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'The Academy Award for Directing' is one of the awards given to directors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations are made by Academy members in the Directing branch, while the winners are chosen by the Academy membership as a whole. Since the inception of this award, 58 of the 79 Oscars for Best Director were for films that also won the Oscar for Best Picture.[1] Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by the years of their Los Angeles qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) in the year of release; for example, the Oscar for "Best Direction in 1999" was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000.
In the Academy Awards' first year, for films released in 1927/28, there were two directing awards -- one for "Dramatic Direction" and one for "Comedy Direction." The Comedy Direction award was eliminated the next year and, indeed, the awards have overwhelmingly favored dramatic films ever since.
The earliest years of the award are marked by inconsistency and confusion. In the Academy Awards' first year, actors and others such as cinematographers were nominated for all of their films produced during the qualifying period. However, since the directing award was for "directing" rather than "best director", it honored the director in association with only a single film -- thus Janet Gaynor has two Frank Borzage films listed after her Best Actress nomination, but only one of them earned Borzage a directing nomination. The second year, the directing award followed the others in listing all of a director's work during the qualifying period, resulting in Frank Lloyd being nominated for three of his films -- but, even more confusingly, only one of them was listed on the final award as the film for which he won. Finally, for the 1931 awards, this confusing system was replaced by the modern system in which a director is nominated for a single film.
Many revered directors have never won the award, including Robert Altman (5 nominations), Ingmar Bergman (3 nominations), John Cassavetes (1 nomination), Charles Chaplin (1 nomination), Federico Fellini (4 nominations), Howard Hawks (1 nomination), Alfred Hitchcock (5 nominations), Stanley Kramer (3 nominations), Stanley Kubrick (4 nominations), Akira Kurosawa (1 nomination), Sergio Leone (0 nominations), Ernst Lubitsch (3 nominations), Sidney Lumet (4 nominations), David Lynch (3 nominations), Terence Malick (1 nomination), Arthur Penn (3 nominations), Ridley Scott (3 nominations), King Vidor (5 nominations), Peter Weir (4 nominations), George Lucas (2 nominations),and Orson Welles (1 nomination). Stephen Daldry has been nominated for both of his first two features without winning on either, a unique feat.
A few films have won Best Picture without their directors being nominated, though only one since the early 1930s, ''Driving Miss Daisy'' (1989). The others are both of the winners of Best Picture-like awards in 1927/28, ''Sunrise'' and ''Wings'', and ''Grand Hotel'' (1932). The only directing winners to win for films which did not receive a Best Picture nomination are likewise at the very beginning: Lewis Milestone, director of the lone Comedy Direction winner ''Two Arabian Knights'', and Frank Lloyd, none of whose three 1929 directing nominees was a Best Picture nominee.
No female director has ever won this award, and only three (Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Lina Wertmuller) have ever been nominated.
Though no one has won Best Actor and Best Director for the same film, winners Warren Beatty (''Reds''), Kevin Costner (''Dances with Wolves''), and Clint Eastwood (''Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby'') all directed themselves in performances which received acting nominations. Furthermore, nominees Laurence Olivier and Roberto Benigni directed their own Oscar-winning performances in ''Hamlet'' and ''Life Is Beautiful'', respectively.
John Ford is the only director with four Best Director Oscars, followed by Frank Capra and William Wyler, with three Best Director Academy Awards apiece. Wyler has the most nominations, 12. Robert Altman, Clarence Brown, Alfred Hitchcock, and King Vidor are tied for the most nominations without a win, at five each.
No Best Director winning film is lost, though the nominee ''The Patriot'' is lost and nominee ''Sorrell and Son'' is incomplete. ''Drag'' (one of the films for which Frank Lloyd was nominated but did not win in 1929) has long been presumed lost, though there are rumors of its survival, possibly only on videotape, and the Vitaphone discs of its soundtrack survive. The Comedy Direction winner, ''Two Arabian Knights'', was believed lost for many years but was preserved in the Howard Hughes archive and has been broadcast (along with another first-year nominee produced by Hughes and believed lost, ''The Racket'') on Turner Classic Movies.

Contents

Superlatives

List of winners and nominees

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

See also

Superlatives

'Category'	'Name'	'Superlative'	'Year'	'Notes'
Most Awards	John Ford	4 awards	1952	Awards resulted from 5 nominations.
Most Nominations	William Wyler	12 nominations	1965	Nominations resulted in 3 awards.
Oldest Winner	Clint Eastwood	74 years old	2004	''Million Dollar Baby''
Oldest Nominee	John Huston	79 years old	1985	''Prizzi's Honor''
Youngest Winner	Norman Taurog	32 years old	1930/31	''Skippy''
Youngest Nominee	John Singleton	24 years old	1991	''Boyz N the Hood''

List of winners and nominees

Each Academy Award ceremony is listed chronologically below along with the winner of the 'Academy Award for Directing' and the film associated with the award. In the column next to the winner of each award are the other nominees for best director.

1920s

In the first year only, the award was separated into Dramatic Direction and Comedy Direction.

Year	Winner film	Nominated
1927/1928 Dramatic	Frank Borzage ''Seventh Heaven''	Herbert Brenon - ''Sorrell and Son'' King Vidor - ''The Crowd''
Comedy	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 - ''The Broadway Melody'' Irving Cummings - ''In Old Arizona'' Frank Lloyd - ''Weary River'' and ''Drag'' Ernst Lubitsch - ''The Patriot''

1930s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
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 - ''The 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 A. 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''

1940s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
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 ''The 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''

1950s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
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 A. 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''

1960s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
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 - '' 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 - '' 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?''

1970s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
1970	Franklin J. Schaffner ''Patton''	Robert Altman - ''MASH'' 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	Miloš 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 - '' 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''

1980s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
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	Miloš 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 Joffé - ''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'' Mike Nichols - ''Working Girl'' Alan Parker - ''Mississippi Burning'' Martin Scorsese - ''The Last Temptation of Christ''
1989	Oliver Stone ''Born on the Fourth of July''	Woody Allen - ''Crimes and Misdemeanors'' Kenneth Branagh - ''Henry V'' Jim Sheridan - ''My Left Foot'' Peter Weir - ''Dead Poets Society''

1990s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
1990	Kevin Costner ''Dances with Wolves''	Francis Ford Coppola - ''The Godfather: Part III'' Stephen Frears - ''The Grifters'' Barbet Schroeder - ''Reversal of Fortune'' Martin Scorsese - ''Goodfellas''
1991	Jonathan Demme ''The Silence of the Lambs''	Barry Levinson - ''Bugsy'' Ridley Scott - ''Thelma and Louise'' John Singleton - ''Boyz N the Hood'' Oliver Stone - ''JFK''
1992	Clint Eastwood ''Unforgiven''	Robert Altman - ''The Player'' Martin Brest - ''Scent of a Woman'' James Ivory - ''Howards End'' Neil Jordan - ''The Crying Game''
1993	Steven Spielberg ''Schindler's List''	Robert Altman - ''Short Cuts'' Jane Campion - ''The Piano'' James Ivory - ''The Remains of the Day'' Jim Sheridan - ''In the Name of the Father''
1994	Robert Zemeckis ''Forrest Gump''	Woody Allen - ''Bullets Over Broadway'' Krzysztof Kieslowski - '' aka '' Robert Redford - ''Quiz Show'' Quentin Tarantino - ''Pulp Fiction''
1995	Mel Gibson ''Braveheart''	Mike Figgis - ''Leaving Las Vegas'' Chris Noonan - ''Babe'' Michael Radford - ''Il Postino'' aka ''The Postman'' Tim Robbins - ''Dead Man Walking''
1996	Anthony Minghella ''The English Patient''	Joel Coen - ''Fargo'' Miloš Forman - ''The People vs. Larry Flynt'' Scott Hicks - ''Shine'' Mike Leigh - ''Secrets & Lies''
1997	James Cameron ''Titanic''	Peter Cattaneo - ''The Full Monty'' Atom Egoyan - ''The Sweet Hereafter'' Curtis Hanson - ''L.A. Confidential'' Gus Van Sant - ''Good Will Hunting''
1998	Steven Spielberg ''Saving Private Ryan''	Roberto Benigni - ''La Vita è Bella'' aka ''Life Is Beautiful'' John Madden - ''Shakespeare in Love'' Terrence Malick - ''The Thin Red Line'' Peter Weir - ''The Truman Show''
1999	Sam Mendes ''American Beauty''	Lasse Hallström - ''The Cider House Rules'' Spike Jonze - ''Being John Malkovich'' Michael Mann - ''The Insider'' M. Night Shyamalan - ''The Sixth Sense''

2000s

Year	Winner film	Nominated
2000	Steven Soderbergh ''Traffic''	Stephen Daldry - ''Billy Elliot'' Ang Lee - ''Wo hu cang long'' aka ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' Ridley Scott - ''Gladiator'' Steven Soderbergh - ''Erin Brockovich''
2001	Ron Howard ''A Beautiful Mind''	Robert Altman - ''Gosford Park'' Peter Jackson - '' David Lynch - ''Mulholland Drive'' Ridley Scott - ''Black Hawk Down''
2002	Roman Polanski ''The Pianist''	Pedro Almodóvar - ''Hable con ella'' aka ''Talk to Her'' Stephen Daldry - ''The Hours'' Rob Marshall - ''Chicago'' Martin Scorsese - ''Gangs of New York''
2003	Peter Jackson ''	Sofia Coppola - ''Lost in Translation'' Clint Eastwood - ''Mystic River'' Fernando Meirelles - ''Cidade de Deus'' aka ''City of God'' Peter Weir - ''
2004	Clint Eastwood ''Million Dollar Baby''	Taylor Hackford - ''Ray'' Mike Leigh - ''Vera Drake'' Alexander Payne - ''Sideways'' Martin Scorsese - ''The Aviator''
2005	Ang Lee ''Brokeback Mountain''	George Clooney - ''Good Night, and Good Luck.'' Paul Haggis - ''Crash'' Bennett Miller - ''Capote'' Steven Spielberg - ''Munich''
2006	Martin Scorsese ''The Departed''	Clint Eastwood - ''Letters from Iwo Jima'' Stephen Frears - ''The Queen'' Alejandro González Iñárritu - ''Babel'' Paul Greengrass - ''United 93''

See also

★ List of movies

★ List of actors

★ List of directors

★ List of documentaries

★ List of Hollywood movie studios