Every Academy Award for Best Director Winner in History
The complete list of Best Director Oscar winners (1930 to 2026), decade by decade, with 193 entries.
The Academy Award for Best Director is one of the most prestigious honors in entertainment. This page lists every winner in history, from 1930 to 2026, organized by decade, with links to our full guides where available.
1930s
- 1930 The Divine Lady
- 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
- 1930 Lewis Milestone
- 1930 Frank Lloyd
- 1931 Skippy
- 1931 Norman Taurog
- 1932 Frank Borzage
- 1932 Bad Girl
- 1934 Cavalcade
- 1934 Frank Lloyd
- 1935 Frank Capra
- 1935 It Happened One Night
- 1936 The Informer
- 1936 John Ford
- 1937 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- 1937 Frank Capra
- 1938 The Awful Truth
- 1938 Leo McCarey
- 1939 Frank Capra
- 1939 You Can't Take It With You
1940s
- 1940 Victor Fleming
- 1940 Gone with the Wind
- 1941 John Ford
- 1941 The Grapes of Wrath
- 1942 John Ford
- 1942 How Green Was My Valley
- 1943 Mrs. Miniver
- 1943 William Wyler
- 1944 Michael Curtiz
- 1944 Casablanca
- 1945 Going My Way
- 1945 Leo McCarey
- 1946 Billy Wilder
- 1946 The Lost Weekend
- 1947 William Wyler
- 1947 The Best Years of Our Lives
- 1948 Elia Kazan
- 1948 Gentleman's Agreement
- 1949 John Huston
- 1949 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1950s
- 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- 1950 A Letter to Three Wives
- 1951 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- 1951 All About Eve
- 1952 George Stevens
- 1952 A Place in the Sun
- 1953 The Quiet Man
- 1953 John Ford
- 1954 Fred Zinnemann
- 1954 From Here to Eternity
- 1955 Elia Kazan
- 1955 On the Waterfront
- 1956 Marty
- 1956 Delbert Mann
- 1957 George Stevens
- 1957 Giant
- 1958 David Lean
- 1958 The Bridge on the River Kwai
- 1959 Vincente Minnelli
- 1959 Gigi
1960s
- 1960 William Wyler
- 1960 Ben-Hur
- 1961 Billy Wilder
- 1961 The Apartment
- 1962 Jerome Robbins
- 1962 Robert Wise
- 1962 West Side Story
- 1963 David Lean
- 1963 Lawrence of Arabia
- 1964 Tony Richardson
- 1964 Tom Jones
- 1965 George Cukor
- 1965 My Fair Lady
- 1966 Robert Wise
- 1966 The Sound of Music
- 1967 Fred Zinnemann
- 1967 A Man for All Seasons
- 1968 Mike Nichols
- 1968 The Graduate
- 1969 Carol Reed
- 1969 Oliver!
1970s
- 1970 John Schlesinger
- 1970 Midnight Cowboy
- 1971 Franklin J. Schaffner
- 1971 Patton
- 1972 William Friedkin
- 1972 The French Connection
- 1973 Cabaret
- 1973 Bob Fosse
- 1974 George Roy Hill
- 1974 The Sting
- 1975 Francis Ford Coppola
- 1975 The Godfather Part II
- 1976 Miloš Forman
- 1976 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- 1977 Rocky
- 1977 John G. Avildsen
- 1978 Annie Hall
- 1978 Woody Allen
- 1979 Michael Cimino
- 1979 The Deer Hunter
1980s
- 1980 Robert Benton
- 1980 Kramer vs. Kramer
- 1981 Ordinary People
- 1981 Robert Redford
- 1982 Reds
- 1982 Warren Beatty
- 1983 Richard Attenborough
- 1983 Gandhi
- 1984 James L. Brooks
- 1984 Terms of Endearment
- 1985 Miloš Forman
- 1985 Amadeus
- 1986 Sydney Pollack
- 1986 Out of Africa
- 1987 Oliver Stone
- 1987 Platoon
- 1988 Bernardo Bertolucci
- 1988 The Last Emperor
- 1989 Rain Man
- 1989 Barry Levinson
1990s
- 1990 Born on the Fourth of July
- 1990 Oliver Stone
- 1991 Kevin Costner
- 1991 Dances with Wolves
- 1992 Jonathan Demme
- 1992 The Silence of the Lambs
- 1993 Clint Eastwood
- 1993 Unforgiven
- 1994 Schindler's List
- 1994 Steven Spielberg
- 1995 Robert Zemeckis
- 1996 Mel Gibson
- 1996 Braveheart
- 1997 The English Patient
- 1997 Anthony Minghella
- 1998 Titanic
- 1999 Steven Spielberg
- 1999 Saving Private Ryan
2000s
- 2000 Sam Mendes
- 2000 American Beauty
- 2001 Steven Soderbergh
- 2001 Traffic
- 2002 Ron Howard
- 2002 A Beautiful Mind
- 2003 Roman Polanski
- 2003 The Pianist
- 2004 Peter Jackson
- 2004 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- 2005 Clint Eastwood
- 2005 Million Dollar Baby
- 2006 Brokeback Mountain
- 2006 Ang Lee
- 2007 Martin Scorsese
- 2007 The Departed
- 2008 Joel Coen
- 2008 Ethan Coen
- 2008 No Country for Old Men
- 2009 Slumdog Millionaire
- 2009 Danny Boyle
2010s
- 2010 Kathryn Bigelow
- 2010 The Hurt Locker
- 2011 The King's Speech
- 2011 Tom Hooper
- 2012 The Artist
- 2012 Michel Hazanavicius
- 2013 Life of Pi
- 2013 Ang Lee
- 2014 Gravity
- 2014 Alfonso Cuarón
- 2015 Alejandro González Iñárritu
- 2015 Birdman
- 2016 Alejandro González Iñárritu
- 2016 The Revenant
- 2017 Damien Chazelle
- 2018 Guillermo del Toro
- 2018 The Shape of Water
- 2019 Roma
- 2019 Alfonso Cuarón
2020s
- 2020 Bong Joon-ho
- 2020 Parasite
- 2021 Nomadland
- 2021 Chloé Zhao
- 2022 Jane Campion
- 2022 Daniels
- 2023 Dan Kwan
- 2023 Daniel Scheinert
- 2024 Oppenheimer
- 2025 Sean Baker
- 2025 Anora
- 2026 One Battle After Another
- 2026 Paul Thomas Anderson
Undated
- Eti Tsicko
Winner data via Wikidata, refreshed automatically after each ceremony.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the most recent Best Director Oscar?
Paul Thomas Anderson won in 2026.
How many people or films have won the Best Director Oscar?
Our list counts 193 winners from 1930 to 2026.
Sources
More in Awards & Red Carpet
Keep reading
