The 25 previous winners of the award for best director (updated for 2024)

Well, my friends, we’ve almost reached the end of this series, as this is the second-to-last article. Alas, but until that sad moment, we’ll continue. I’m continuing a tradition that’s been close to my heart for years and ranking the new Oscar winners. For almost all Oscar categories, I’ll list the top 25 winners of that award. Sometimes our newest winner will be among them. Sometimes they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a series of lists I do every year in the weeks after the ceremony wraps up, so this is a fun way to reflect on the Oscars after the final telecast, but also the start of another column here on the site. Of course, feel free to show us your own lists in the comments section below. We’re definitely curious to hear what you think!

Another of the biggest categories today, as you might imagine, is Best Director. The Best Director category has occasionally struggled with being seen as a coattail on the way to the Best Picture category, but that hasn’t always been the case. A look below shows many winners in the Directing category that didn’t also take home the Best Picture category. For my money, Steven Spielberg has the best victory, for Schindler’s List (although his other winner, Saving Private Ryanis not far behind). Other top winners are Woody Allen (I know, I know) for The Urban Neurotic, Kathryn Bigelow for The Injured locker, Bong Joon Ho for parasiteAnd Michael Nichols for The final exam. Where does one of our last winners come from, Jane CampionThis time, they are working The power of the dog? What about The Daniels for Everything everywhere at once two years ago? Of course, there is also the small matter of our latest winner, Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer. Will he make it into the top ten the first time? Read on to find out…

Here are what I think are the 25 best Oscar winners for Best Director so far:

25. John G. Avildsen – Rocky
24. William Friedkin – The French Connection
23. Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather – Part II
22. Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby
21. Oliver Stone – Platoon
20. Miloš Forman – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
19. John Ford – The Grapes of Wrath
18. Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
17. Sam Mendes – American Beauty
16. Jonathan Demme – The Silence of the Lambs
15. Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
14. Elia Kazan – The Fist in the Neck
13. The Daniels – Everything Everywhere at Once
12. David Lean – Lawrence of Arabia
11. Martin Scorsese – The Departed
10. Billy Wilder – The Apartment
9. Michael Curtiz – Casablanca
8. Damien Chazelle – La La Land
7. Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
6. Steven Spielberg – Saving Private Ryan
5. Mike Nichols – The Graduate
4. Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
3. Woody Allen – Annie Hall
2. Bong Joon Ho – Parasite
1. Steven Spielberg – Schindler’s List

Honorable Mentions: James Cameron – Titanic, Frank Capra – Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Guillermo del Toro – The Shape of Water, Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), William Wyler – Ben Hur and Robert Zemeckis – Forrest Gump

Stay tuned for the final category early next week!

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