Academy Award for best director | Winners, Years, & Facts | Britannica (2024)

Academy Award

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Also known as: Best Directing, Best Director, Oscar for best director

Written and fact-checked by

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Article History

Also called:
Oscar for best director
Key People:
Kathryn Bigelow
Related Topics:
directing
Academy Award
Notable Honorees:
Steven Spielberg
Woody Allen
Vincente Minnelli
John Huston

See all related content →

award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honours outstanding achievement by a director in a movie from a given year, as determined by the academy’s voting members. At the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, the award recognized the work in films from 1927–28, and it was offered in two categories: drama and comedy. However, the two Oscars were subsequently combined into one award that covered all genres. In addition, beginning with the seventh ceremony (1935), only work in movies released the previous year was eligible for consideration. The winning directors are given a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar.

John Ford has won the most Academy Awards for best director (four), and Frank Capra and William Wyler each have received three. Other notable recipients include Kathryn Bigelow, who is the first woman to earn the award (2010), and Chloé Zhao, the first director of color to win (2021). Below is a list of the winning directors and the films for which they won. The year is when the award was presented.

1929 and 1930s

  • 1929: best drama: Frank Borzage (7th Heaven [1927]); best comedy: Lewis Milestone (Two Arabian Knights [1927])

  • 1930: Frank Lloyd (The Divine Lady [1928])

  • 1931: Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front [1930])

  • 1932: Norman Taurog (Skippy [1931])

  • 1933: Frank Borzage (Bad Girl [1931])

  • 1934: Frank Lloyd (Cavalcade [1933])

  • (All subsequent films were released the previous year.)

  • 1935: Frank Capra (It Happened One Night)

  • 1936: John Ford (The Informer)

  • 1937: Frank Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town)

  • 1938: Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth)

  • 1939: Frank Capra (You Can’t Take It with You)

1940s and 1950s

  • 1940: Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind)

  • 1941: John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath)

  • 1942: John Ford (How Green Was My Valley)

  • 1943: William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver)

  • 1944: Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)

  • 1945: Leo McCarey (Going My Way)

  • 1946: Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend)

  • 1947: William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives)

  • 1948: Elia Kazan (Gentleman’s Agreement)

  • 1949: John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre)

  • 1950: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives)

  • 1951: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve)

  • 1952: George Stevens (A Place in the Sun)

  • 1953: John Ford (The Quiet Man)

  • 1954: Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity)

  • 1955: Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront)

  • 1956: Delbert Mann (Marty)

  • 1957: George Stevens (Giant)

  • 1958: David Lean (The Bridge on the River Kwai)

  • 1959: Vincente Minnelli (Gigi)

1960s and 1970s

  • 1960: William Wyler (Ben-Hur)

  • 1961: Billy Wilder (The Apartment)

  • 1962: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (West Side Story)

  • 1963: David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia)

  • 1964: Tony Richardson (Tom Jones)

  • 1965: George Cukor (My Fair Lady)

  • 1966: Robert Wise (The Sound of Music)

  • 1967: Fred Zinnemann (A Man for All Seasons)

  • 1968: Mike Nichols (The Graduate)

  • 1969: Carol Reed (Oliver!)

  • 1970: John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy)

  • 1971: Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton)

  • 1972: William Friedkin (The French Connection)

  • 1973: Bob Fosse (Cabaret)

  • 1974: George Roy Hill (The Sting)

  • 1975: Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather: Part II)

  • 1976: Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest)

  • 1977: John G. Avildsen (Rocky)

  • 1978: Woody Allen (Annie Hall)

  • 1979: Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter)

1980s and 1990s

  • 1980: Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer)

  • 1981: Robert Redford (Ordinary People)

  • 1982: Warren Beatty (Reds)

  • 1983: Richard Attenborough (Gandhi)

  • 1984: James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment)

  • 1985: Milos Forman (Amadeus)

  • 1986: Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa)

  • 1987: Oliver Stone (Platoon)

  • 1988: Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor)

  • 1989: Barry Levinson (Rain Man)

  • 1990: Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July)

  • 1991: Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves)

  • 1992: Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs)

  • 1993: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven)

  • 1994: Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List)

  • 1995: Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump)

  • 1996: Mel Gibson (Braveheart)

  • 1997: Anthony Minghella (The English Patient)

  • 1998: James Cameron (Titanic)

  • 1999: Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan)

2000s and 2010s

  • 2000: Sam Mendes (American Beauty)

  • 2001: Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)

  • 2002: Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind)

  • 2003: Roman Polanski (The Pianist)

  • 2004: Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)

  • 2005: Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby)

  • 2006: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)

  • 2007: Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

  • 2008: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)

  • 2009: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

  • 2010: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

  • 2011: Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

  • 2012: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)

  • 2013: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

  • 2014: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

  • 2015: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman or [The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance])

  • 2016: Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)

  • 2017: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

  • 2018: Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water)

  • 2019: Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)

2020s

  • 2020: Bong Joon-Ho (Parasite)

  • 2021: Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

  • 2022: Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)

  • 2023: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

  • 2024: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

Academy Award for best director | Winners, Years, & Facts | Britannica (2024)
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