Academy Award for Best Director

The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for 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. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies. 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.

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. 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 92 films that won Best Picture and were also nominated for Best Director, 71 won the award. The award has been criticised in recent years for failing to recognise female directors. Of the 260 individual directors nominated in the history of the award, only 9 have been women, with only 2 women having been nominated more than once (compared to 101 men), and only 3 of the 77 individual winners have been women.

Since its inception, the award has been given to 75 different directors or directing teams. As of the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, American filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is the most recent winner in this category for his work on One Battle After Another.

Winners and nominees

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. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.

|Sorrell and Son

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Two Arabian Knights

|Speedy

| The Circus

! scope="row" rowspan=7 "style=text-align:center;" | 1928/29

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | '

|rowspan="7"|

|Madame X

|In Old Arizona

|rowspan="2"|

|Drag

|Weary River

1930s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;" class="unsortable"|

!scope="row" rowspan=6 "style="text-align:center;" | 1929/30

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | All Quiet on the Western Front

|rowspan="6"|

|rowspan=2|

|Anna Christie

|Romance

|Hallelujah!

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1930/31

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Skippy

|rowspan="5"|

|Cimarron

|Morocco

!scope="row" rowspan=3 style="text-align:center;" | 1931/32

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Bad Girl

|rowspan="3"|

|Shanghai Express

!scope="row" rowspan=3 style="text-align:center;" | 1932/33

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Cavalcade

|rowspan="3"|

|Lady for a Day

|Little Women

!scope="row" rowspan=3 style="text-align:center;" | 1934

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | It Happened One Night

|rowspan="3"|

|One Night of Love

!scope="row" rowspan=4 style="text-align:center;" | 1935

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | '

|rowspan="4"|

|Mutiny on the Bounty

| (Write-in)

|Captain Blood

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1936

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

|rowspan="5"|

|My Man Godfrey

|San Francisco

|Dodsworth

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1937

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | '

|rowspan=5|

|Stage Door

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1938

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | You Can't Take It with You

|rowspan=5|

|rowspan="2"|

|Angels with Dirty Faces

|Four Daughters

|Boys Town

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1939

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Gone with the Wind

|rowspan="5"|

|Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

|Stagecoach

|Goodbye, Mr. Chips

|Wuthering Heights

1940s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;" class="unsortable"|

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1940

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | '

|rowspan="5"|

|Rebecca

|Kitty Foyle

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1941

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | How Green Was My Valley

|rowspan="5"|

|Here Comes Mr. Jordan

|Sergeant York

|Citizen Kane

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1942

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Mrs. Miniver

|rowspan="5"|

|Yankee Doodle Dandy

|Wake Island

|Random Harvest

|Kings Row

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1943

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Casablanca

|rowspan="5"|

|Heaven Can Wait

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1944

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Going My Way

|rowspan="5"|

|Lifeboat

|Wilson

|Laura

|Double Indemnity

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1945

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | '

|rowspan="5"|

|National Velvet

|Spellbound

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1946

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | '

|rowspan="5"|

|It's a Wonderful Life

|Brief Encounter

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1947

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Gentleman's Agreement

|rowspan="5"|

|Crossfire

|Great Expectations

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1948

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Johnny Belinda

|Hamlet

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1949

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|All the King's Men

|Battleground

1950s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;", class=unsortable|

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1950

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | All About Eve

|rowspan="5"|

|Born Yesterday

|Sunset Boulevard

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1951

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Detective Story

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1952

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Moulin Rouge

|5 Fingers

|High Noon

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1953

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | From Here to Eternity

|rowspan="5"|

|Shane

|Lili

|Stalag 17

|Roman Holiday

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1954

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | On the Waterfront

|rowspan="5"|

|Rear Window

|Sabrina

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1955

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Marty

|rowspan="5"|

|East of Eden

|Summertime

|Picnic

|Bad Day at Black Rock

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;"| 1956

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Giant

|rowspan="5"|

|Around the World in 80 Days

|War and Peace

|Friendly Persuasion

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1957

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Sayonara

|12 Angry Men

|Peyton Place

|Witness for the Prosecution

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1958

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Gigi

|rowspan="5"|

|Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

|I Want to Live!

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1959

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Ben-Hur

|rowspan="5"|

|Room at the Top

|Some Like It Hot

1960s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;" class="unsortable"|

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1960

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Sons and Lovers

|Never on Sunday

|Psycho

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1961

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | &

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | West Side Story

|rowspan="5"|

|La Dolce Vita

|Judgment at Nuremberg

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1962

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Lawrence of Arabia

|rowspan="5"|

|Divorce Italian Style

|To Kill a Mockingbird

|David and Lisa

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1963

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Tom Jones

|rowspan="5"|

|8½

|America America

|Hud

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1964

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | My Fair Lady

|rowspan="5"|

|Zorba the Greek

|Becket

|Dr. Strangelove

|Mary Poppins

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1965

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Doctor Zhivago

|Darling

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1966

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Blowup

|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1967

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|In Cold Blood

|In the Heat of the Night

|Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

|Bonnie and Clyde

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;"| 1968

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Oliver!

|rowspan="5"|

|2001: A Space Odyssey

|Romeo and Juliet

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1969

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Midnight Cowboy

|rowspan="5"|

|Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

|Alice's Restaurant

|They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

1970s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;", class=unsortable |

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1970

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Patton

|rowspan="5"|

|M*A*S*H

|Fellini Satyricon

|Love Story

|Women in Love

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1971

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Fiddler on the Roof

|Sunday Bloody Sunday

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1972

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Cabaret

|rowspan="5"|

|Deliverance

|Sleuth

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1973

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Cries and Whispers

|Last Tango in Paris

|American Graffiti

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1974

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Lenny

|Chinatown

|Day for Night

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1975

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

|rowspan="5"|

|Nashville

|Amarcord

|Barry Lyndon

|Dog Day Afternoon

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1976

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Rocky

|rowspan="5"|

|Face to Face

|Network

|All the President's Men

|Seven Beauties

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1977

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Annie Hall

|rowspan="5"|

|Star Wars

|Close Encounters of the Third Kind

|Julia

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1978

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Interiors

|Coming Home

| &

|Heaven Can Wait

|Midnight Express

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1979

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Kramer vs. Kramer

|rowspan="5"|

|Apocalypse Now

|All That Jazz

|La Cage aux Folles

|Breaking Away

1980s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;", class=unsortable |

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1980

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Ordinary People

|rowspan="5"|

|Tess

|Raging Bull

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1981

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Reds

|rowspan="5"|

|Chariots of Fire

|Atlantic City

|On Golden Pond

|Raiders of the Lost Ark

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1982

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Gandhi

|rowspan="5"|

|Das Boot

|Tootsie

|E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1983

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Terms of Endearment

|rowspan="5"|

|Tender Mercies

|Fanny and Alexander

|Silkwood

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1984

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Amadeus

|rowspan="5"|

|Broadway Danny Rose

|Places in the Heart

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1985

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Out of Africa

|rowspan="5"|

|Kiss of the Spider Woman

|Prizzi's Honor

|Ran

|Witness

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;"| 1986

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Platoon

|rowspan="5"|

|Hannah and Her Sisters

|Blue Velvet

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1987

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Hope and Glory

|My Life as a Dog

|Moonstruck

|Fatal Attraction

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1988

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Rain Man

|rowspan="5"|

|Working Girl

|Mississippi Burning

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1989

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Born on the Fourth of July

|rowspan="5"|

|Crimes and Misdemeanors

|Henry V

|My Left Foot

|Dead Poets Society

1990s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;", class=unsortable |

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1990

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | Dances With Wolves

|rowspan="5"|

|Reversal of Fortune

|Goodfellas

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1991

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Bugsy

|Thelma & Louise

|Boyz n the Hood

|JFK

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1992

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Unforgiven

|rowspan="5"|

|Scent of a Woman

|Howards End

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1993

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Schindler's List

|rowspan="5"|

|Short Cuts

|In the Name of the Father

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1994

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Forrest Gump

|rowspan="5"|

|Bullets Over Broadway

|Three Colours: Red

|Quiz Show

|Pulp Fiction

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1995

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Braveheart

|rowspan="5"|

|Leaving Las Vegas

|Babe

|Il Postino: The Postman

|Dead Man Walking

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1996

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Fargo

|Shine

|Secrets & Lies

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1997

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Titanic

|rowspan="5"|

|L.A. Confidential

|Good Will Hunting

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1998

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Saving Private Ryan

|rowspan="5"|

|Life Is Beautiful

|Shakespeare in Love

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 1999

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |American Beauty

|rowspan="5"|

|Being John Malkovich

2000s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;", class=unsortable |

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align;center;" | 2000

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Traffic

|rowspan="5"|

|Billy Elliot

|Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

|Gladiator

|Erin Brockovich

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2001

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Gosford Park

|Mulholland Drive

|Black Hawk Down

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2002

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Talk to Her

|Chicago

|Gangs of New York

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2003

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Lost in Translation

|Mystic River

|City of God

|Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2004

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Million Dollar Baby

|rowspan="5"|

|Ray

|Vera Drake

|Sideways

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2005

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Brokeback Mountain

|rowspan="5"|

|Good Night, and Good Luck

|Crash

|Capote

|Munich

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2006

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Letters from Iwo Jima

|United 93

|Babel

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2007

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |No Country for Old Men

|rowspan="5"|

|There Will Be Blood

|Michael Clayton

|Juno

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2008

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Slumdog Millionaire

|rowspan="5"|

|Frost/Nixon

|Milk

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2009

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Avatar

|Precious

|Up in the Air

|Inglourious Basterds

2010s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;" class="unsortable"|

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2010

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Black Swan

|True Grit

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2011

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan="5"|

|Midnight in Paris

|Hugo

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2012

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Life of Pi

|rowspan="5"|

|Amour

|Silver Linings Playbook

|Lincoln

|Beasts of the Southern Wild

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2013

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Gravity

|rowspan="5"|

|12 Years a Slave

|Nebraska

|American Hustle

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2014

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Birdman

|rowspan="5"|

|Boyhood

|Foxcatcher

! scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center" | 2015

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |The Revenant

| rowspan=5|

|Room

|Spotlight

|Mad Max: Fury Road

! scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center" | 2016

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" | La La Land

| rowspan=5|

|Hacksaw Ridge

|Moonlight

|Manchester by the Sea

|Arrival

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center" | 2017

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |The Shape of Water

| rowspan=5|

|Phantom Thread

|Lady Bird

|Dunkirk

|Get Out

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center" | 2018

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Roma

| rowspan=5|

|The Favourite

|BlacKkKlansman

|Vice

|Cold War

! scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center" | 2019 (92nd)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Parasite

| rowspan=5|

| 1917

|Joker

| The Irishman

| Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2020s

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!scope="col" style="width:8%;"| Year

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Director(s)

!scope="col" style="width:30%;"| Film

!scope="col" style="width:2%;" class="unsortable"|

!scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center;" | 2020/21 (93rd)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

|rowspan=5|

|Minari

|Promising Young Woman

|Mank

! rowspan="5" |2021 (94th)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| rowspan="5" |

|Licorice Pizza

|Belfast

|Drive My Car

|West Side Story

! rowspan="5" |2022 (95th)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| rowspan="5" |

|Todd Field

|Tár

|Martin McDonagh

|The Banshees of Inisherin

|Ruben Östlund

|Triangle of Sadness

|Steven Spielberg

|The Fabelmans

! rowspan="5" |2023 (96th)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |

| rowspan="5" |

|Jonathan Glazer

|The Zone of Interest

|Yorgos Lanthimos

|Poor Things

|Martin Scorsese

|Killers of the Flower Moon

|Justine Triet

|Anatomy of a Fall

! rowspan="5" |2024 (97th)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Sean Baker

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Anora

| rowspan="5" |

|Jacques Audiard

|Emilia Pérez

|Brady Corbet

|The Brutalist

|Coralie Fargeat

|The Substance

|James Mangold

|A Complete Unknown

! scope="row" rowspan=5 style="text-align:center"| 2025 (98th)

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |Paul Thomas Anderson

| style="background:#FAEB86;" |One Battle After Another

| rowspan="5" |

|Ryan Coogler

|Sinners

|Josh Safdie

|Marty Supreme

|Joachim Trier

|Sentimental Value

|Chloé Zhao

|Hamnet

Multiple wins and nominations

Multiple wins

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! scope="col" width="55" | Wins

! scope="col" align="center" | Director

| John Ford

| rowspan=2 style="text-align:center;" | 3

| Frank Capra

| William Wyler

| rowspan=18 style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Frank Borzage

| Alfonso Cuarón

| 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

Three or more nominations

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! scope="col" width="55" | Nominations

! scope="col" align="center" | Director

|rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 12

| William Wyler

|rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 10

| Martin Scorsese

|rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 9

| Steven Spielberg

|rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 8

| Billy Wilder

|rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;" | 7

| Woody Allen

| David Lean

| Fred Zinnemann

| rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 6

| Frank Capra

| rowspan="9" style="text-align:center;" | 5

| Robert Altman

| Clarence Brown

| George Cukor

| John Ford

| Alfred Hitchcock

| John Huston

| Elia Kazan

| George Stevens

| King Vidor

| rowspan="11" style="text-align:center;" | 4

| Paul Thomas Anderson

| Francis Ford Coppola

| Michael Curtiz

| Clint Eastwood

| Federico Fellini

| Stanley Kubrick

| Frank Lloyd

| Sidney Lumet

| Joseph L. Mankiewicz

| Mike Nichols

| Peter Weir

| rowspan="30" style="text-align:center;" | 3

| Ingmar Bergman

| Richard Brooks

| Joel Coen

| Stephen Daldry

| David Fincher

| Miloš Forman

| Bob Fosse

| Alejandro González Iñárritu

| James Ivory

| Norman Jewison

| Stanley Kramer

| Ang Lee

| Ernst Lubitsch

| David Lynch

| Leo McCarey

| Lewis Milestone

| Alexander Payne

| Arthur Penn

| Roman Polanski

| Sydney Pollack

| Carol Reed

| David O. Russell

| John Schlesinger

| Ridley Scott

| Oliver Stone

| Quentin Tarantino

| William A. Wellman

| Robert Wise

| Sam Wood

Age superlatives

{| class="wikitable"

! scope="col" | Record

! scope="col" | Director

! scope="col" | Film

! scope="col" | Age

! scope="col" class="unsortable" |

| Oldest winner

| Clint Eastwood

| Million Dollar Baby

| 74 years, 272 days

| Oldest nominee

| Martin Scorsese

| Killers of the Flower Moon

| 81 years, 67 days