# Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play

The Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play is a theatre award, presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA) at the annual Helpmann Awards since 2001. In the following list winners are listed first and marked in gold, in boldface, and the nominees are listed below with no highlight. Neil Armfield has won the most awards, with four, and is tied the most nominated director with Simon Phillips, both gandering nine nominations.

## Winners and nominees

* Source:
| Year | Director | Production |
| 2001 (1st) |
| 2001 (1st) | Benedict Andrews | La Dispute |
| 2001 (1st) | Kate Cherry | Life After George |
| 2001 (1st) | Neil Armfield | The Small Poppies |
| 2001 (1st) | Simon Phillips | Measure For Measure |
| 2002 (2nd) |
| 2002 (2nd) | Neil Armfield | Cloudstreet |
| 2002 (2nd) | Rodney Fisher | Master Class |
| 2002 (2nd) | Simon Phillips | The Tempest |
| 2002 (2nd) | Benedict Andrews | Three Sisters |
| 2003 (3rd) |
| 2003 (3rd) | Michael Blakemore | Copenhagen |
| 2003 (3rd) | Simon Phillips | The Blue Room |
| 2003 (3rd) | Simon Phillips | Great Expectations |
| 2003 (3rd) | Neil Armfield | Waiting for Godot |
| 2004 (4th) |
| 2004 (4th) | Simon Phillips | Inheritance |
| 2004 (4th) | John Bell | The Servant of Two Masters |
| 2004 (4th) | Julian Meyrick | Frozen |
| 2004 (4th) | Neil Armfield | The Lieutenant of Inishmore |
| 2005 (5th) |
| 2005 (5th) | Jim Sharman | Three Furies |
| 2005 (5th) | Robyn Nevin | Hedda Gabler |
| 2005 (5th) | Michael Blakemore | Democracy |
| 2005 (5th) | Wesley Enoch | Riverland |
| 2006 (6th) |
| 2006 (6th) | Marion Potts | The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? |
| 2006 (6th) | Simon Phillips | King Lear |
| 2006 (6th) | Ariane Mnouchkine | Le Dernier Caravansérail |
| 2006 (6th) | Declan Donnellan | Twelfth Night |
| 2007 (7th) |
| 2007 (7th) | Barrie Kosky | The Lost Echo |
| 2007 (7th) | Benedict Andrews | The Season At Sarsaparilla |
| 2007 (7th) | Michael Hill | Waiting for Godot |
| 2007 (7th) | Wesley Enoch | Parramatta Girls |
| 2008 (8th) |
| 2008 (8th) | Neil Armfield | Toy Symphony |
| 2008 (8th) | Benedict Andrews | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| 2008 (8th) | Barrie Kosky | The Tell-Tale Heart |
| 2008 (8th) | John Tiffany | Black Watch |
| 2009 (9th) |
| 2009 (9th) | Benedict Andrews | War of the Roses |
| 2009 (9th) | Barrie Kosky | Women of Troy |
| 2009 (9th) | Peter Evans | Blackbird |
| 2009 (9th) | Neil Armfield | Scorched |
| 2010 (10th) |
| 2010 (10th) | Simon Phillips | Richard III |
| 2010 (10th) | Thomas Ostermeier | Hamlet |
| 2010 (10th) | Michael Kantor | Happy Days |
| 2010 (10th) | Neil Armfield | The Book of Everything |
| 2011 (11th) |
| 2011 (11th) | Neil Armfield | The Diary of a Madman |
| 2011 (11th) | Simon Stone | The Wild Duck |
| 2011 (11th) | Wesley Enoch | Waltzing The Wilarra |
| 2011 (11th) | Benedict Andrews | Measure for Measure |
| 2012 (12th) |
| 2012 (12th) | Benedict Andrews | Gross und Klein (Big and Small) |
| 2012 (12th) | Rachael Maza | Jack Charles v The Crown |
| 2012 (12th) | Simon Phillips | Songs for Nobodies |
| 2012 (12th) | Sam Strong | The Boys |
| 2013 (13th) |
| 2013 (13th) | Neil Armfield | The Secret River |
| 2013 (13th) | Lee Lewis | The School for Wives |
| 2013 (13th) | Anne-Louise Sarks | Medea |
| 2013 (13th) | Rosemary Myers | School Dance |
| 2014 (14th) |
| 2014 (14th) | Michael Kantor | The Shadow King |
| 2014 (14th) | Andrew Upton | Waiting For Godot |
| 2014 (14th) | Ivo van Hove | Roman Tragedies |
| 2014 (14th) | Sam Strong | The Floating World |
| 2015 (15th) |
| 2015 (15th) | Kip Williams | Suddenly Last Summer |
| 2015 (15th) | Andrew Upton | Endgame |
| 2015 (15th) | Sarah Goodes | Switzerland |
| 2015 (15th) | Clare Watson | What Rhymes With Cars And Girls |
| 2016 (16th) |
| 2016 (16th) | Lee Lewis | The Bleeding Tree |
| 2016 (16th) | Kip Williams | Love and Information |
| 2016 (16th) | Eamon Flack | Ivanov |
| 2016 (16th) | Simon Phillips | North by Northwest |
| 2017 (17th) |
| 2017 (17th) | Leticia Caceres | The Drover's Wife |
| 2017 (17th) | Kip Williams | Chimerica |
| 2017 (17th) | Judy Davis | Faith Healer |
| 2017 (17th) | Susie Dee | SH*T |
| 2018 (18th) |
| 2018 (18th) | Sarah Goodes | The Children |
| 2018 (18th) | Matthew Lutton | The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man |
| 2018 (18th) | Kip Williams | Cloud Nine |
| 2018 (18th) | Kip Williams | The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui |
| 2019 (19th) |
| 2019 (19th) | Eamon Flack and S. Shakthidharan | Counting and Cracking |
| 2019 (19th) | Declan Greene | Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death |
| 2019 (19th) | Imara Savage | Saint Joan |
| 2019 (19th) | Kip Williams | The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two |