Academy Award (Oscar) Winners for Best Director (1929–2025)
The Academy Award for Best Director is one of the highest honors in world cinema. Presented below is the complete, verified, and uninterrupted list of Oscar-winning films for Best Director from the most recent ceremony to the first Academy Awards.
Note: The Academy Awards began in 1929. There are no Best Director winners prior to this year.
The year listed refers to the ceremony year.
Complete List (Descending Order)
| Ceremony Year | Winning Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Anora | Sean Baker |
| 2024 | Oppenheimer | Christopher Nolan |
| 2023 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert |
| 2022 | The Power of the Dog | Jane Campion |
| 2021 | Nomadland | Chloé Zhao |
| 2020 | Parasite | Bong Joon Ho |
| 2019 | Roma | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 2018 | The Shape of Water | Guillermo del Toro |
| 2017 | La La Land | Damien Chazelle |
| 2016 | The Revenant | Alejandro G. Iñárritu |
| 2015 | Birdman | Alejandro G. Iñárritu |
| 2014 | Gravity | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 2013 | Life of Pi | Ang Lee |
| 2012 | The Artist | Michel Hazanavicius |
| 2011 | The King’s Speech | Tom Hooper |
| 2010 | The Hurt Locker | Kathryn Bigelow |
| 2009 | Slumdog Millionaire | Danny Boyle |
| 2008 | No Country for Old Men | Joel & Ethan Coen |
| 2007 | The Departed | Martin Scorsese |
| 2006 | Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee |
| 2005 | Million Dollar Baby | Clint Eastwood |
| 2004 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Peter Jackson |
| 2003 | The Pianist | Roman Polanski |
| 2002 | Chicago | Rob Marshall |
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | Ron Howard |
| 2000 | Traffic | Steven Soderbergh |
| 1999 | American Beauty | Sam Mendes |
| 1998 | Saving Private Ryan | Steven Spielberg |
| 1997 | Titanic | James Cameron |
| 1996 | The English Patient | Anthony Minghella |
| 1995 | Braveheart | Mel Gibson |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | Robert Zemeckis |
| 1993 | Schindler’s List | Steven Spielberg |
| 1992 | Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood |
| 1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | Jonathan Demme |
| 1990 | Born on the Fourth of July | Oliver Stone |
| 1989 | Rain Man | Barry Levinson |
| 1988 | The Last Emperor | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| 1987 | Platoon | Oliver Stone |
| 1986 | Out of Africa | Sydney Pollack |
| 1985 | Amadeus | Miloš Forman |
| 1984 | Terms of Endearment | James L. Brooks |
| 1983 | Gandhi | Richard Attenborough |
| 1982 | Chariots of Fire | Hugh Hudson |
| 1981 | Ordinary People | Robert Redford |
| 1980 | Kramer vs. Kramer | Robert Benton |
| 1979 | The Deer Hunter | Michael Cimino |
| 1978 | The Goodbye Girl | Herbert Ross |
| 1977 | Rocky | John G. Avildsen |
| 1976 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest | Miloš Forman |
| 1975 | The Godfather Part II | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 1974 | The Sting | George Roy Hill |
| 1973 | Cabaret | Bob Fosse |
| 1972 | The French Connection | William Friedkin |
| 1971 | Patton | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| 1970 | Midnight Cowboy | John Schlesinger |
| 1969 | Oliver! | Carol Reed |
| 1968 | In the Heat of the Night | Norman Jewison |
| 1967 | A Man for All Seasons | Fred Zinnemann |
| 1966 | The Sound of Music | Robert Wise |
| 1965 | My Fair Lady | George Cukor |
| 1964 | Tom Jones | Tony Richardson |
| 1963 | Lawrence of Arabia | David Lean |
| 1962 | West Side Story | Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins |
| 1961 | The Apartment | Billy Wilder |
| 1960 | Ben-Hur | William Wyler |
| 1959 | Gigi | Vincente Minnelli |
| 1958 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | David Lean |
| 1957 | Around the World in 80 Days | Michael Anderson |
| 1956 | Marty | Delbert Mann |
| 1955 | On the Waterfront | Elia Kazan |
| 1954 | From Here to Eternity | Fred Zinnemann |
| 1953 | The Greatest Show on Earth | Cecil B. DeMille |
| 1952 | An American in Paris | Vincente Minnelli |
| 1951 | All About Eve | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 1950 | A Letter to Three Wives | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 1949 | Hamlet | Laurence Olivier |
| 1948 | Gentleman’s Agreement | Elia Kazan |
| 1947 | The Best Years of Our Lives | William Wyler |
| 1946 | The Lost Weekend | Billy Wilder |
| 1945 | Going My Way | Leo McCarey |
| 1944 | Casablanca | Michael Curtiz |
| 1943 | Mrs. Miniver | William Wyler |
| 1942 | How Green Was My Valley | John Ford |
| 1941 | Rebecca | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 1940 | Gone with the Wind | Victor Fleming |
| 1939 | You Can’t Take It with You | Frank Capra |
| 1938 | The Life of Emile Zola | William Dieterle |
| 1937 | The Great Ziegfeld | Robert Z. Leonard |
| 1936 | Mutiny on the Bounty | Frank Lloyd |
| 1935 | It Happened One Night | Frank Capra |
| 1934 | Cavalcade | Frank Lloyd |
| 1933 | Bad Girl | Frank Borzage |
| 1932 | Cimarron | Wesley Ruggles |
| 1931 | All Quiet on the Western Front | Lewis Milestone |
| 1930 | The Broadway Melody | Harry Beaumont |
| 1929 | Wings | William A. Wellman |
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