The Most Nominated Best Directors:

Although John Ford has won more Oscars, he has only five Best Director nominations, William
Wyler holds the record for the most nominations as director - twelve. Runner-up is Billy Wilder
with eight Best Director nominations.

In addition, Billy Wilder has a total of twenty-one career nominations and six Oscars for various
roles:

• Nominated eight times for director (with two Best Director wins - see below) between
1944 and 1960
• Nominated twelve times for screenwriting (with three wins for The Lost Weekend (1945),
Sunset Boulevard (1950), and The Apartment (1960))
• Nominated (and won) once as producer for the Best Picture-winning The Apartment
(1960)

A few directors have accomplished the 'hat trick' of triple Oscar wins as producer-director-writer:

• Leo McCarey for Going My Way (1944)

• Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960)
• Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather, Part 2 (1974)
• James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983)
• Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The Winning-est Directors (with Two Best Director Oscars):

Fifteen directors have two Best Director Oscar wins, and include the following (with no. of
nominations in parentheses):

• Billy Wilder (8)

• David Lean (7)
• Fred Zinnemann (7)
• Steven Spielberg (6)
• Elia Kazan (5)
• George Stevens (5)
• Clint Eastwood (4)
• Joseph L. Mankiewicz (4)
• Robert Wise (3)
• Oliver Stone (3)
• Milos Forman (3)
• Leo McCarey (3)
• Lewis Milestone (3)
• Frank Lloyd (3)
• Frank Borzage (2)

Back-to-Back Director Winners:

Only two directors have won back-to-back (consecutive year) directing Oscars:

• John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941)
 • Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950)
(Mankiewicz is the only writer-director to have back-to-back double wins for both
screenwriting and directing)

Best Director Oscar Omissions:

Some of the greatest directors of all time have never won an Academy Award for Best Director
(and many were never nominated - see Great Directors Who Have Not Won), including Clarence
Brown, Charlie Chaplin, King Vidor, Howard Hawks, D. W. Griffith, Brian De Palma, George
Sidney, John Cassavetes, Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, F.W. Murnau, William
A. Wellman, Otto Preminger, Sam Wood, Gregory La Cava, Norman Jewison, Sidney Lumet,
Ernst Lubitsch, Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, Robert Rossen, Fritz Lang, Spike Lee, Rouben
Mamoulian, W.S. Van Dyke, Stanley Kubrick, Herbert Ross, Tim Burton, Blake Edwards, Stanley
Kramer, Joshua Logan, James Ivory, Alan J. Pakula, Paul Mazursky, Arthur Penn, Richard
Brooks, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, David Lynch, Peter Weir, Akira Kurosawa, Barbra Streisand,
Ingmar Bergman, and Sam Peckinpah.

Best Director Summary:

It appears that twenty-six directors have been nominated four or more times:

• John Ford (5 nominations, 4 wins):

Oscar wins: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My
Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952).
Nominated: Stagecoach (1939)

• William Wyler (12 nominations, 3 wins):

Oscar wins: Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur
(1959)
Nominated: The Collector (1965), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Roman Holiday
(1953), Detective Story (1951), The Heiress (1949), The Little Foxes (1941), The Letter
(1940), Wuthering Heights (1939), Dodsworth (1936)

• Frank Capra (6 nominations, 3 wins):

Oscars wins: It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and You
Can't Take It With You (1938)
Nominated: It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Lady
for a Day (1933)

• Billy Wilder (8 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: The Lost Weekend (1945) and The Apartment (1960)
Nominated: Some Like It Hot (1959), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Sabrina
(1954), Stalag 17 (1953), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Double Indemnity (1944)

• David Lean (7 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Nominated: A Passage to India (1984), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Summertime (1955),
Great Expectations (1946), Brief Encounter (1946)

• Fred Zinnemann (7 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man for All Seasons (1966)
 Nominated: Julia (1977), The Sundowners (1960), The Nun's Story (1959), High
Noon (1952), The Search (1948)

• Steven Spielberg (6 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Nominated: Munich (2005), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

• Elia Kazan (5 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954)
Nominated: America, America (1963), East of Eden (1955), A Streetcar Named Desire
(1951)

• George Stevens (5 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956)
Nominated: The More the Merrier (1943), Shane (1953), The Diary of Anne Frank
(1959)

• Joseph L. Mankiewicz (4 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: A Letter to Three Wives (1949), All About Eve (1950)
Nominated: Five Fingers (1952), Sleuth (1972)

• Clint Eastwood (4 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: Million Dollar Baby (2004), Unforgiven (1992)
Nominated: Letters From Iwo Jima (2006), Mystic River (2003)

• Frank Lloyd (3 official nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: The Divine Lady (1928/29) (unofficial) and Cavalcade (1932/33)
Nominated: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Weary River (1928/9) and Drag (1928/29)
(unofficial)

• Oliver Stone (3 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Nominated: JFK (1991)

• Milos Forman (3 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984)
Nominated: The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

• Robert Wise (3 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: West Side Story (1961) (co-winner), The Sound of Music (1965)
Nominated: I Want to Live! (1958)

• Leo McCarey (3 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: The Awful Truth (1937), Going My Way (1944)
Nominated: The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

• Lewis Milestone (3 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Two Arabian Knights (1927/8)
Nominated: The Front Page (1931)

• Frank Borzage (2 nominations, 2 wins):

Oscar wins: Bad Girl (1931/2), Seventh Heaven (1927/8)
• Woody Allen (6 nominations, 1 win):
Oscar win: Annie Hall (1976)
Nominated: Bullets over Broadway (1994), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989),
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Interiors (1978)

• Martin Scorsese (6 nominations, 1 win):

Oscar win: The Departed (2006)
Nominated:The Aviator (2004), Gangs of New York (2002), GoodFellas (1990), The Last
Temptation of Christ (1988), Raging Bull (1980)

• George Cukor (5 nominations, 1 win):

Oscar win: My Fair Lady (1964)
Nominated: Born Yesterday (1950), A Double Life (1947), The Philadelphia Story
(1940), Little Women (1933)

• John Huston (5 nominations, 1 win):

Oscar win: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Nominated: Prizzi's Honor (1985), Moulin Rouge (1952), The African Queen (1951),
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

• Francis Ford Coppola (4 nominations, 1 win):

Oscar win: The Godfather, Part 2 (1974)
Nominated: The Godfather, Part 3 (1990), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Godfather
(1972)

• Michael Curtiz (4 nominations, 1 win):

Oscar win: Casablanca (1942)
Nominated: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Four
Daughters (1938)

• Mike Nichols (4 nominations, 1 win):

Oscar win: The Graduate (1967)
Nominated: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl
(1988)

• Clarence Brown (5/6 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: The Yearling (1946), National Velvet (1944), The Human Comedy (1943),
A Free Soul (1941), Anna Christie (1929/30) and Romance (1929/30)

• King Vidor (5 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: War and Peace (1956), The Citadel (1938), The Champ (1931), Hallelujah
(1929), The Crowd (1928)

• Alfred Hitchcock (5 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), Spellbound (1945), Lifeboat
(1944), Rebecca (1940)

• Robert Altman (5 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: Gosford Park (2001), Short Cuts (1993), The Player (1992), Nashville
(1975), M*A*S*H (1970)

• Stanley Kubrick (4 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: Barry Lyndon (1975), A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968), Dr. Strangelove or: How... (1964)
 • Sidney Lumet (4 nominations, 0 wins):
Nominated: The Verdict (1982), Network (1976), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), 12 Angry
Men (1957)

• Federico Fellini (4 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: Amarcord (1974), Fellini Satyricon (1970), 8 1/2 (1963), La Dolce Vita
(1961)

• Peter Weir (4 nominations, 0 wins):

Nominated: Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), The Truman Show (1998),
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Most Best Picture Nominations: William Wyler - the Winning-est Best Picture Director

Best Best Best

Best Picture
Director Director Director Picture
Nominations
Nominations Awards Awards
13 William Wyler 12 3 3
9 John Ford 5 4 1
8 Mervyn LeRoy 1 0 0
7 Frank Capra 6 3 2
7 George Cukor 5 1 1
7 Henry King 2 0 0
7 Steven Spielberg 6 2 1
7 George Stevens 5 2 0
6 Michael Curtiz 4 1 1
6 David Lean 7 2 2
6 Martin Scorsese 6 1 1
6 Sam Wood 2 0 0
6 Fred Zinnemann 7 2 2
5 Billy Wilder 8 2 2
Francis Ford
5 4 1 2
Coppola
5 Norman Jewison 3 0 1
5 Ernst Lubitsch 3 0 0
5 Leo McCarey 3 2 1
5 Lewis Milestone 3 2 1
4 Frank Borzage 2 2 0
4 Clint Eastwood 4 2 2
4 Victor Fleming 1 1 1
4 Alfred Hitchcock 5 0 1
4 John Huston 5 1 0
 4 Elia Kazan 5 2 2
4 Henry Koster 1 0 0
4 Stanley Kramer 3 0 0
4 Sidney Lumet 4 0 0
Joseph L.
4 4 2 1
Mankiewicz
4 W.S. Van Dyke 2 0 0
4 William Wellman 3 0 1
3 Frank Lloyd 5 2 2
3 Vincente Minnelli 2 1 2
3 Robert Wise 3 2 2
2 Milos Forman 3 2 2

William Wyler holds the record for the most nominations and wins for his films in all categories:
127 nominations and 39 awards. Half of the nominations are in the major categories of Best
Picture, Acting, and Directing. Wyler directed more nominated and winning acting performances
(35 and 13, respectively) than anyone in history (see below). Wyler also holds the record for
directing more Best Picture nominees (13) and more Best Picture winners (3) than anyone else.
His nominated and winning films (marked with *):

• Dodsworth (1936)
• Dead End (1937)
• Jezebel (1938)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• The Letter (1940)
• The Little Foxes (1941)
• Mrs. Miniver (1942)*
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*
• The Heiress (1949)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• Friendly Persuasion (1956)
• Ben-Hur (1959)*
• Funny Girl (1968)

Directors with the Most Consecutive Best Picture Nominations:

7 Consecutive Years: William Wyler

• Dodsworth (1936)
• Dead End (1937)
• Jezebel (1938)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• The Letter (1940)
• The Little Foxes (1941)
• Mrs. Miniver (1942)*
4 Consecutive Years: Frank Capra

• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

• Lost Horizon (1937)
• You Can't Take It With You (1938)*
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Directors with the Most Acting Nominations and Acting Awards:

Directors with Most Acting

Directors with Most Acting Awards
Nominations
35 - William Wyler 13 - William Wyler
24 - Elia Kazan 9 - Elia Kazan
21 - George Cukor 6 - Fred Zinnemann
20 - Martin Scorsese 5 - Martin Scorsese
20 - Fred Zinnemann 5 - John Ford
18 - Sidney Lumet 5 - Woody Allen
18 - George Stevens 5 - Clint Eastwood
17 - Mike Nichols 5 - George Cukor
17 - Billy Wilder 4 - Jonathan Demme
16 - Stanley Kramer 4 - Victor Fleming
15 - John Huston 4 - John Huston
15 - Woody Allen 4 - Sidney Lumet
4 - Hal Ashby
4 - James L. Brooks

William Wyler also holds the record for directing performers to 35 acting nominations, with 13
performers winning an acting Oscar (in a lead or supporting role):

• Walter Brennan (BSA for Come and Get It (1936) (co-directed with Howard Hawks) and
BSA for The Westerner (1940))
• Bette Davis (BA for Jezebel (1938))
• Faye Bainter (BSA for Jezebel (1938))
• Greer Garson (BA for Mrs. Miniver (1942))
• Teresa Wright (BSA for Mrs. Miniver (1942))
• Fredric March ( BA for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946))
• Harold Russell (BSA for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946))
• Olivia de Havilland (BA for The Heiress (1949))
• Audrey Hepburn (BA for Roman Holiday (1953))
• Burl Ives (BSA for The Big Country (1958))
• Charlton Heston (BA for Ben-Hur (1959))
• Hugh Griffith (BSA for Ben-Hur (1959))
• Barbra Streisand (BA for Funny Girl (1968))
Elia Kazan directed 24 actors/actresses to Academy Award nominations with 9 performers
proceeding on to win Academy Awards, and Fred Zinnemann directed 20 nominated performers
to 6 Oscars (Gary Cooper for High Noon (1952), Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed for From Here
to Eternity (1953), Paul Scofield for A Man for All Seasons (1966), and Vanessa Redgrave and
Jason Robards for Julia (1977)).

To date, Taylor Hackford is the only director to have directed two black actors to Oscar-winning
performances: Louis Gossett Jr. in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Jamie Foxx in Ray
(2004).

Female Directors: The Only Ones Nominated

Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola are the only female directors to have been nominated for Best
Picture and Best Director (for The Piano (1993) and for Lost in Translation (2003)). Lina
Wertmuller is the only other woman nominated for Best Director (for Seven Beauties (1976)).
Sofia Coppola is the first American woman nominated for Best Director and only the third woman
ever to be nominated for Best Director. Several films directed by women have been nominated for
Best Picture (without corresponding Best Director nominations), including Randa Haines'
Children of a Lesser God (1986), Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990), and Barbra Streisand's
The Prince of Tides (1991).

Foreign-Born Director Nominees and Winners:

In 2005, Ang Lee became the first Asian (or non-white) filmmaker to win Hollywood's main
filmmaking honor for Brokeback Mountain (2005).

In 2006, Alejandro González Iñárritu was the first Mexican director nominated for the top prize, for
Babel (2006). The Mexican directing troika of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and
Alfonso Cuaron took a combined 16 nominations for their films Babel (2006) (with seven
nominations), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) (with six nominations) and Children of Men (2006) (with
three nominations), respectively.

In 1987, all five of the Best Director nominees were foreign-born:

• Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy) - the winner

• Lasse Hallstrom (Sweden)
• Norman Jewison (Canada)
• Adrian Lyne (British)
• John Boorman (British)

The Most Best Director Nominations - Without a Single Win:

• Clarence Brown - 6 Best Director nominations (from 1929/30 - 1946)

• King Vidor - 5 Best Director nominations (from 1927/8 - 1956)
• Alfred Hitchcock - 5 Best Director nominations (from 1940 - 1960)
• Robert Altman - 5 Best Director nominations (from 1970 - 2001)

Oldest and Youngest Best Directors:

Note: The calculated time is from date of birth to the date of either (1) the nominations
announcement, or (2) the date of the awards ceremony.
 Youngest Best Youngest Best Oldest Best Oldest Best
Director Nominee Director Winner Director Nominee Director Winner

24 years (and 44 32 years (and 260 79 years (and 184 74 years (and 272
days) days) Norman days) days)
John Singleton for Taurog for Skippy John Huston for Clint Eastwood for
Boyz N the Hood (1930/31) Prizzi's Honor Million Dollar Baby
(1991) (1985) (2004)
Runner-Ups: Runner-Ups: Runner-Ups: Runner-Ups:
26 years (and 279 33 years (and 228 78 years (and 193 69 years (and 217
days) days) days) Charles days) Roman
Orson Welles for Lewis Milestone for Crichton for A Fish Polanski for The
Citizen Kane Two Arabian Called Wanda Pianist (2002)
Nights (1927/28) (1988)
29 years (and 66 65 years (and 272
days) Kenneth 34 years (238 days) 76 years (and 357 days) George Cukor
Branagh for Henry Sam Mendes for days) Robert Altman for My Fair Lady
V (1989) American Beauty for Gosford Park (1964)
(1999) (2001)
29 years (and 113 62 years (and 302
days) 35 years (and 36 76 years (and 318 days)
Claude Lelouch for days) days) Clint Eastwood for
A Man and a Lewis Milestone for David Lean for A Unforgiven (1992)
Woman (1966) All Quiet on the Passage to India
Western Front (1984) 62 years (and 105
Note: the youngest (1929/30) days)
woman ever to earn Carol Reed for
a nomination, 32- Oliver! (1968)
year old Sofia
Coppola for Lost in
Translation (2003)

Other Notables:

The first (and only) African-American to be nominated as Best Director was John Singleton for
Boyz N the Hood (1991). Spike Lee has never been nominated for Best Director.

There are only a handful of directors who have won (or been nominated for) the Best Director
Oscar for their film debut:

• Orson Welles (nominated) for Citizen Kane (1941)

• Delbert Mann (won) for Marty (1955)
• Sidney Lumet (nominated) for 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Jack Clayton (nominated) for Room at the Top (1959)
• Jerome Robbins (won) for West Side Story (1961)
• Frank Perry (nominated) for David and Lisa (1962)
• Mike Nichols (nominated) for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Warren Beatty/Buck Henry (nominated) for Heaven Can Wait (1978)
• Robert Redford (won) for Ordinary People (1980)
• James L. Brooks (won) for Terms of Endearment (1983)
 • Kevin Costner (won) for Dances with Wolves (1990)
• Sam Mendes (won) for American Beauty (1999)
• Rob Marshall (nominated) for Chicago (2002)
• Bennett Miller (nominated) for Capote (2005)
• Paul Haggis (nominated) for Crash (2005)

Only three directors have received two best director nominations in the same year:

• Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000) (the Oscar winner)
• Michael Curtiz, for Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Four Daughters (1938)
• Clarence Brown for Romance (1929/30) and Anna Christie (1929/30)

Only three duo directing teams have been nominated for Best Director in Oscars history:

• Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978)
• Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for West Side Story (1961) - (win)
• Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007) (win) - the first time a sibling
team had been nominated in the category, and the second directing duo to win Best
Director

Seven out of the first eleven Best Director Oscars were won by men named Frank: Frank
Borzage, Frank Lloyd, and Frank Capra. The first Canadian to win Best Director was James
Cameron, for Titanic (1997).Director W.S. (Woody) Van Dyke holds the single-year record for the
most films to receive Oscar nominations (7):

• Van Dyke directed The Thin Man (1934) that had four nominations (Best Picture, Best
Actor, Best Director, and Best Adaptation)
• Van Dyke directed Manhattan Melodrama (1934) that won Best Original Story
• Van Dyke directed Hide-out (1934) that was nominated for Best Original Story
• Van Dyke directed Eskimo (1934) that won Best Film Editing

Director Steven Spielberg holds the record for the most Oscars for multiple films in the same
year:

• Jurassic Park (1993) - with 3 nominations (and 3 wins)

• Schindler's List (1993) - with 12 nominations (and 7 wins)