“You make a guy work really hard for one of these.”
— Paul Thomas Anderson finally winning an Oscar in 2026 after a record 14 nominations and losses, particularly 3 times in this category
A list of people who have won and been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Directing.
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1927– 1939
- 1927-28: Frank Borzage for 7th Heaven (Dramatic) (winner)
- Herbert Brenon for Sorrell and Son
- King Vidor for The Crowd
- 1927-28: Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights (Comedic) (winner)
- Ted Wilde for Speedy
- 1928-29: Frank Lloyd for The Divine Lady (winner)
- Roland West for Alibi
- Harry Beaumont for The Broadway Melody
- Frank Lloyd for Drag
- Irving Cummings for In Old Arizona
- Ernst Lubitsch for The Patriot (lost film)
- Frank Lloyd for Weary River
- 1929-30: Lewis Milestone for All Quiet on the Western Front (winner)
- Clarence Brown for Anna Christie
- Robert Z Leonard for The Divorcee
- Ernst Lubitsch for The Love Parade
- King Vidor for Hallelujah!
- Clarence Brown for Romance
- 1930-31: Norman Taurog for Skippy (winner)
- Wesley Ruggles for Cimarron
- Clarence Brown for A Free Soul
- Lewis Milestone for The Front Page
- Josef von Sternberg for Morocco
- 1931-32: Frank Borzage for Bad Girl (winner)
- 1932-33: Frank Lloyd for Cavalcade (winner)
- 1934: Frank Capra for It Happened One Night (winner)
- Victor Schertzinger for One Night of Love
- WS Van Dyke for The Thin Man
- 1935: John Ford for The Informer (winner)
- Henry Hathaway for The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
- Frank Lloyd for Mutiny on the Bounty
- 1936: Frank Capra for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (winner)
- William Wyler for Dodsworth
- Robert Z Leonard for The Great Ziegfeld
- Gregory La Cava for My Man Godfrey
- WS Van Dyke for San Francisco
- 1937: Leo McCarey for The Awful Truth (winner)
- Sidney Franklin for The Good Earth
- William Dieterle for The Life of Émile Zola
- Gregory La Cava for Stage Door
- William A. Wellman for A Star Is Born
- 1938: Frank Capra for You Can't Take It With You (winner)
- Michael Curtiz for Angels with Dirty Faces
- Norman Taurog for Boys Town
- King Vidor for The Citadel
- Michael Curtiz for Four Daughters
- 1939: Victor Fleming for Gone with the Wind (winner)
- Sam Wood for Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- Frank Capra for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- John Ford for Stagecoach
- William Wyler for Wuthering Heights
1940– 1949
- 1940: John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath (winner)
- Sam Wood for Kitty Foyle
- William Wyler for The Letter
- George Cukor for The Philadelphia Story
- Alfred Hitchcock for Rebecca
- 1941: John Ford for How Green Was My Valley (winner)
- Orson Welles for Citizen Kane
- Alexander Hall for Here Comes Mr. Jordan
- William Wyler for The Little Foxes
- Howard Hawks for Sergeant York
- 1942: William Wyler for Mrs. Miniver (winner)
- Sam Wood for Kings Row
- Mervyn LeRoy for Random Harvest
- John Farrow for Wake Island
- Michael Curtiz for Yankee Doodle Dandy
- 1943: Michael Curtiz for Casablanca (winner)
- Ernst Lubitsch for Heaven Can Wait
- Clarence Brown for The Human Comedy
- George Stevens for The More the Merrier
- Henry King for The Song of Bernadette
- 1944: Leo McCarey for Going My Way (winner)
- Billy Wilder for Double Indemnity
- Otto Preminger for Laura
- Alfred Hitchcock for Lifeboat
- Henry King for Wilson
- 1945: Billy Wilder for The Lost Weekend (winner)
- 1946: William Wyler for The Best Years of Our Lives (winner)
- 1947: Elia Kazan for Gentleman's Agreement (winner)
- 1948: John Huston for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (winner)
- Laurence Olivier for Hamlet
- Jean Negulesco for Johnny Belinda
- Fred Zinnemann for The Search
- Anatole Litvak for The Snake Pit
- 1949: Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives (winner)
- Robert Rossen for All the King's Men
- William A. Wellman for Battleground
- Carol Reed for The Fallen Idol
- William Wyler for The Heiress
1950– 1959
- 1950: Joseph L. Mankiewicz for All About Eve (winner)
- 1951: George Stevens for A Place in the Sun (winner)
- 1952: John Ford for The Quiet Man (winner)
- 1953: Fred Zinnemann for From Here to Eternity (winner)
- Charles Walters for Lilli
- William Wyler for Roman Holiday
- George Stevens for Shane
- Billy Wilder for Stalag 17
- 1954: Elia Kazan for On the Waterfront (winner)
- George Seaton for The Country Girl
- William A. Wellman for The High and the Mighty
- Alfred Hitchcock for Rear Window
- Billy Wilder for Sabrina
- 1955: Delbert Mann for Marty (winner)
- John Sturges for Bad Day at Black Rock
- Elia Kazan for East of Eden
- Joshua Logan for Picnic
- David Lean for Summertime
- 1956: George Stevens for Giant (winner)
- Michael Anderson for Around the World in 80 Days
- William Wyler' for Friendly Persuasion
- Walter Lang for The King and I
- King Vidor for War and Peace
- 1957: David Lean for The Bridge on the River Kwai (winner)
- Sidney Lumet for 12 Angry Men
- Mark Robson for Peyton Place
- Joshua Logan for Sayonara
- Billy Wilder for Witness for the Prosecution
- 1958: Vincente Minnelli for Gigi (winner)
- Richard Brooks for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Stanley Kramer for The Defiant Ones
- Robert Wise for I Want to Live!
- Mark Robson for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
- 1959: William Wyler for Ben-Hur (winner)
- George Stevens for The Diary of Anne Frank
- Fred Zinnemann for The Nun's Story
- Jack Clayton for Room at the Top
- Billy Wilder for Some Like It Hot
1960– 1969
- 1960: Billy Wilder for The Apartment (winner)
- Jules Dassin for Never on Sunday
- Alfred Hitchcock for Psycho
- Jack Cardiff for Sons and Lovers
- Fred Zinnemann for The Sundowners
- 1961: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (winner)
- Federico Fellini for La Dolce Vita
- J Lee Thompson for The Guns of Navarone
- Robert Rossen for The Hustler
- Stanley Kramer for Judgment at Nuremberg
- 1962: David Lean for Lawrence of Arabia (winner)
- Frank Perry for David and Lisa
- Pietro Germi for Divorce Italian Style
- Arthur Penn for The Miracle Worker
- Robert Mulligan for To Kill a Mockingbird
- 1963: Tony Richardson for Tom Jones (winner)
- Elia Kazan for America America
- Otto Preminger for The Cardinal
- Martin Ritt for Hud
- Federico Fellini for 8½
- 1964: George Cukor for My Fair Lady (winner)
- Peter Glenville for Becket
- Stanley Kubrick for Dr. Strangelove
- Robert Stevenson for Mary Poppins
- Michael Cacoyanis for Zorba the Greek
- 1965: Robert Wise for The Sound of Music (winner)
- William Wyler for The Collector
- John Schlesinger for Darling
- David Lean for Doctor Zhivago
- Hiroshi Teshigahara for Woman in the Dunes
- 1966: Fred Zinnemann for A Man for All Seasons (winner)
- Michelangelo Antonioni for Blowup
- Claude Lelouch for A Man and a Woman
- Richard Brooks for The Professionals
- Mike Nichols for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- 1967: Mike Nichols for The Graduate (winner)
- Arthur Penn for Bonnie and Clyde
- Stanley Kramer for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
- Richard Brooks for In Cold Blood
- Norman Jewison for In the Heat of the Night
- 1968: Carol Reed for Oliver! (winner)
- Gillo Pontecorvo for The Battle of Algiers
- Anthony Harvey for The Lion in Winter
- Franco Zeffirelli for Romeo and Juliet
- Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey
- 1969: John Schlesinger for Midnight Cowboy (winner)
- Arthur Penn for Alice's Restauraunt
- George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- Sydney Pollack for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
- Costa-Gavras for Z
1970– 1979
- 1970: Franklin J Schaffner for Patton (winner)
- 1971: William Friedkin for The French Connection (winner)
- 1972: Bob Fosse for Cabaret (winner)
- John Boorman for Deliverance
- Jan Troell for The Emigrants
- Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Sleuth
- 1973: George Roy Hill for The Sting (winner)
- 1974: Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part II (winner)
- 1975: Miloš Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (winner)
- 1976: John G. Avildsen for Rocky (winner)
- Alan J. Pakula for All the President's Men
- Ingmar Bergman for Face to Face
- Sidney Lumet for Network
- Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties
- 1977: Woody Allen for Annie Hall (winner)
- Steven Spielberg for Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Fred Zinnemann for Julia
- George Lucas for Star Wars
- Herbert Ross for The Turning Point
- 1978: Michael Cimino for The Deer Hunter (winner)
- Hal Ashby for Coming Home
- Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait
- Woody Allen for Interiors
- Alan Parker for Midnight Express
- 1979: Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer (winner)
- Bob Fosse for All That Jazz
- Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now
- Peter Yates for Breaking Away
- Edouard Molinaro for La Cage aux folles
1980– 1989
- 1980: Robert Redford for Ordinary People (winner)
- David Lynch for The Elephant Man
- Martin Scorsese for Raging Bull
- Roman Polański for Tess
- Richard Rush for The Stuntman
- 1981: Warren Beatty for Reds (winner)
- Louis Malle for Atlantic City
- Hugh Hudson for Chariots of Fire
- Mark Rydell for On Golden Pond
- Steven Spielberg for Raiders of the Lost Ark
- 1982: Richard Attenborough for Gandhi (winner)
- 1983: James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (winner)
- 1984: Miloš Forman for Amadeus (winner)
- 1985: Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa (winner)
- 1986: Oliver Stone for Platoon (winner)
- 1987: Bernardo Bertolucci for The Last Emperor (winner)
- 1988: Barry Levinson for Rain Man (winner)
- Charles Crichton for A Fish Called Wanda
- Martin Scorsese for The Last Temptation of Christ
- Alan Parker for Mississippi Burning
- Mike Nichols for Working Girl
- 1989: Oliver Stone for Born on the Fourth of July (winner)
1990– 1999
- 1990: Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves (winner)
- 1991: Jonathan Demme for The Silence of the Lambs (winner)
- John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood
- Barry Levinson for Bugsy
- Oliver Stone for JFK
- Ridley Scott for Thelma & Louise
- 1992: Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven (winner)
- 1993: Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List (winner)
- 1994: Robert Zemeckis for Forrest Gump (winner)
- 1995: Mel Gibson for Braveheart (winner)
- Chris Noonan for Babe
- Tim Robbins for Dead Man Walking
- Michael Radford for Il Postino: The Postman
- Mike Figgis for Leaving Las Vegas
- 1996: Anthony Minghella for The English Patient (winner)
- The Coen Brothers for Fargo
- Miloš Forman for The People vs. Larry Flynt
- Mike Leigh for Secrets & Lies
- Scott Hicks for Shine
- 1997: James Cameron for Titanic (winner)
- Peter Cattaneo for The Full Monty
- Gus Van Sant for Good Will Hunting
- Curtis Hanson for L.A. Confidential
- Atom Egoyan for The Sweet Hereafter
- 1998: Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan (winner)
- Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful
- John Madden for Shakespeare in Love
- Terrence Malick for The Thin Red Line
- Peter Weir for The Truman Show
- 1999: Sam Mendes for American Beauty (winner)
2000– 2009
- 2000: Steven Soderbergh for Traffic (winner)
- Stephen Daldry for Billy Elliot
- Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich
- Ridley Scott for Gladiator
- 2001: Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind (winner)
- 2002: Roman Polański for The Pianist (winner)
- 2003: Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (winner)
- 2004: Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (winner)
- Martin Scorsese for The Aviator
- Taylor Hackford for Ray
- Alexander Payne for Sideways
- Mike Leigh for Vera Drake
- 2005: Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (winner)
- Bennett Miller for Capote
- Paul Haggis for Crash
- George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck.
- Steven Spielberg for Munich
- 2006: Martin Scorsese for The Departed (winner)
- 2007: The Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men (winner)
- 2008: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (winner)
- 2009: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (winner)
2010– 2019
- 2010: Tom Hooper for The King's Speech (winner)
- 2011: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist (winner)
- 2012: Ang Lee for Life of Pi (winner)
- Michael Haneke for Amour
- Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
- David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
- 2013: Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity (winner)
- 2014: Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (winner)
- Richard Linklater for Boyhood
- Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher
- Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game
- 2015: Alejandro González Iñárritu for The Revenant (winner)
- 2016: Damien Chazelle for La La Land (winner)
- Denis Villeneuve for Arrival
- Mel Gibson for Hacksaw Ridge
- Kenneth Longergan for Manchester by the Sea
- Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
- 2017: Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water (winner)
- 2018: Alfonso Cuarón for Roma (winner)
- Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman
- Paweł Pawlikowski for Cold War
- Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite
- Adam McKay for Vice
- 2019: Bong Joon-ho for Parasite (winner)
2020– 2029
- 2020-21: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland (winner)
- 2021: Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (winner)
- 2022: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (winner)
- 2023: Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer (winner)
- Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall
- Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon
- Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things
- Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest
- 2024: Sean Baker for Anora (winner)
- 2025: Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another (winner)
- Chloé Zhao for Hamnet
- Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme
- Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value
- Ryan Coogler for Sinners