Best Director Winners

Best Director

This award honors the best effort by a director each year. Frank Borzage was the first winner of this award for his work on 7th Heaven. Nineteen directors have won this award more than once, with John Ford leading the way with four wins. Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) is currently the only woman to have won the award, and one of only four women to ever be nominated. It’s also interesting to note that of the 86 Best Picture winning films, 62 have also won Best Director.

And the winners are:

1927 – 7th Heaven

1928 – Two Arabia Knights

1929 – The Divine Lady

1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front

1931 – Skippy

1932 – Bad Girl

1933 – Cavalcade

1934 – It Happened One Night

1935 – The Informer

1936 – Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

1937 – The Awful Truth

1938 – You Can’t Take It With You

1939 – Gone with the Wind

1940 – The Grapes of Wrath

1941 – How Green Was My Valley

1942 – Mrs. Miniver

1943 – Casablanca

1944 – Going My Way

1945 – The Lost Weekend

1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives

1947 – Gentleman’s Agreement

1948 – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1949 – A Letter to Three Wives

1950 – All About Eve

1951 – A Place in the Sun

1952 – The Quiet Man

1953 – From Here to Eternity

1954 – On the Waterfront

1955 – Marty

1956 – Giant

1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958 – Gigi

1959 – Ben-Hur

1960 – The Apartment

1961 – West Side Story

1962 – Lawrence of Arabia

1963 – Tom Jones

1964 – My Fair Lady

1965 – The Sound of Music

1966 – A Man for All Season

1967 – The Graduate

1968 – Oliver!

1969 – Midnight Cowboy

1970 – Patton

1971 – The French Connection

1972 – Cabaret

1973 – The Sting

1974 – The Godfather: Part II

1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1976 – Rocky

1977 – Annie Hall

1978 – The Deer Hunter

1979 – Kramer vs Kramer

1980 – Ordinary People

1981 – Reds

1982 – Gandhi

1983 – Terms of Endearment

1984 – Amadeus

1985 – Out of Africa

1986 – Platoon

1987 – The Last Emperor

1988 – Rain Man

1989 – Born on the Fourth of July

1990 – Dances with Wolves

1991 – The Silence of the Lambs

1992 – Unforgiven

1993 – Schindler’s List

1994 – Forrest Gump

1995 – Braveheart

1996 – The English Patient

1997 – Titanic

1998 – Saving Private Ryan

1999 – American Beauty

2000 – Traffic

2001 – A Beautiful Mind

2002 – The Pianist

2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004 – Million Dollar Baby

2005 – Brokeback Mountain

2006 – The Departed

2007 – No Country For Old Men

2008 – Slumdog Millionaire

2009 – The Hurt Locker

2010 – The King’s Speech

2011 – The Artist

2012 – Life of Pi

2013 – Gravity

2014 – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

2015 – The Revenant

2016 – La La Land

2017 – The Shape of Water