The category has been presented ever since the
first edition of the
Goya Awards.
Fernando Fernán Gómez was the first winner of this award for his film
Voyage to Nowhere.
Pedro Almodóvar holds the record of most wins and nominations for this category, with three wins out of twelve nominations, winning for
All About My Mother (1999),
Volver (2006) and
Pain and Glory (2019).
Fernando León de Aranoa, who won for
Barrio (1998),
Mondays in the Sun (2002) and
The Good Boss (2021), and
J. A. Bayona, who won for
The Impossible (2012),
A Monster Calls (2015), and
Society of the Snow (2023), share the record of most wins. Directors
Fernando Trueba,
Alejandro Amenábar,
Isabel Coixet, and
Rodrigo Sorogoyen have received this award twice. As of 2025, only three female directors have received the award:
Pilar Miró,
Icíar Bollaín and
Isabel Coixet, the latter being the only woman to win the award twice. In 2024,
Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez became the first directing duo to win the award, for their work in
Saturn Return. In 2025, with his nomination for
Afternoons of Solitude,
Albert Serra became the first director to be nominated for the award for a non-fiction film. In the list below the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees. ==Winners and nominees==