereafter |
| 1997 (70th) | Curtis Hanson | L.A. Confidential |
| 1997 (70th) | Gus Van Sant | Good Will Hunting |
| 1998 (71st) | Steven Spielberg | Saving Private Ryan |
| 1998 (71st) | Roberto Benigni | Life Is Beautiful |
| 1998 (71st) | John Madden | Shakespeare in Love |
| 1998 (71st) | Terrence Malick | The Thin Red Line |
| 1998 (71st) | Peter Weir | The Truman Show |
| 1999 (72nd) | Sam Mendes | American Beauty |
| 1999 (72nd) | Lasse Hallström | The Cider House Rules |
| 1999 (72nd) | Spike Jonze | Being John Malkovich |
| 1999 (72nd) | Michael Mann | The Insider |
| 1999 (72nd) | M. Night Shyamalan | The Sixth Sense |

### 2000s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2000 (73rd) | Steven Soderbergh | Traffic |
| 2000 (73rd) | Stephen Daldry | Billy Elliot |
| 2000 (73rd) | Ang Lee | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon |
| 2000 (73rd) | Ridley Scott | Gladiator |
| 2000 (73rd) | Steven Soderbergh | Erin Brockovich |
| 2001 (74th) | Ron Howard | A Beautiful Mind |
| 2001 (74th) | Robert Altman | Gosford Park |
| 2001 (74th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
| 2001 (74th) | David Lynch | Mulholland Drive |
| 2001 (74th) | Ridley Scott | Black Hawk Down |
| 2002 (75th) | Roman Polanski | The Pianist |
| 2002 (75th) | Pedro Almodóvar | Talk to Her |
| 2002 (75th) | Stephen Daldry | The Hours |
| 2002 (75th) | Rob Marshall | Chicago |
| 2002 (75th) | Martin Scorsese | Gangs of New York |
| 2003 (76th) | Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2003 (76th) | Sofia Coppola | Lost in Translation |
| 2003 (76th) | Clint Eastwood | Mystic River |
| 2003 (76th) | Fernando Meirelles | City of God |
| 2003 (76th) | Peter Weir | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World |
| 2004 (77th) | Clint Eastwood | Million Dollar Baby |
| 2004 (77th) | Taylor Hackford | Ray |
| 2004 (77th) | Mike Leigh | Vera Drake |
| 2004 (77th) | Alexander Payne | Sideways |
| 2004 (77th) | Martin Scorsese | The Aviator |
| 2005 (78th) | Ang Lee | Brokeback Mountain |
| 2005 (78th) | George Clooney | Good Night, and Good Luck |
| 2005 (78th) | Paul Haggis | Crash |
| 2005 (78th) | Bennett Miller | Capote |
| 2005 (78th) | Steven Spielberg | Munich |
| 2006 (79th) | Martin Scorsese | The Departed |
| 2006 (79th) | Clint Eastwood | Letters from Iwo Jima |
| 2006 (79th) | Stephen Frears | The Queen |
| 2006 (79th) | Paul Greengrass | United 93 |
| 2006 (79th) | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Babel |
| 2007 (80th) | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| 2007 (80th) | Paul Thomas Anderson | There Will Be Blood |
| 2007 (80th) | Tony Gilroy | Michael Clayton |
| 2007 (80th) | Jason Reitman | Juno |
| 2007 (80th) | Julian Schnabel | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly |
| 2008 (81st) | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
| 2008 (81st) | Stephen Daldry | The Reader |
| 2008 (81st) | David Fincher | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
| 2008 (81st) | Ron Howard | Frost/Nixon |
| 2008 (81st) | Gus Van Sant | Milk |
| 2009 (82nd) | Kathryn Bigelow | The Hurt Locker |
| 2009 (82nd) | James Cameron | Avatar |
| 2009 (82nd) | Lee Daniels | Precious |
| 2009 (82nd) | Jason Reitman | Up in the Air |
| 2009 (82nd) | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds |

### 2010s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2010 (83rd) | Tom Hooper | The King's Speech |
| 2010 (83rd) | Darren Aronofsky | Black Swan |
| 2010 (83rd) | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | True Grit |
| 2010 (83rd) | David Fincher | The Social Network |
| 2010 (83rd) | David O. Russell | The Fighter |
| 2011 (84th) | Michel Hazanavicius | The Artist |
| 2011 (84th) | Woody Allen | Midnight in Paris |
| 2011 (84th) | Terrence Malick | The Tree of Life |
| 2011 (84th) | Alexander Payne | The Descendants |
| 2011 (84th) | Martin Scorsese | Hugo |
| 2012 (85th) | Ang Lee | Life of Pi |
| 2012 (85th) | Michael Haneke | Amour |
| 2012 (85th) | David O. Russell | Silver Linings Playbook |
| 2012 (85th) | Steven Spielberg | Lincoln |
| 2012 (85th) | Benh Zeitlin | Beasts of the Southern Wild |
| 2013 (86th) | Alfonso Cuarón | Gravity |
| 2013 (86th) | Steve McQueen | 12 Years a Slave |
| 2013 (86th) | Alexander Payne | Nebraska |
| 2013 (86th) | David O. Russell | American Hustle |
| 2013 (86th) | Martin Scorsese | The Wolf of Wall Street |
| 2014 (87th) | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Birdman |
| 2014 (87th) | Wes Anderson | The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2014 (87th) | Richard Linklater | Boyhood |
| 2014 (87th) | Bennett Miller | Foxcatcher |
| 2014 (87th) | Morten Tyldum | The Imitation Game |
| 2015 (88th) | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | The Revenant |
| 2015 (88th) | Lenny Abrahamson | Room |
| 2015 (88th) | Tom McCarthy | Spotlight |
| 2015 (88th) | Adam McKay | The Big Short |
| 2015 (88th) | George Miller | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| 2016 (89th) | Damien Chazelle | La La Land |
| 2016 (89th) | Mel Gibson | Hacksaw Ridge |
| 2016 (89th) | Barry Jenkins | Moonlight |
| 2016 (89th) | Kenneth Lonergan | Manchester by the Sea |
| 2016 (89th) | Denis Villeneuve | Arrival |
| 2017 (90th) | Guillermo del Toro | The Shape of Water |
| 2017 (90th) | Paul Thomas Anderson | Phantom Thread |
| 2017 (90th) | Greta Gerwig | Lady Bird |
| 2017 (90th) | Christopher Nolan | Dunkirk |
| 2017 (90th) | Jordan Peele | Get Out |
| 2018 (91st) | Alfonso Cuarón | Roma |
| 2018 (91st) | Yorgos Lanthimos | The Favourite |
| 2018 (91st) | Spike Lee | BlacKkKlansman |
| 2018 (91st) | Adam McKay | Vice |
| 2018 (91st) | Paweł Pawlikowski | Cold War |
| 2019 (92nd) | Bong Joon-ho | Parasite |
| 2019 (92nd) | Sam Mendes | 1917 |
| 2019 (92nd) | Todd Phillips | Joker |
| 2019 (92nd) | Martin Scorsese | The Irishman |
| 2019 (92nd) | Quentin Tarantino | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood |

### 2020s

| Year | Director(s) | Film |
| 2020/21 (93rd) | Chloé Zhao | Nomadland |
| 2020/21 (93rd) | Lee Isaac Chung | Minari |
| 2020/21 (93rd) | Emerald Fennell | Promising Young Woman |
| 2020/21 (93rd) | David Fincher | Mank |
| 2020/21 (93rd) | Thomas Vinterberg | Another Round |
| 2021 (94th) | Jane Campion | The Power of the Dog |
| 2021 (94th) | Paul Thomas Anderson | Licorice Pizza |
| 2021 (94th) | Kenneth Branagh | Belfast |
| 2021 (94th) | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Drive My Car |
| 2021 (94th) | Steven Spielberg | West Side Story |
| 2022 (95th) | Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert | Everything Everywhere All at Once |
| 2022 (95th) | Todd Field | Tár |
| 2022 (95th) | Martin McDonagh | The Banshees of Inisherin |
| 2022 (95th) | Ruben Östlund | Triangle of Sadness |
| 2022 (95th) | Steven Spielberg | The Fabelmans |
| 2023 (96th) | Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer |
| 2023 (96th) | Jonathan Glazer | The Zone of Interest |
| 2023 (96th) | Yorgos Lanthimos | Poor Things |
| 2023 (96th) | Martin Scorsese | Killers of the Flower Moon |
| 2023 (96th) | Justine Triet | Anatomy of a Fall |
| 2024 (97th) | Sean Baker | Anora |
| 2024 (97th) | Jacques Audiard | Emilia Pérez |
| 2024 (97th) | Brady Corbet | The Brutalist |
| 2024 (97th) | Coralie Fargeat | The Substance |
| 2024 (97th) | James Mangold | A Complete Unknown |

## Multiple wins and nominations
### Multiple wins

| Wins | Director |
| 4 | John Ford |
| 3 | Frank Capra |
| 3 | William Wyler |
| 2 | Ang Lee |
| 2 | Frank Borzage |
| 2 | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 2 | Clint Eastwood |
| 2 | Miloš Forman |
| 2 | Alejandro G. Iñárritu |
| 2 | Elia Kazan |
| 2 | David Lean |
| 2 | Frank Lloyd |
| 2 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 2 | Leo McCarey |
| 2 | Lewis Milestone |
| 2 | Steven Spielberg |
| 2 | George Stevens |
| 2 | Oliver Stone |
| 2 | Billy Wilder |
| 2 | Robert Wise |
| 2 | Fred Zinnemann |

### Three or more nominations

| Nominations | Director |
| 12 | William Wyler |
| 10 | Martin Scorsese |
| 9 | Steven Spielberg |
| 8 | Billy Wilder |
| 7 | Woody Allen |
| 7 | David Lean |
| 7 | Fred Zinnemann |
| 6 | Frank Capra |
| 5 | Robert Altman |
| 5 | Clarence Brown |
| 5 | George Cukor |
| 5 | John Ford |
| 5 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 5 | John Huston |
| 5 | Elia Kazan |
| 5 | George Stevens |
| 5 | King Vidor |
| 4 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 4 | Michael Curtiz |
| 4 | Clint Eastwood |
| 4 | Federico Fellini |
| 4 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 4 | Frank Lloyd |
| 4 | Sidney Lumet |
| 4 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 4 | Mike Nichols |
| 4 | Peter Weir |
| 3 | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| 3 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 3 | Richard Brooks |
| 3 | Joel Coen |
| 3 | Stephen Daldry |
| 3 | David Fincher |
| 3 | Miloš Forman |
| 3 | Bob Fosse |
| 3 | Alejandro González Iñárritu |
| 3 | James Ivory |
| 3 | Norman Jewison |
| 3 | Stanley Kramer |
| 3 | Ang Lee |
| 3 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 3 | David Lynch |
| 3 | Leo McCarey |
| 3 | Lewis Milestone |
| 3 | Alexander Payne |
| 3 | Arthur Penn |
| 3 | Roman Polanski |
| 3 | Sydney Pollack |
| 3 | Carol Reed |
| 3 | David O. Russell |
| 3 | John Schlesinger |
| 3 | Ridley Scott |
| 3 | Oliver Stone |
| 3 | Quentin Tarantino |
| 3 | William A. Wellman |
| 3 | Robert Wise |
| 3 | Sam Wood |

## Age superlatives

| Record | Director | Film | Age |
| Oldest winner | Clint Eastwood | Million Dollar Baby | 74 years, 272 days |
| Oldest nominee | Martin Scorsese | Killers of the Flower Moon | 81 years, 67 days |
| Youngest winner | Damien Chazelle | La La Land | 32 years, 38 days |
| Youngest nominee | John Singleton | Boyz n the Hood | 24 years, 44 days |

## Records

* John Ford has received the most awards in this category, with four. Frank Capra and William Wyler won three each.
** Wyler has the most nominations, with 12—including a record four years in a row. Martin Scorsese is currently second, with 10 nominations.
** Clarence Brown received the most nominations without a win (6). Alfred Hitchcock and King Vidor each received 5 nominations without a win.
* Four directors have won twice for films that did not win Best Picture: Frank Borzage, George Stevens, Ang Lee, and Alfonso Cuarón.
** Of John Ford's four wins, the only film which also won Best Picture was How Green Was My Valley (1941).
** Ford (1940–1941), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949–1950), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (2014–2015) are the only directors to have won the award in two consecutive years.
** Francis Ford Coppola is the only director to be nominated for each film of a trilogy, The Godfather trilogy, winning for the second film.
* Four directing teams have been nominated together (a total of five times, winning on three occasions): Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961, winners); Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978); Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007, winners) and True Grit (2010); and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022, winners).
** The Coen Brothers are the only siblings to have won the award.
* Six directors won the award for their feature film debut: Delbert Mann for Marty (1955), Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Robert Redford for Ordinary People (1980), James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983), Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves (1990), and Sam Mendes for American Beauty (1999).
** Robbins is the only director to have won for his only career directing credit.
* Lina Wertmüller was the first woman nominated in the category, for Seven Beauties (1976).
** Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the award, for The Hurt Locker (2009).
** Chloé Zhao was the first woman of color to win the award, for Nomadland (2020).
** Jane Campion is the first woman to be nominated twice for the award: The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021)—winning for the latter.
* John Singleton is the first Black (and youngest) nominee for Boyz n the Hood (1991).
** Steve McQueen is the first Black nominee to direct a Best Picture winner, for 12 Years a Slave. Barry Jenkins subsequently did the same three years later, with Moonlight (2016).
* David Lean was the first non-American to win—and twice, for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). This did not recur for five decades with any other non-American directors, until Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu each won twice themselves.
** Lee was the first Asian director to win the award, for Brokeback Mountain (2005). He won again for Life of Pi (2012).
** Cuarón was the first Mexican (and Latin American) director to win the award, for Gravity. He won again for Roma (2018).