Oscar Directors: Winners of Best Director Whose Films Did Not Win Best Picture, 1929-present
My Oscar Book:
Correlation between the Two Awards
1927/1928: Frank Borzage; Wings
1928/1929: Frank Lloyd; The Broadway Melody
1929/1930: Norman Taurog; All Quiet on the Western Front
1931/1932: Frank Borzage; Grand Hotel
1935: John Ford; Mutiny on the Bounty
1936: Frank Capra; The Great Ziegfeld
1937: Leo McCarey; The Life of Emile Zola
1940: John Ford; Rebecca
1948: John Huston; Hamlet
1949: Joseph Mankiewicz; All the King’s Men
1951: George Stevens; American in Paris
1952: John Ford; The Greatest Story Ever Told
1956: George Stevens; Around the World in 80 Days
1967: Mike Nichols; In the Heat of the Night
1972: Bob Fosse; The Godfather
1981: Warren Beatty; Chariots of Fire
1989: Oliver Stone; Driving Miss Daisy
1998: Steven Spielberg; Shakespeare in Love
2000: Soderbergh; Gladiator
2002: Roman Polanski; Chicago
2005: Ang Lee; Crash
2012: Ang Lee; Argo
2013: Alfonso Cuaron; 12 Years a Slave
2015: Inarritu; Spotlight
2016: Damien Chazelle; Moonlight
2018: Cuaron; Green Book
2021: Jane Campion; CODA
Conclusion
In 96 years of Oscars, 27 filmmakers (about 29 percent) have won the Best Director Oscar, without earning the Best Picture kudo.
