Academy Award for Best Director

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. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. won twice: "Dramatic director" at the first ceremony, for 7th Heaven (1927); & later, Bad Girl (1931). won twice: "Comedy director" at the first ceremony, for Two Arabian Knights (1927); & later, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). won twice, for The Divine Lady (1929) & Cavalcade (1933). won thrice, for It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), & ''You Can't Take It with You'' (1938). won a record four times, for: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), & The Quiet Man (1952). won twice, for The Awful Truth (1937) & Going My Way (1944). won for Gone with the Wind (1939). , with a record twelve nominations, won thrice, for: Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), & Ben-Hur (1959). won for Casablanca (1942). (right, with Gloria Swanson) won twice, for The Lost Weekend (1945) & The Apartment (1960). won twice, for ''Gentleman's Agreement (1947) & On the Waterfront'' (1954). won twice consecutively, for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) & All About Eve (1950). won twice, for A Place in the Sun (1951) & Giant (1956). won twice, for From Here to Eternity (1953) & A Man for All Seasons (1966). won twice, for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) & Lawrence of Arabia (1962). won for Gigi (1958). won twice: jointly with Jerome Robbins (an Oscars first) for West Side Story (1961) & solo for The Sound of Music (1965). won for My Fair Lady (1964). won for The Graduate (1967). won for Oliver! (1968). won for Patton (1970). won for The French Connection (1971). won for Cabaret (1972). won for The Godfather Part II (1974). won twice, for ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) & Amadeus'' (1984). won for Annie Hall (1977). won for Ordinary People (1980). won for Reds (1981). won for Gandhi (1982). won for Terms of Endearment (1983). won for Out of Africa (1985). won twice, for Platoon (1986) & Born on the Fourth of July (1989). won for The Last Emperor (1987). won for Rain Man (1988). won for Dances With Wolves (1990). won for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). won twice, for Unforgiven (1992) & Million Dollar Baby (2004)—latter, at 74, rendered him the oldest winner. won twice, for ''Schindler's List (1993) & Saving Private Ryan'' (1998). won for Forrest Gump (1994). won for Braveheart (1995). won for Titanic (1997). won for American Beauty (1999). won for Traffic (2000). won for A Beautiful Mind (2001). won for The Pianist (2002). won for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). won twice, for Brokeback Mountain (2005) & Life of Pi (2012); first Asian winner. won for The Departed (2006). won for No Country for Old Men (2007). won for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). won for The Hurt Locker (2009); first woman to win. won for ''The King's Speech'' (2010). won for The Artist (2011). won twice, for Gravity (2013) & Roma (2018); first Mexican winner. won twice consecutively, for Birdman (2014) & The Revenant (2015). won for La La Land (2016); youngest winner, at age 32. won for The Shape of Water (2017). won for Parasite (2019); first to direct a foreign-language (Korean) winner for Best Picture. won for Nomadland (2020); first woman of color to win. won for The Power of the Dog (2021); first woman to be nominated twice. won for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). won for Oppenheimer (2023). won for Anora (2024). 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s ==Multiple wins and nominations==

Multiple wins Three or more nominations ==Age superlatives==

• John Ford has received the most awards in this category, with four. Frank Capra and William Wyler won three each. • Wyler has the most nominations, with 12—including a record four years in a row. Martin Scorsese is currently second, with 10 nominations. • Clarence Brown has the most nominations without a win (6). Alfred Hitchcock and King Vidor each received 5 nominations without a win. • Four directors have won twice for films that did not win Best Picture: Frank Borzage, George Stevens, Ang Lee, and Alfonso Cuarón. • Of John Ford's four wins, the only film which also won Best Picture was How Green Was My Valley (1941). • Ford (1940–1941), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949–1950), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (2014–2015) are the only directors to have won the award in two consecutive years. • Francis Ford Coppola is the only director to be nominated for each film of a trilogy, The Godfather trilogy, winning for the second film. • Four directing teams have been nominated together (a total of five times, winning on three occasions): Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961, winners); Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978); Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007, winners) and True Grit (2010); and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022, winners). • The Coen Brothers are the only siblings to have won the award. • Six directors won the award for their feature film debut: Delbert Mann for Marty (1955), Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Robert Redford for Ordinary People (1980), James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983), Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves (1990), and Sam Mendes for American Beauty (1999). • Robbins is the only director to have won for his only career directing credit. • Lina Wertmüller was the first woman nominated in the category, for Seven Beauties (1976). • Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the award, for The Hurt Locker (2009). • Chloé Zhao is the first woman of color to win the award, for Nomadland (2020). She became the second woman nominated twice for the award for Hamnet (2025). • Jane Campion is the first woman to be nominated twice for the award: The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021)—winning for the latter. • John Singleton is the first Black (and youngest) nominee for Boyz n the Hood (1991). • Steve McQueen is the first Black nominee to direct a Best Picture winner, for 12 Years a Slave. Barry Jenkins subsequently did the same three years later, with Moonlight (2016). • David Lean was the first non-American to win—and twice, for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). This did not recur for five decades with any other non-American directors, until Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu each won twice themselves. • Lee was the first Asian director to win the award, for Brokeback Mountain (2005). He won again for Life of Pi (2012). • Cuarón was the first Mexican (and Latin American) director to win the award, for Gravity (2013). He won again for Roma (2018). • No married or ex-married couple have won the award for the same film, though James Cameron (1997's Titanic) and Kathryn Bigelow (2008's The Hurt Locker) were the first (and so far, only) ex-married couple to both win the award. • It was also the first time in Oscar history that ex-married couple were nominated against each other in competition for an award in the same year. ==Notes==