Research in Progress: Jan 23, 2024 (latest, includes Nolan)
Over the past 96 years, 244 filmmakers have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar. This Hollywood elite is composed of 170 nominees and 74 winners.
My Oscar Book
Many of the 74 winners have won multiple Oscar Awards and nominations.
Several of the 170 nominees have also been multiple candidates.
Except for the first year, in which two Best Directors were given (one for comedy, the other for drama), each year the category of Best Director has consisted of five nominees.
In theory, the directors are nominated regardless of genre, nationality, and the language in which their films were made.
In practice, however, this category is dominated by U.S. born filmmakers, who are nominated for English-speaking films.
Even foreign directors, such as Italian Bernardo Bertolucci, have been nominated (Last Tango in Paris, 1973) and have won (The Last Emperor, in 1987) for English-speaking films that are largely backed by American financing.
Below please find a list of all Oscar nominated directors, from the beginning to the present, by alphabetical order.
Oscar Nominated Directors (A-Z); winners in bold
A (12)
Abrahamson, Lenny
Allen, Woody
Almodovar, Pedro (Spanish, for Spanish film)
Altman, Robert
Anderson, Michael
Anderson, Paul Thomas
Anderson, Wes
Antonioni, Michelangelo (Italian for English-speaking film)
Aronofsky, Darren
Ashby, Hal
Attenborough, Richard
Avildsen, John G.
B (21)
Babenco, Hector (Argentinean-Brazilian for English-speaking)
Barrymore, Lionel
Beatty, Warren
Beaumont, Harry
Benigni, Roberto (Italian for Italian film)
Benton Robert
Beresford, Bruce
Bergman, Ingmar (Swedish for Swedish)
Bertolucci, Bernardo (Italian for English)
Bigelow, Kathryn
Bogdanovich, Peter
Bong, Joon-ho (Korean for Korean film)
Boorman, John
Borzage, Frank
Branagh, Kenneth
Brenon, Herbert
Brest, Martin
Brooks, James L.
Brooks, Richard
Brown, Clarence
Bush, Richard
C (23 directors)
Cacoyannis, Michael (Greek for English-speaking)
Cameron, James
Campion, Jane
Capra, Frank
Cardiff, Jack
Cassavetes, John
Cattaneo, Peter
Chaplin, Charles
Chazelle, Damien
Chung, Isaac Lee (Minari)
Cimino, Michael
Clayton, Jack
Clooney, George
Coen, Ethan
Coen, Joel
Coppola, Francis Ford
Coppola, Sofia
Costner, Kevin
Crichton, Michael
Cuaron, Alfonso (Mexican for both English and Mexican)
Cukor, George
Cummings, Irving
Curtiz, Michael
D (8)
Daldry, Stephen
Daniels, Lee
Dassin, Jules
Del Toro, Guillermo (Mexican for English-speaking)
DeMille, Cecil B.
Demme, Jonathan
Dieterle, William
Dmytryk, Edward
E (2)
Eastwood, Clint
Egoyan, Atom
F (14 directors)
Farrow, John
Fellini, Federico (Italian for Italian)
Fennell, Emerald
Field, Tod
Figgis, Mike
Fincher, David
Fleming, Victor
Ford, John
Forman, Milos (Czech for English-speaking)
Forster, Marc
Fosse, Bob
Franklin, Sidney
Frears, Stephen
Friedkin, William
G (8)
Gavras-Costa (Greek-French for French)
Germi, Pietro (Italian for Italian)
Gerwig, Greta
Gibson, Mel
Gilroy, Tony
Glazer, Jonathan
Glenville, Peter
Greengrass, Paul
H (18)
Hackford, Taylor
Haggis, Paul
Hall, Alexander
Hallstrom, Lasse (Swedish for Swedish and English)
Haneke, Michael
Hanson, Curtis
Harvey, Anthony
Hathaway, Henry
Hawks, Howard
Henry, Buck (co-director. Heaven Can Wait)
Hicks, Scott
Hill, George Roy
Hiller, Arthur
Hitchcock, Alfred
Hooper, Tom
Howard, Ron
Hudson, Hugh
Huston, John
I (1)
Ivory, James
J (6)
Jackson, Peter
Jaffe, Roland
Jenkins, Barry
Jewison, Norman
Jonze, Spike
Jordan, Neil
K (8)
Kazan, Elia
Kieslowski, Krzystof (Polish for Polish)
King, Henry
Koster, Henry
Kramer, Stanley
Kubrick, Stanley
Kurosawa, Akira (Japanese for Japanese)
Kwan, Daniel
L (21)
La Cava, Gregory
Lang, Walter
Lanthymos, Yorgos (Greek for English)
Lean, David
Lee, Spike
Lee, Ang (Taiwan for English)
Leigh, Mike
Lelouch, Claude (French for French)
Leonard, Robert Z.
LeRoy, Mervyn
Levinson, Barry
Linklater, Richard
Litvak, Anatole
Lloyd, Frank
Logan, Joshua
Lonergan, Kenneth
Lubitsch, Ernst
Lucas, George
Lumet, Sidney
Lynch, David
Lyne, Adrian
M (20)
McCarey, Leo
McCarthy, Tom
McKay, Adam
McQueen, Steve
Madden, John
Malick, Terrence
Malle, Louis (French for English)
Mankiewicz, Joseph L.
Mann, Delbert
Mann, Michael
Marshall, Rob
Mendes, Sam
Mereilles, Fernando (Brazilian for Brazilian)
Milestone, Lewis
Miller, Bennett
Miller, George
Minghella, Anthony
Minnelli, Vincente
Molinaro, Eduard (French for French)
Mulligan, Robert
N (4)
Negulesco, Jean
Nichols, Mike
Nolan, Christopher
Noonan, Chris
O (1)
Olivier, Laurence
P (13)
Pakula, Alan J.
Parker, Alan
Paulikowski, Pawell (Polish for Polish)
Payne, Alexander
Peele, Jordan
Penn, Arthur
Perry, Frank
Peterssen, Wolfgang (German foir German)
Phillips, Todd
Polanski, Roman (Polish for English)
Pollack, Sydney
Pontecorvio, Gillo (Italian for foreign and documentary!)
Preminger, Otto
R (16)
Radford, Michael
Redford, Robert
Reed, Carol
Reitman, Jason
Renoir, Jean (French for English)
Richardson, Tony
Ritt, Martin
Robbins, Jerome
Robbins, Tim
Robson, Mark
Ross, Herbert
Rossen, Robert
Ruggles, Wesley
Russell, Ken
Russell, David O.
Rydell, Mark
S (20)
Schaffner, Franklin
Scheinert, Daniel
Schertzinger, Victor
Schlesinger, John
Schnabel, Julian
Schroeder, Barbet (French for English)
Scorsese, Martin
Scott, Ridley
Seaton, George
Sheridan, Jim
Shyamalan, M. Night
Singleton, John
Siodmak, Robert (German for English)
Soderbergh, Steven
Spielberg, Steven
Sternberg, Josef von (German for English)
Stevens, George
Stevenson, Robert
Stone, Oliver
Sturges, John
T (8)
Tarantino, Quentin
Taurog, Norman
Teshigahara, Hiroshi (Japanese for Japanese)
Thompson, Lee J.
Triet, Justine (French woman)
Troell, Jan (Swedish for Swedish)
Truffaut, Francois (French for French)
Tyldun, Morten
U
V (4)
Van Dyke, W. S.
Van Sant, Gus
Vidor, King
Villeneuve, Denis
W (10)
Walters, Charles
Weir, Peter
Welles, Orson
Wellman, William A.
Wertmueller, Lina (Italian for Italian)
Wilde, Ted
Wilder, Billy
Wise, Robert
Wood, Sam
Wyler, William
Y (1)
Yates, Peter
Z (5)
Zeffirelli, Franco (Italian for English)
Zeitlin, Benh
Zemeckis, Robert
Zhao, Chloe (Nomadland, 2021)
Zinnemann, Fred
