|
1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s |
Academy Award for
Directing
The Academy Award for Directing
is an accolade given to the person that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences feels was best director of the past year. The expression of approval is
given, along with an Oscar Statuette and a chance for the director to speak, at
an annual Academy Awards ceremony. All but twenty-one of the seventy-eight
Oscars for best director were for films that also won the award for best
picture. The Academy has selected one director from five nominees each year for
the past seven decades to receive the honor. For the first few Academy Awards
ceremonies, starting in 1927, the ceremony honored the best films released in a
year-long period between August of one year and August of the following year.
While the award is considered a good way to sum up the most successful and
talented American film directors, several revered directors such as Stanley
Kubrick, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock never won the award. Martin Scorsese
and Robert Altman, who have each been nominated for best director five times,
are considered to be among the greatest living American directors without
Oscars. John Ford is the only director with 4 Best Director Oscars, followed by
Frank Capra and William Wyler with 3 Best Director Academy Awards.
1927/1928 Frank Borzage - Seventh Heaven
Herbert Brenon - Sorrell and Son
King Vidor - The Crowd
In the first year only a separate award was given for Comedy Direction
1927/1928 Lewis Milestone Two Arabian Knights
Charles Chaplin - The Circus
Ted Wilde - Speedy
1928/1929 Frank Lloyd - The Divine Lady
Lionel Barrymore - Madame X
Harry Beaumont - Broadway Melody
Irving Cummings - In Old Arizona
Frank Lloyd - Weary River and Drag
Ernst Lubitsch - The Patriot
1929/1930 Lewis Milestone - All Quiet on the Western Front
Clarence Brown - Anna Christie
Clarence Brown - Romance
Robert Z. Leonard - The Divorcée
Ernst Lubitsch - The Love Parade
King Vidor - Hallelujah
1930/1931 Norman Taurog - Skippy
Clarence Brown - A Free Soul
Lewis Milestone - The Front Page
Wesley Ruggles - Cimarron
Josef von Sternberg - Morocco
1931/1932 Frank Borzage - Bad Girl
King Vidor - The Champ
Josef von Sternberg - Shanghai Express
1932/1933 Frank Lloyd - Cavalcade
Frank Capra - Lady for a Day
George Cukor - Little Women
1934 Frank Capra - It Happened One Night
Victor Schertzinger - One Night of Love
W. S. Van Dyke - The Thin Man
1935 John Ford - The Informer
Henry Hathaway - Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Frank Lloyd - Mutiny on the Bounty
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 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
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 - 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
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 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 Eighty 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
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, 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 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
the Bomb
Robert Stevenson - Mary Poppins
1965 Robert Wise - The Sound of Music
David Lean - Doctor Zhivago
John Schlesinger - Darling
Hiroshi Teshigahara - Woman in the Dunes
William Wyler - The Collector
1966 Fred Zinnemann - A Man for All Seasons
Michelangelo Antonioni - Blow-Up
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?
1970 Franklin J. Schaffner - Patton
Robert Altman - M*A*S*H
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 - La Nuit américaine
1975 Milos 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 Episode IV: A New Hope
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
Edouard Molinaro - La Cage aux Folles
Peter Yates - Breaking Away
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 Milos 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
Hector 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 Joffe - 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
Martin Scorsese - The Last Temptation of Christ
Alan Parker - Mississippi Burning
Mike Nichols - Working Girl
1989 Oliver Stone - Born on the Fourth of July
Woody Allen - Crimes and Misdemeanors
Peter Weir - Dead Poets Society
Kenneth Branagh - Henry V
Jim Sheridan - My Left Foot
1990 Kevin Costner - Dances with Wolves
Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather: Part III
Martin Scorsese - Goodfellas
Stephen Frears - The Grifters
Barbet Schroeder - Reversal of Fortune
1991 Jonathan Demme - The Silence of the Lambs
John Singleton - Boyz N the Hood
Barry Levinson - Bugsy
Oliver Stone - JFK
Ridley Scott - Thelma and Louise
1992 Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
Neil Jordan - The Crying Game
James Ivory - Howards End
Robert Altman - The Player
Martin Brest - Scent of a Woman
1993 Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List
Jim Sheridan - In the Name of the Father
Jane Campion - The Piano
James Ivory - The Remains of the Day
Robert Altman - Short Cuts
1994 Robert Zemeckis - Forrest Gump
Woody Allen - Bullets Over Broadway
Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
Robert Redford - Quiz Show
Krzysztof Kieślowski - Trois Couleurs Rouge a.k.a. Three Colors: Red
1995 Mel Gibson - Braveheart
Chris Noonan - Babe
Tim Robbins - Dead Man Walking
Mike Figgis - Leaving Las Vegas
Michael Radford - Il Postino a.k.a. The Postman
1996 Anthony Minghella - The English Patient
Milos Forman - The People vs. Larry Flynt
Joel Coen - Fargo
Mike Leigh - Secrets & Lies
Scott Hicks - Shine
1997 James Cameron - Titanic
Peter Cattaneo - The Full Monty
Gus Van Sant - Good Will Hunting
Curtis Hanson - L.A. Confidential
Atom Egoyan - The Sweet Hereafter
1998 Steven Spielberg - Saving Private Ryan
John Madden - Shakespeare in Love
Terrence Malick - The Thin Red Line
Peter Weir - The Truman Show
Roberto Benigni - La Vita è Bella a.k.a. Life Is Beautiful
1999 Sam Mendes - American Beauty
Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich
Lasse Hallström - The Cider House Rules
Michael Mann - The Insider
M. Night Shyamalan - The Sixth Sense
2000 Steven Soderbergh - Traffic
Stephen Daldry - Billy Elliot
Steven Soderbergh - Erin Brockovich
Ridley Scott - Gladiator
Ang Lee - Wo hu cang long a.k.a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2001 Ron Howard - A Beautiful Mind
Ridley Scott - Black Hawk Down
Robert Altman - Gosford Park
Peter Jackson - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
David Lynch - Mulholland Drive
2002 Roman Polanski - The Pianist
Rob Marshall - Chicago
Martin Scorsese - Gangs of New York
Pedro Almodóvar - Hable con ella
Stephen Daldry - The Hours
2003 Peter Jackson - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Fernando Meirelles - City of God
Sofia Coppola - Lost in Translation
Peter Weir - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Clint Eastwood - Mystic River
2004 Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Martin Scorsese - The Aviator
Taylor Hackford - Ray
Alexander Payne - Sideways
Mike Leigh - Vera Drake
2005 Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain
Bennett Miller - Capote
Paul Haggis - Crash
George Clooney - Good Night, and Good Luck
Steven Spielberg - Munich