# Academy Award for Best Director

| Academy Award for Best Director |
| --- |
| The 2021 recipient: Chloé Zhao |
| Awarded for | Excellence in Cinematic Direction Achievement |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| First awarded | 1929 (for direction in films released during the 1927/1928 film season) |
| Most recent winner | Chloé Zhao *Nomadland* (2020) |
| Website | oscars.org |

The **Academy Award for Best Directing** (Best Director), usually known as the **Best Director Oscar**, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to directors for a movie.

Nominations for Best Director are made by members in the academy's Directing branch. The award winners are selected by the academy membership as a whole.

## Winners and nominees

### 1920s

In the first year only, the award was separated into Dramatic Direction and Comedy Direction.

| Year | Winner film | Nominated |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1927/28 (Dramatic) | **Frank Borzage**  – *Seventh Heaven* | Herbert Brenon – *Sorrell and Son* King Vidor – *The Crowd* |
| 1927/28 (Comedy) | **Lewis Milestone**  – *Two Arabian Knights* | Ted Wilde – *Speedy* |
| 1928/29 | **Frank Lloyd**  – *The Divine Lady* | Lionel Barrymore – *Madame X* Harry Beaumont – *The Broadway Melody* Irving Cummings – *In Old Arizona* Frank Lloyd - *Drag* and *Weary River* Ernst Lubitsch – *The Patriot* |
| 1929/30 | **Lewis Milestone**  – *All Quiet on the Western Front* | Clarence Brown – *Anna Christie* and *Romance* Robert Z. Leonard – *The Divorcée* Ernst Lubitsch – *The Love Parade* King Vidor – *Hallelujah* |

### 1930s

| Year | Winner film | Nominated |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1930/31 | **Norman Taurog**  – *Skippy* | Clarence Brown – *A Free Soul* Lewis Milestone – *The Front Page* Wesley Ruggles – *Cimarron* Josef von Sternberg – *Morocco* |
| 1931/32 | **Frank Borzage**  – *Bad Girl* | King Vidor – *The Champ* Josef von Sternberg – *Shanghai Express* |
| 1932/33 | **Frank Lloyd**  – *Cavalcade* | Frank Capra – *Lady for a Day* George Cukor – *Little Women*
(The academy also announced that Capra came in second, and Cukor last.) |
| 1934 | **Frank Capra**  – *It Happened One Night* | Victor Schertzinger – *One Night of Love* W. S. Van Dyke – *The Thin Man*
(The academy also announced that Van Dyke came in second, and Schertzinger last.) |
| 1935 | **John Ford**  – *The Informer* | Henry Hathaway – *The Lives of a Bengal Lancer* Frank Lloyd – *Mutiny on the Bounty*
(The academy also announced that write-in candidate Michael Curtiz, for *Captain Blood*, came in second, and Hathaway third.) |
| 1936 | **Frank Capra**  – *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town* | Gregory La Cava – *My Man Godfrey* Robert Z. Leonard – *The Great Ziegfeld* W. S. Van Dyke – *San Francisco* William Wyler – *Dodsworth* |
| 1937 | **Leo McCarey**  – *The Awful Truth* | William Dieterle – *The Life of Emile Zola* Sidney Franklin – *The Good Earth* Gregory La Cava – *Stage Door* William A. Wellman – *A Star Is Born* |
| 1938 | **Frank Capra**  – *You Can't Take It with You* | Michael Curtiz – *Angels with Dirty Faces* Michael Curtiz – *Four Daughters* Norman Taurog – *Boys Town* King Vidor – *The Citadel* |
| 1939 | **Victor Fleming**  – *Gone with the Wind* | Frank Capra – *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington* John Ford – *Stagecoach* Sam Wood – *Goodbye, Mr. Chips* William Wyler – *Wuthering Heights* |

### 1940s

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

### 1950s

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

### 1960s

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

### 1970s

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

### 1980s

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

### 1990s

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

### 2000s

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

### 2010s

| Year | Winner film | Nominated |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2010 | **Tom Hooper**  – *The King's Speech* | Darren Aronofsky – *Black Swan* Joel & Ethan Coen – *True Grit* David Fincher – *The Social Network* David O. Russell – *The Fighter* |
| 2011 | **Michel Hazanavicius**  -*The Artist* | Woody Allen – *Midnight in Paris* Terrence Malick – *The Tree of Life* Alexander Payne – *The Descendants* Martin Scorsese – *Hugo* |

## International presence

As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of **winners** of the Academy Award for Best Director.

* Australia: Mel Gibson, Tom Hooper (Gibson, a U.S. citizen, moved with his family to Australia at the age of 12. Hooper, born in the U.K., is a dual citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom as his mother was born in Australia.)
* Austria: Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann (Both Wilder and Zinnemann moved to America in their twenties and became naturalized U.S. citizens.)
* Canada: James Cameron (Cameron was applying to become a U.S. citizen.)
* Czech Republic: Miloš Forman (naturalized U.S. citizen since 1977)
* France: Michel Hazanavicius
* Germany: William Wyler, Mike Nichols (After moving to America in 1921, Wyler became a naturalized U.S. citizen in his twenties. Wyler was born in Alsace which was part of the German Empire then, but now is part of France. Nichols' family moved from Germany when he was eight-years old, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen five years later.)
* Italy: Bernardo Bertolucci
* New Zealand: Peter Jackson
* Poland: Roman Polanski (French citizenship)
* Taiwan: Ang Lee (naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in America since the early 1980s.)
* United Kingdom: Richard Attenborough, Danny Boyle, David Lean, Sam Mendes, Anthony Minghella, Carol Reed, Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger, and Tom Hooper

However, no director has won for a film that is entirely in a foreign language.

There have been 20 directors nominated for films entirely or significantly in a foreign (non-English) language.

* Federico Fellini (nominated for 4 films, which were all in Italian)
* Ingmar Bergman (nominated for 3 films, which were all in Swedish)
* Pietro Germi (Italian)
* Hiroshi Teshigahara (Japanese)
* Claude Lelouch (French)
* Gillo Pontecorvo (Italian-born director nominated for *The Battle of Algiers*, which was in French and Arabic)
* Costa Gavras (Greek-born director nominated for French-language film *Z*.)
* Jan Troell (Swedish)
* François Truffaut (French)
* Lina Wertmuller (Italian)
* Edouard Molinaro (French)
* Wolfgang Petersen (German)
* Akira Kurosawa (Japanese)
* Lasse Hallström (Swedish. He was also nominated for the English-language film *The Cider House Rules*.)
* Krzysztof Kieslowski (Polish-born director nominated for French-language film *Three Colours: Red*)
* Michael Radford (an English-born director nominated for the Italian-language film *Il Postino*.)
* Roberto Benigni (Italian)
* Ang Lee (Taiwanese-born director nominated for the Mandarin-language film *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*. He would later win for the English-language film *Brokeback Mountain*.)
* Pedro Almodóvar (Spanish)
* Fernando Meirelles (Brazilian Portuguese)
* Clint Eastwood (an American director nominated for the Japanese-language film *Letters from Iwo Jima*, which has a few brief scenes in English).
* Julian Schnabel (an American director nominated for the French-language film *The Diving Bell and the Butterfly*.)

Ironically, internationally known filmmakers Jean Renoir (for *The Southerner*), Michelangelo Antonioni (for *Blowup*) and Louis Malle (for *Atlantic City*) were nominated for films that were in English and not their native language.

Nominations for films primarily in English with some scenes (of a notable length) in a foreign language includes:

* Jules Dassin for *Never on Sunday* (Greek)
* Bernardo Bertolucci for *Last Tango in Paris* (French)
* Francis Coppola for *The Godfather Part II* (Italian) (Winner)
* Kevin Costner for *Dances with Wolves* (Lakota and Pawnee) (Winner)
* Steven Soderbergh for *Traffic* (Spanish) (Winner)
* Alejandro González Iñárritu for *Babel* (Spanish, Arabic, French, Japanese, Japanese Sign Language, Berber)
* Danny Boyle for *Slumdog Millionaire* (Hindi) (Winner)
* Quentin Tarantino for *Inglourious Basterds* (French, German and Italian)

Several international **nominees** (regardless of the language used in their respective films) include:

* Australia: Bruce Beresford, Scott Hicks, Chris Noonan and Peter Weir
* Austria: Otto Preminger, Josef von Sternberg
* Brazil: Héctor Babenco, Fernando Meirelles
* Canada: Atom Egoyan, Arthur Hiller, Norman Jewison and Jason Reitman
* Cyprus: Michael Cacoyannis
* France: Michel Hazanavicius, Claude Lelouch, Louis Malle and François Truffaut
* Germany: William Dieterle, Ernst Lubitsch and Wolfgang Petersen
* Greece: Costa Gavras
* India: M. Night Shyamalan
* Ireland: Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and Kenneth Branagh
* Italy: Roberto Benigni, Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Gillo Pontecorvo, Lina Wertmüller, Franco Zeffirelli and Michelangelo Antonioni
* Japan: Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Teshigahara
* Mexico: Alejandro González Iñárritu
* New Zealand: Jane Campion
* Poland: Krzysztof Kieślowski
* Spain: Pedro Almodóvar
* Sweden: Ingmar Bergman, Lasse Hallström and Jan Troell
* United Kingdom: Alfred Hitchcock, John Boorman, Peter Cattaneo, Charles Crichton, Stephen Daldry, Stephen Frears, Laurence Olivier, Paul Greengrass, Roland Joffé, Mike Leigh, Adrian Lyne, Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker and Ridley Scott

## Related pages

* Golden Globe Award for Best Director
* BAFTA Award for Best Direction

## Other websites

* Oscars.org (official Academy site)