Academy Award for Directing

The Academy Award for Directing is an Academy Award given to motion picture directorss.

Winning Director first, followed by competing nominees

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 (movie)
1928/1929 Frank Lloyd - The Divine Lady, Weary River and Drag
- Lionel Barrymore - Madame X
- Harry Beaumont - Broadway Melody
- Irving Cummings - In Old Arizona
- 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 Divorc�e
- 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
- Woodbridge Strong 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 - Five 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 - Twelve 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 - 8�
- 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
- Mile 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
- Fran�ois Truffaut - Day for Night
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 Wertm�ller - 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 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
- Sidney 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 Joff� - 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 Hallstrom - 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
- James Toback - 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 Piesiewicz, Krzysztof Kieslowski - Trois Couleurs Rouge
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 and 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 � Bella a.k.a. Life Is Beautiful
1999 Sam Mendes - American Beauty
- Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich
- Lasse Halstr�m - 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 Almod�var - Hable con ella
- Stephen Daldry - The Hours

See also Academy Awards