Academy Award for Best Director
Appearance
- 1927/1928 Frank Borzage - Seventh Heaven
In the first year only a separate award was given for Comedy Direction
- 1927/1928 Lewis Milestone Two Arabian Knights
- 1928/1929 Frank Lloyd - The Divine Lady, Weary River and Drag
- 1929/1930 Lewis Milestone - All Quiet on the Western Front
- 1930/1931 Norman Taurog - Skippy
- 1931/1932 Frank Borzage - Bad Girl
- 1932/1933 Frank Lloyd - Cavalcade
- 1934 Frank Capra - It Happened One Night
- 1935 John Ford - The Informer
- 1936 Frank Capra - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- 1937 Leo McCarey - The Awful Truth
- 1938 Frank Capra - You Can't Take It with You
- 1939 Victor Fleming - Gone With the Wind
- 1940 John Ford - The Grapes of Wrath
- 1941 John Ford - How Green Was My Valley
- 1942 William Wyler - Mrs. Miniver
- 1943 Michael Curtiz - Casablanca
- 1944 Leo McCarey - Going My Way
- 1945 Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend
- 1946 William Wyler - The Best Years of Our Lives
- 1947 Elia Kazan - Gentleman's Agreement
- 1948 John Huston - Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- 1949 Joseph L. Mankiewicz - A Letter to Three Wives
- 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz - All About Eve
- 1951 George Stevens - A Place in the Sun
- 1952 John Ford - The Quiet Man
- 1953 Fred Zinnemann - From Here to Eternity
- 1954 Elia Kazan - On the Waterfront
- 1955 Delbert Mann - Marty
- 1956 George Stevens - Giant
- 1957 David Lean - The Bridge on the River Kwai
- 1958 Vincente Minnelli - Gigi
- 1959 William Wyler - Ben-Hur
- 1960 Billy Wilder - The Apartment
- 1961 Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins - West Side Story
- 1962 David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia
- 1963 Tony Richardson - Tom Jones
- 1964 George Cukor - My Fair Lady
- 1965 Robert Wise - The Sound of Music
- 1966 Fred Zinnemann - A Man for All Seasons
- 1967 Mike Nichols - The Graduate
- 1968 Carol Reed - Oliver!
- 1969 John Schlesinger - Midnight Cowboy
- 1970 Franklin J. Schaffner - Patton
- 1971 William Friedkin - The French Connection
- 1972 Bob Fosse - Cabaret
- 1973 George Roy Hill - The Sting
- 1974 Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather Part II
- 1975 Milos Forman - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- 1976 John G. Avildsen - Rocky
- 1977 Woody Allen - Annie Hall
- 1978 Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter
- 1979 Robert Benton - Kramer vs. Kramer
- 1980 Robert Redford - Ordinary People
- 1981 Warren Beatty - Reds
- 1982 Richard Attenborough - Gandhi
- 1983 James L. Brooks - Terms of Endearment
- 1984 Milos Forman - Amadeus
- 1985 Sydney Pollack - Out of Africa
- 1986 Oliver Stone - Platoon
- 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci - The Last Emperor
- 1988 Barry Levinson - Rain Man
- 1989 Oliver Stone - Born on the Fourth of July
- 1990 Kevin Costner - Dances with Wolves
- 1991 Jonathan Demme - The Silence of the Lambs
- 1992 Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
- 1993 Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List
- 1994 Robert Zemeckis - Forrest Gump
- 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)
- 1997 James Cameron - Titanic
- 1998 Steven Spielberg - Saving Private Ryan
- 1999 Sam Mendes - American Beauty
- 2000 Steven Soderbergh - Traffic
- 2001 Ron Howard - A Beautiful Mind
- See also Academy Awards