Academy Award for Best Director
Current recipient: Guillermo del Toro
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)
Currently held by	Guillermo del Toro The Shape of Water (2017)
Website	oscars.org

The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award for Best 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.^[1] However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies.^[2] 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.^[3][4][5]

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.^[6] 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 90 films that have been awarded Best Picture, 64 have also been awarded Best Director.^[7]

Since its inception, the award has been given to 69 directors or directing teams. John Ford has received the most awards in this category with four. William Wyler was nominated on twelve occasions, more than any other individual. Damien Chazelle became the youngest director in history to receive this award, at the age of 32 for his work on La La Land. Two directing teams have shared the award; Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. The Coen brothers are the only siblings to have won the award.^[8]Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won the award, for 2009's The Hurt Locker. As of the 2018 ceremony, Guillermo del Toro is the most recent winner in this category for his work on The Shape of Water.

Winners and nominees[edit]

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.^[9] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31.^[10] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.^[10] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.^[10]

Table key

Indicates the winner

Frank Borzage won in the "Dramatic" category at the first ceremony.

Lewis Milestone won in the "Comedy" category at the first ceremony and later received a second award for All Quiet on the Western Front.

Frank Capra won three awards in this category, for It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and You Can't Take It with You.

Billy Wilder (right) was nominated eight times, winning twice.

Elia Kazan won in 1947 for Gentleman's Agreement and again for On the Waterfront.

John Huston received the award in 1948 for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

George Stevens won twice, five years apart, for A Place in the Sun and Giant.

Fred Zinnemann received two awards (for From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons).

David Lean won for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia and was nominated for five other films.

Robert Wise earned two awards in this category, co-winning for West Side Story and winning for The Sound of Music.

George Cukor won in 1964 for My Fair Lady.

Mike Nichols won for 1967's The Graduate.

William Friedkin won in 1971 for The French Connection.

Bob Fosse won for his direction of Cabaret in 1972.

Francis Ford Coppola earned the award for The Godfather Part II.

Miloš Forman won for both 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and 1984's Amadeus.

Woody Allen received seven nominations in the category, winning only once (for Annie Hall).

Actor Robert Redford won for Ordinary People.

Warren Beatty won in 1981 for directing Reds.

Richard Attenborough won in 1982 for his epic biopic, Gandhi.

James L. Brooks won for his 1983 film Terms of Endearment.

Oliver Stone earned two awards in this category in the 1980s—one for Platoon (1986), and the other for Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

Bernardo Bertolucci won as director of The Last Emperor in 1987.

Kevin Costner earned the award in 1990 for directing Dances with Wolves.

Jonathan Demme won for his direction of The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Steven Spielberg, a two-time winner for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.

Robert Zemeckis won for his direction of Forrest Gump (1994).

James Cameron received the award for Titanic (1997).

Sam Mendes won in 1999 for his directorial debut—American Beauty.

Ron Howard, 2001 winner for A Beautiful Mind.

Roman Polanski won in 2002 for his direction of The Pianist.

Peter Jackson won for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Ang Lee has won twice in this category—in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain and in 2012 for Life of Pi.

Martin Scorsese has received eight nominations for Best Director, but has only won for The Departed in 2006.

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen won for 2007's No Country for Old Men.

Danny Boyle won for 2008's Slumdog Millionaire.

Kathryn Bigelow is the first and only woman to date to win the award. She won for The Hurt Locker in 2009.

Tom Hooper won this award for The King's Speech in 2010.

Michel Hazanavicius became the first French director to win the award for his work on The Artist.

In 2013, Alfonso Cuarón became the first Mexican director to win the award for his work on Gravity.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu won this award two years in a row becoming the third director to achieve this, and the first since 1950, for directing Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015).

Guillermo del Toro won this award for directing The Shape of Water (2017).

Year	Director(s)	Film	Ref.
1920s
1927/28 (1st)	Frank Borzage (Dramatic)	7th Heaven	[11]
	Herbert Brenon (Dramatic)	Sorrell and Son
	King Vidor (Dramatic)	The Crowd
	Lewis Milestone (Comedy)	Two Arabian Knights
	Ted Wilde (Comedy)	Speedy
1928/1929 (2nd) [note 1]	Frank Lloyd	The Divine Lady	[12]
	Lionel Barrymore	Madame X
	Harry Beaumont	The Broadway Melody
	Irving Cummings	In Old Arizona
	Frank Lloyd	Drag
		Weary River
	Ernst Lubitsch	The Patriot
1930s
1929/1930 (3rd)	Lewis Milestone	All Quiet on the Western Front	[13]
	Clarence Brown	Anna Christie
		Romance
	Robert Z. Leonard	The Divorcee
	Ernst Lubitsch	The Love Parade
	King Vidor	Hallelujah!
1930/1931 (4th)	Norman Taurog	Skippy	[14]
	Clarence Brown	A Free Soul
	Lewis Milestone	The Front Page
	Wesley Ruggles	Cimarron
	Josef von Sternberg	Morocco
1931/1932 (5th)	Frank Borzage	Bad Girl	[15]
	King Vidor	The Champ
	Josef von Sternberg	Shanghai Express
1932/1933 (6th)	Frank Lloyd	Cavalcade	[16]
	Frank Capra	Lady for a Day
	George Cukor	Little Women
1934 (7th)	Frank Capra	It Happened One Night	[17]
	Victor Schertzinger	One Night of Love
	W. S. Van Dyke	The Thin Man
1935 (8th)	John Ford	The Informer	[18]
	Henry Hathaway	The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
	Frank Lloyd	Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 (9th)	Frank Capra	Mr. Deeds Goes to Town	[19]
	Gregory La Cava	My Man Godfrey
	Robert Z. Leonard	The Great Ziegfeld
	W. S. Van Dyke	San Francisco
	William Wyler	Dodsworth
1937 (10th)	Leo McCarey	The Awful Truth	[20]
	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 (11th)	Frank Capra	You Can't Take It with You	[21]
	Michael Curtiz	Angels with Dirty Faces
		Four Daughters
	Norman Taurog	Boys Town
	King Vidor	The Citadel
1939 (12th)	Victor Fleming	Gone with the Wind	[22]
	Frank Capra	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
	John Ford	Stagecoach
	Sam Wood	Goodbye, Mr. Chips
	William Wyler	Wuthering Heights
1940s
1940 (13th)	John Ford	The Grapes of Wrath	[23]
	George Cukor	The Philadelphia Story
	Alfred Hitchcock	Rebecca
	Sam Wood	Kitty Foyle
	William Wyler	The Letter
1941 (14th)	John Ford	How Green Was My Valley	[24]
	Alexander Hall	Here Comes Mr. Jordan
	Howard Hawks	Sergeant York
	Orson Welles	Citizen Kane
	William Wyler	The Little Foxes
1942 (15th)	William Wyler	Mrs. Miniver	[25]
	Michael Curtiz	Yankee Doodle Dandy
	John Farrow	Wake Island
	Mervyn LeRoy	Random Harvest
	Sam Wood	Kings Row
1943 (16th)	Michael Curtiz	Casablanca	[26]
	Clarence Brown	The Human Comedy
	Henry King	The Song of Bernadette
	Ernst Lubitsch	Heaven Can Wait
	George Stevens	The More the Merrier
1944 (17th)	Leo McCarey	Going My Way	[27]
	Alfred Hitchcock	Lifeboat
	Henry King	Wilson
	Otto Preminger	Laura
	Billy Wilder	Double Indemnity
1945 (18th)	Billy Wilder	The Lost Weekend	[28]
	Clarence Brown	National Velvet
	Alfred Hitchcock	Spellbound
	Leo McCarey	The Bells of St. Mary's
	Jean Renoir	The Southerner
1946 (19th)	William Wyler	The Best Years of Our Lives	[29]
	Clarence Brown	The Yearling
	Frank Capra	It's a Wonderful Life
	David Lean	Brief Encounter
	Robert Siodmak	The Killers
1947 (20th)	Elia Kazan	Gentleman's Agreement	[30]
	George Cukor	A Double Life
	Edward Dmytryk	Crossfire
	Henry Koster	The Bishop's Wife
	David Lean	Great Expectations
1948 (21st)	John Huston	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	[31]
	Anatole Litvak	The Snake Pit
	Jean Negulesco	Johnny Belinda
	Laurence Olivier	Hamlet
	Fred Zinnemann	The Search
1949 (22nd)	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	A Letter to Three Wives	[32]
	Carol Reed	The Fallen Idol
	Robert Rossen	All the King's Men
	William A. Wellman	Battleground
	William Wyler	The Heiress
1950s
1950 (23rd)	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	All About Eve	[33]
	George Cukor	Born Yesterday
	John Huston	The Asphalt Jungle
	Carol Reed	The Third Man
	Billy Wilder	Sunset Boulevard
1951 (24th)	George Stevens	A Place in the Sun	[34]
	John Huston	The African Queen
	Elia Kazan	A Streetcar Named Desire
	Vincente Minnelli	An American in Paris
	William Wyler	Detective Story
1952 (25th)	John Ford	The Quiet Man	[35]
	Cecil B. DeMille	The Greatest Show on Earth
	John Huston	Moulin Rouge
	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	5 Fingers
	Fred Zinnemann	High Noon
1953 (26th)	Fred Zinnemann	From Here to Eternity	[36]
	George Stevens	Shane
	Charles Walters	Lili
	Billy Wilder	Stalag 17
	William Wyler	Roman Holiday
1954 (27th)	Elia Kazan	On the Waterfront	[37]
	Alfred Hitchcock	Rear Window
	George Seaton	The Country Girl
	William A. Wellman	The High and the Mighty
	Billy Wilder	Sabrina
1955 (28th)	Delbert Mann	Marty	[38]
	Elia Kazan	East of Eden
	David Lean	Summertime
	Joshua Logan	Picnic
	John Sturges	Bad Day at Black Rock
1956 (29th)	George Stevens	Giant	[39]
	Michael Anderson	Around the World in 80 Days
	Walter Lang	The King and I
	King Vidor	War and Peace
	William Wyler	Friendly Persuasion
1957 (30th)	David Lean	The Bridge on the River Kwai	[40]
	Joshua Logan	Sayonara
	Sidney Lumet	12 Angry Men
	Mark Robson	Peyton Place
	Billy Wilder	Witness for the Prosecution
1958 (31st)	Vincente Minnelli	Gigi	[41]
	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 (32nd)	William Wyler	Ben-Hur	[42]
	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
1960 (33rd)	Billy Wilder	The Apartment	[43]
	Jack Cardiff	Sons and Lovers
	Jules Dassin	Never on Sunday
	Alfred Hitchcock	Psycho
	Fred Zinnemann	The Sundowners
1961 (34th)	Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins	West Side Story	[44]
	Federico Fellini	La Dolce Vita
	Stanley Kramer	Judgment at Nuremberg
	Robert Rossen	The Hustler
	J. Lee Thompson	The Guns of Navarone
1962 (35th)	David Lean	Lawrence of Arabia	[45]
	Pietro Germi	Divorce Italian Style
	Robert Mulligan	To Kill a Mockingbird
	Arthur Penn	The Miracle Worker
	Frank Perry	David and Lisa
1963 (36th)	Tony Richardson	Tom Jones	[46]
	Federico Fellini	8½
	Elia Kazan	America America
	Otto Preminger	The Cardinal
	Martin Ritt	Hud
1964 (37th)	George Cukor	My Fair Lady	[47]
	Michael Cacoyannis	Zorba the Greek
	Peter Glenville	Becket
	Stanley Kubrick	Dr. Strangelove
	Robert Stevenson	Mary Poppins
1965 (38th)	Robert Wise	The Sound of Music	[48]
	David Lean	Doctor Zhivago
	John Schlesinger	Darling
	Hiroshi Teshigahara	Woman in the Dunes
	William Wyler	The Collector
1966 (39th)	Fred Zinnemann	A Man for All Seasons	[49]
	Michelangelo Antonioni	Blowup
	Richard Brooks	The Professionals
	Claude Lelouch	A Man and a Woman
	Mike Nichols	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 (40th)	Mike Nichols	The Graduate	[50]
	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 (41st)	Carol Reed	Oliver!	[51]
	Anthony Harvey	The Lion in Winter
	Stanley Kubrick	2001: A Space Odyssey
	Gillo Pontecorvo	The Battle of Algiers
	Franco Zeffirelli	Romeo and Juliet
1969 (42nd)	John Schlesinger	Midnight Cowboy	[52]
	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
1970 (43rd)	Franklin J. Schaffner	Patton	[53]
	Robert Altman	M*A*S*H
	Federico Fellini	Fellini Satyricon
	Arthur Hiller	Love Story
	Ken Russell	Women in Love
1971 (44th)	William Friedkin	The French Connection	[54]
	Peter Bogdanovich	The Last Picture Show
	Norman Jewison	Fiddler on the Roof
	Stanley Kubrick	A Clockwork Orange
	John Schlesinger	Sunday Bloody Sunday
1972 (45th)	Bob Fosse	Cabaret	[55]
	John Boorman	Deliverance
	Francis Ford Coppola	The Godfather
	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	Sleuth
	Jan Troell	The Emigrants
1973 (46th)	George Roy Hill	The Sting	[56]
	Ingmar Bergman	Cries and Whispers
	Bernardo Bertolucci	Last Tango in Paris
	William Friedkin	The Exorcist
	George Lucas	American Graffiti
1974 (47th)	Francis Ford Coppola	The Godfather Part II	[57]
	John Cassavetes	A Woman Under the Influence
	Bob Fosse	Lenny
	Roman Polanski	Chinatown
	François Truffaut	Day for Night
1975 (48th)	Miloš Forman	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	[58]
	Robert Altman	Nashville
	Federico Fellini	Amarcord
	Stanley Kubrick	Barry Lyndon
	Sidney Lumet	Dog Day Afternoon
1976 (49th)	John G. Avildsen	Rocky	[59]
	Ingmar Bergman	Face to Face
	Sidney Lumet	Network
	Alan J. Pakula	All the President's Men
	Lina Wertmüller	Seven Beauties
1977 (50th)	Woody Allen	Annie Hall	[60]
	George Lucas	Star Wars
	Herbert Ross	The Turning Point
	Steven Spielberg	Close Encounters of the Third Kind
	Fred Zinnemann	Julia
1978 (51st)	Michael Cimino	The Deer Hunter	[61]
	Woody Allen	Interiors
	Hal Ashby	Coming Home
	Warren Beatty Buck Henry	Heaven Can Wait
	Alan Parker	Midnight Express
1979 (52nd)	Robert Benton	Kramer vs. Kramer	[62]
	Francis Ford Coppola	Apocalypse Now
	Bob Fosse	All That Jazz
	Édouard Molinaro	La Cage aux Folles
	Peter Yates	Breaking Away
1980s
1980 (53rd)	Robert Redford	Ordinary People	[63]
	David Lynch	The Elephant Man
	Roman Polanski	Tess
	Richard Rush	The Stunt Man
	Martin Scorsese	Raging Bull
1981 (54th)	Warren Beatty	Reds	[64]
	Hugh Hudson	Chariots of Fire
	Louis Malle	Atlantic City
	Mark Rydell	On Golden Pond
	Steven Spielberg	Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 (55th)	Richard Attenborough	Gandhi	[65]
	Sidney Lumet	The Verdict
	Wolfgang Petersen	Das Boot
	Sydney Pollack	Tootsie
	Steven Spielberg	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1983 (56th)	James L. Brooks	Terms of Endearment	[66]
	Bruce Beresford	Tender Mercies
	Ingmar Bergman	Fanny and Alexander
	Mike Nichols	Silkwood
	Peter Yates	The Dresser
1984 (57th)	Miloš Forman	Amadeus	[67]
	Woody Allen	Broadway Danny Rose
	Robert Benton	Places in the Heart
	Roland Joffé	The Killing Fields
	David Lean	A Passage to India
1985 (58th)	Sydney Pollack	Out of Africa	[68]
	Héctor Babenco	Kiss of the Spider Woman
	John Huston	Prizzi's Honor
	Akira Kurosawa	Ran
	Peter Weir	Witness
1986 (59th)	Oliver Stone	Platoon	[69]
	Woody Allen	Hannah and Her Sisters
	James Ivory	A Room with a View
	Roland Joffé	The Mission
	David Lynch	Blue Velvet
1987 (60th)	Bernardo Bertolucci	The Last Emperor	[70]
	John Boorman	Hope and Glory
	Lasse Hallström	My Life as a Dog
	Norman Jewison	Moonstruck
	Adrian Lyne	Fatal Attraction
1988 (61st)	Barry Levinson	Rain Man	[71]
	Charles Crichton	A Fish Called Wanda
	Mike Nichols	Working Girl
	Alan Parker	Mississippi Burning
	Martin Scorsese	The Last Temptation of Christ
1989 (62nd)	Oliver Stone	Born on the Fourth of July	[72]
	Woody Allen	Crimes and Misdemeanors
	Kenneth Branagh	Henry V
	Jim Sheridan	My Left Foot
	Peter Weir	Dead Poets Society
1990s
1990 (63rd)	Kevin Costner	Dances with Wolves	[73]
	Francis Ford Coppola	The Godfather Part III
	Stephen Frears	The Grifters
	Barbet Schroeder	Reversal of Fortune
	Martin Scorsese	Goodfellas
1991 (64th)	Jonathan Demme	The Silence of the Lambs	[74]
	Barry Levinson	Bugsy
	Ridley Scott	Thelma & Louise
	John Singleton	Boyz n the Hood
	Oliver Stone	JFK
1992 (65th)	Clint Eastwood	Unforgiven	[75]
	Robert Altman	The Player
	Martin Brest	Scent of a Woman
	James Ivory	Howards End
	Neil Jordan	The Crying Game
1993 (66th)	Steven Spielberg	Schindler's List	[76]
	Robert Altman	Short Cuts
	Jane Campion	The Piano
	James Ivory	The Remains of the Day
	Jim Sheridan	In the Name of the Father
1994 (67th)	Robert Zemeckis	Forrest Gump	[77]
	Woody Allen	Bullets over Broadway
	Krzysztof Kieślowski	Three Colours: Red
	Robert Redford	Quiz Show
	Quentin Tarantino	Pulp Fiction
1995 (68th)	Mel Gibson	Braveheart	[78]
	Mike Figgis	Leaving Las Vegas
	Chris Noonan	Babe
	Michael Radford	Il Postino: The Postman
	Tim Robbins	Dead Man Walking
1996 (69th)	Anthony Minghella	The English Patient	[79]
	Joel Coen	Fargo
	Miloš Forman	The People vs. Larry Flynt
	Scott Hicks	Shine
	Mike Leigh	Secrets & Lies
1997 (70th)	James Cameron	Titanic	[80]
	Peter Cattaneo	The Full Monty
	Atom Egoyan	The Sweet Hereafter
	Curtis Hanson	L.A. Confidential
	Gus Van Sant	Good Will Hunting
1998 (71st)	Steven Spielberg	Saving Private Ryan	[81]
	Roberto Benigni	Life Is Beautiful
	John Madden	Shakespeare in Love
	Terrence Malick	The Thin Red Line
	Peter Weir	The Truman Show
1999 (72nd)	Sam Mendes	American Beauty	[82]
	Lasse Hallström	The Cider House Rules
	Spike Jonze	Being John Malkovich
	Michael Mann	The Insider
	M. Night Shyamalan	The Sixth Sense
2000s
2000 (73rd)	Steven Soderbergh	Traffic	[83]
	Stephen Daldry	Billy Elliot
	Ang Lee	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
	Ridley Scott	Gladiator
	Steven Soderbergh	Erin Brockovich
2001 (74th)	Ron Howard	A Beautiful Mind	[84]
	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 (75th)	Roman Polanski	The Pianist	[85]
	Pedro Almodóvar	Talk to Her
	Stephen Daldry	The Hours
	Rob Marshall	Chicago
	Martin Scorsese	Gangs of New York
2003 (76th)	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	[86]
	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 (77th)	Clint Eastwood	Million Dollar Baby	[87]
	Taylor Hackford	Ray
	Mike Leigh	Vera Drake
	Alexander Payne	Sideways
	Martin Scorsese	The Aviator
2005 (78th)	Ang Lee	Brokeback Mountain	[88]
	George Clooney	Good Night, and Good Luck
	Paul Haggis	Crash
	Bennett Miller	Capote
	Steven Spielberg	Munich
2006 (79th)	Martin Scorsese	The Departed	[89]
	Clint Eastwood	Letters from Iwo Jima
	Stephen Frears	The Queen
	Paul Greengrass	United 93
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	Babel
2007 (80th)	Coen Brothers	No Country for Old Men	[90]
	Paul Thomas Anderson	There Will Be Blood
	Tony Gilroy	Michael Clayton
	Jason Reitman	Juno
	Julian Schnabel	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
2008 (81st)	Danny Boyle	Slumdog Millionaire	[91]
	Stephen Daldry	The Reader
	David Fincher	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
	Ron Howard	Frost/Nixon
	Gus Van Sant	Milk
2009 (82nd)	Kathryn Bigelow	The Hurt Locker	[92]
	James Cameron	Avatar
	Lee Daniels	Precious
	Jason Reitman	Up in the Air
	Quentin Tarantino	Inglourious Basterds
2010s
2010 (83rd)	Tom Hooper	The King's Speech	[93]
	Darren Aronofsky	Black Swan
	Coen Brothers	True Grit
	David Fincher	The Social Network
	David O. Russell	The Fighter
2011 (84th)	Michel Hazanavicius	The Artist	[94]
	Woody Allen	Midnight in Paris
	Terrence Malick	The Tree of Life
	Alexander Payne	The Descendants
	Martin Scorsese	Hugo
2012 (85th)	Ang Lee	Life of Pi	[95]
	Michael Haneke	Amour
	David O. Russell	Silver Linings Playbook
	Steven Spielberg	Lincoln
	Benh Zeitlin	Beasts of the Southern Wild
2013 (86th)	Alfonso Cuarón	Gravity	[96]
	Steve McQueen	12 Years a Slave
	Alexander Payne	Nebraska
	David O. Russell	American Hustle
	Martin Scorsese	The Wolf of Wall Street
2014 (87th)	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	Birdman	[97]
	Wes Anderson	The Grand Budapest Hotel
	Richard Linklater	Boyhood
	Bennett Miller	Foxcatcher
	Morten Tyldum	The Imitation Game
2015 (88th)	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	The Revenant	[98]
	Lenny Abrahamson	Room
	Tom McCarthy	Spotlight
	Adam McKay	The Big Short
	George Miller	Mad Max: Fury Road
2016 (89th)	Damien Chazelle	La La Land	[99]
	Mel Gibson	Hacksaw Ridge
	Barry Jenkins	Moonlight
	Kenneth Lonergan	Manchester by the Sea
	Denis Villeneuve	Arrival
2017 (90th)	Guillermo del Toro	The Shape of Water	[100]
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Phantom Thread
	Greta Gerwig	Lady Bird
	Christopher Nolan	Dunkirk
	Jordan Peele	Get Out

Multiple wins and nominations[edit]

The following individuals have won multiple Best Director awards: Wins Director 4 John Ford 3 Frank Capra William Wyler 2 Frank Borzage Clint Eastwood Miloš Forman Alejandro G. Iñárritu Elia Kazan David Lean Ang Lee Frank Lloyd Joseph L. Mankiewicz Leo McCarey Lewis Milestone Steven Spielberg George Stevens Oliver Stone Billy Wilder Robert Wise Fred Zinnemann

John Ford has the most Best Director wins with four, winning in 1935, 1940, 1941, and 1952. William Wyler has the most nominations with twelve, winning in 1942, 1946, and 1959. Clarence Brown was nominated six times between 1929 and 1946, but never won the award—the most nominations without a success. The following directors have received four or more Best Director nominations (* indicates no wins): Nominations Director 12 William Wyler 8 Martin Scorsese Billy Wilder 7 Woody Allen David Lean Steven Spielberg Fred Zinnemann 6 Clarence Brown* Frank Capra 5 Robert Altman* George Cukor Michael Curtiz John Ford Alfred Hitchcock* John Huston Elia Kazan Frank Lloyd George Stevens King Vidor* 4 Francis Ford Coppola Clint Eastwood Federico Fellini* Stanley Kubrick* Sidney Lumet* Joseph L. Mankiewicz Mike Nichols Peter Weir*

Age superlatives[edit]

Clint Eastwood won in 1992 for Unforgiven and became the oldest director to win in the category with Million Dollar Baby in 2004.

Diversity of nominees/winners[edit]

Asian nominees/winners[edit]

As of the 90th Academy Awards, four Asian directors have been nominated a total of six times in this category, and one director has won the award twice.

• 1965 – Hiroshi Teshigahara for Woman in the Dunes
  


• 1985 – Akira Kurosawa for Ran
  


• 1999 – M. Night Shyamalan for The Sixth Sense
  


• 2000 – Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  


• 2005 – Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain
  


• 2012 – Ang Lee for Life of Pi
  

Black nominees[edit]

As of the 90th Academy Awards, five black directors have been nominated in this category one time each, and none have won the award.^[102]

• 1991 – John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood
  


• 2009 – Lee Daniels for Precious
  


• 2013 – Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
  


• 2016 – Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
  


• 2017 – Jordan Peele for Get Out
  

Female nominees/winners[edit]

As of the 90th Academy Awards, five female directors have been nominated in this category one time each, and one has won the award.^[103]

• 1976 – Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties
  


• 1993 – Jane Campion for The Piano
  


• 2003 – Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation
  


• 2009 – Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
  


• 2017 – Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
  

Hispanic/Latino nominees/winners[edit]

As of the 90th Academy Awards, six Hispanic/Latino directors have been nominated a total of eight times in this category with four wins among them.

• 1985 – Héctor Babenco for Kiss of the Spider Woman
  


• 2002 – Pedro Almodóvar for Talk to Her
  


• 2003 – Fernando Meirelles for City of God
  


• 2006 – Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Babel
  


• 2013 – Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
  


• 2014 – Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Birdman
  


• 2015 – Alejandro G. Iñárritu for The Revenant
  


• 2017 – Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
  

Notes[edit]

See also[edit]

• BAFTA Award for Best Direction


• Golden Globe Award for Best Director


• Independent Spirit Award for Best Director


• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director


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

References[edit]