Who Won the Oscar for Best Director Every Year Since the Oscars Began

Special Report

Published: January 31, 2019 2:12 pm

Last Updated: April 6, 2020 3:36 pm

Movie directors are the authors of the motion picture. From screenplay writing or supervision to cinematography, the vision, tone, and, of course, direction, of the film belongs to them. That’s why the director’s name is usually last on the opening credits.

As Hollywood prepares to honor its own at the 91st Academy Awards on Feb. 24, 24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of those cinematic auteurs who have won best director.

Click here to see who has won the Oscar for best director.

Best director has been awarded since 1929. That year, two directors won for two separate categories: best director, comedy picture (Lewis Milestone for “Two Arabian Nights”) and best director, dramatic picture (Frank Borzage for “Seventh Heaven”). After that year, the Academy awarded only one award for best picture.

John Ford has won the most best director awards with four, and Frank Capra and William Wyler have each won three. Conspicuous by their absence are Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, who were nominated a combined nine times and never won for best director.

Mexican-born directors have been dominating the best director category in recent years, winning four of the last five. Those directors are Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro, and Alfonso Cuaron. The latter took home the Golden Globe for best director for “Roma” earlier this year, and the Academy might consider him for best director when the nominations are announced Jan. 22.

Kathryn Bigelow was the first, and so far only, woman to win best director when she won in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker.” Only five women have been nominated: Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Lina Wertmuller (“Seven Beauties”), Jane Campion (“The Piano), and Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”).

No African American has ever won for best director, but that may change this year. Ryan Coogler, the director of the blockbuster “Black Panther” and cinematic provocateur Spike Lee, who directed “BlacKkKlansman,” might be nominated for best director. Neither director has ever been nominated. Four African Americans have been nominated for best director: Jordan Peele (“Get Out), Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”), Lee Daniels (“Precious”), and John Singleton (“Boyz N the Hood”). Steve McQueen, who was nominated for “12 Years a Slave” but did not win, is a black film director from the United Kingdom.

To identify who has won the Oscar for best director each year, 24/7 Wall St. used data from the Internet Movie Database. The total number of Oscar wins listed for each director also comes from IMDb and includes awards won for work outside of directing, including best picture awards for movies the director produced.

1929
> Winner: Lewis Milestone (comedy)
> Film: “Two Arabian Knights”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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1929
> Winner: Frank Borzage (drama)
> Film: “7th Heaven”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1930
> Winner: Frank Lloyd
> Film: “The Divine Lady”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1931
> Winner: Norman Taurog
> Film: “Skippy”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1932/1933
> Winner: Frank Borzage
> Film: “Bad Girl”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1934
> Winner: Frank Lloyd
> Film: “Cavalcade”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1935
> Winner: Frank Capra
> Film: “It Happened One Night”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

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1936
> Winner: John Ford
> Film: “The Informer”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1937
> Winner: Frank Capra
> Film: “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1938
> Winner: Leo McCarey
> Film: “The Awful Truth”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1939
> Winner: Frank Capra
> Film: “You Can’t Take It with You”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

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1940
> Winner: Victor Fleming
> Film: “Gone with the Wind”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1941
> Winner: John Ford
> Film: “The Grapes of Wrath”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1942
> Winner: John Ford
> Film: “How Green Was My Valley”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

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1943
> Winner: William Wyler
> Film: “Mrs. Miniver”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1944
> Winner: Michael Curtiz
> Film: “Casablanca”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1945
> Winner: Leo McCarey
> Film: “Going My Way”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

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1946
> Winner: Billy Wilder
> Film: “The Lost Weekend”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 6

1947
> Winner: William Wyler
> Film: “The Best Years of Our Lives”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1948
> Winner: Elia Kazan
> Film: “Gentleman’s Agreement”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1949
> Winner: John Huston
> Film: “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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1950
> Winner: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
> Film: “A Letter to Three Wives”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1951
> Winner: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
> Film: “All About Eve”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1952
> Winner: George Stevens
> Film: “A Place in the Sun”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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1953
> Winner: John Ford
> Film: “The Quiet Man”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1954
> Winner: Fred Zinnemann
> Film: “From Here to Eternity”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1955
> Winner: Elia Kazan
> Film: “On the Waterfront”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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1956
> Winner: Delbert Mann
> Film: “Marty”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1957
> Winner: George Stevens
> Film: “Giant”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1958
> Winner: David Lean
> Film: “The Bridge on the River Kwai”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1959
> Winner: Vincente Minnelli
> Film: “Gigi”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1960
> Winner: William Wyler
> Film: “Ben-Hur”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1961
> Winner: Billy Wilder
> Film: “The Apartment”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 6

1962
> Winner: Robert Wise
> Film: “West Side Story”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

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1963
> Winner: David Lean
> Film: “Lawrence of Arabia”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1964
> Winner: Tony Richardson
> Film: “Tom Jones”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1965
> Winner: George Cukor
> Film: “My Fair Lady”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1966
> Winner: Robert Wise
> Film: “The Sound of Music”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1967
> Winner: Fred Zinnemann
> Film: “A Man for All Seasons”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1968
> Winner: Mike Nichols
> Film: “The Graduate”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1969
> Winner: Carol Reed
> Film: “Oliver!”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1970
> Winner: John Schlesinger
> Film: “Midnight Cowboy”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1971
> Winner: Franklin J. Schaffner
> Film: “Patton”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1972
> Winner: William Friedkin
> Film: “The French Connection”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1973
> Winner: Bob Fosse
> Film: “Cabaret”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1974
> Winner: George Roy Hill
> Film: “The Sting”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1975
> Winner: Francis Ford Coppola
> Film: “The Godfather: Part II”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 5

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1976
> Winner: Milos Forman
> Film: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1977
> Winner: John G. Avildsen
> Film: “Rocky”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1978
> Winner: Woody Allen
> Film: “Annie Hall”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1979
> Winner: Michael Cimino
> Film: “The Deer Hunter”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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1980
> Winner: Robert Benton
> Film: “Kramer vs. Kramer”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1981
> Winner: Robert Redford
> Film: “Ordinary People”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1982
> Winner: Warren Beatty
> Film: “Reds”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1983
> Winner: Richard Attenborough
> Film: “Gandhi”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1984
> Winner: James L. Brooks
> Film: “Terms of Endearment”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1985
> Winner: Milos Forman
> Film: “Amadeus”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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1986
> Winner: Sydney Pollack
> Film: “Out of Africa”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1987
> Winner: Oliver Stone
> Film: “Platoon”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1988
> Winner: Bernardo Bertolucci
> Film: “The Last Emperor”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1989
> Winner: Barry Levinson
> Film: “Rain Man”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1990
> Winner: Oliver Stone
> Film: “Born on the Fourth of July”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1991
> Winner: Kevin Costner
> Film: “Dances with Wolves”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1992
> Winner: Jonathan Demme
> Film: “The Silence of the Lambs”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1993
> Winner: Clint Eastwood
> Film: “Unforgiven”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

1994
> Winner: Steven Spielberg
> Film: “Schindler’s List”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1995
> Winner: Robert Zemeckis
> Film: “Forrest Gump”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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1996
> Winner: Mel Gibson
> Film: “Braveheart”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

1997
> Winner: Anthony Minghella
> Film: “The English Patient”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

1998
> Winner: James Cameron
> Film: “Titanic”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

1999
> Winner: Steven Spielberg
> Film: “Saving Private Ryan”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

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2000
> Winner: Sam Mendes
> Film: “American Beauty”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

2001
> Winner: Steven Soderbergh
> Film: “Traffic”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

2002
> Winner: Ron Howard
> Film: “A Beautiful Mind”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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2003
> Winner: Roman Polanski
> Film: “The Pianist”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

2004
> Winner: Peter Jackson
> Film: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 3

2005
> Winner: Clint Eastwood
> Film: “Million Dollar Baby”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

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2006
> Winner: Ang Lee
> Film: “Brokeback Mountain”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

2007
> Winner: Martin Scorsese
> Film: “The Departed”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

2008
> Winner: Ethan Coen
> Film: “No Country for Old Men”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

2009
> Winner: Danny Boyle
> Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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2010
> Winner: Kathryn Bigelow
> Film: “The Hurt Locker”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

2011
> Winner: Tom Hooper
> Film: “The King’s Speech”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

2012
> Winner: Michel Hazanavicius
> Film: “The Artist”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

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2013
> Winner: Ang Lee
> Film: “Life of Pi”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

2014
> Winner: Alfonso Cuarón
> Film: “Gravity”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

2015
> Winner: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
> Film: “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

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2016
> Winner: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
> Film: “The Revenant”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 4

2017
> Winner: Damien Chazelle
> Film: “La La Land”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 1

2018
> Winner: Guillermo del Toro
> Film: “The Shape of Water”
> Lifetime Oscar wins: 2

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