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)

Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers:

Five individuals have won three Oscars (a triple-win) for Producing, Directing, and Writing in a
single year:

• Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960)

• Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather, Part II (1974)
• James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983)
• Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
• Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

Two individuals have received nominations for Producing, Acting, Directing, and Writing for the
same film in one year:
 • Orson Welles for Citizen Kane (1941)
• Warren Beatty for Heaven Can Wait (1978), and for Reds (1981) (with a win for Best
Director)

In addition to Welles and Beatty, one individual has been nominated for Acting, Producing, and
Writing for the same film:

• Charles Chaplin for The Great Dictator (1940)

In addition to Welles and Beatty, two individuals have been nominated simultaneously for Acting,
Directing, and Writing for the same film:

• Woody Allen for Annie Hall (1978)

• Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful (1998)

Most of the following actors won their first Oscars as directors rather than as performers (except
for Redford and Gibson, all were actors also nominated for their self-directed work):

• Woody Allen, Annie Hall (1977) - nominated as Best Actor, won Best Director - Allen
became the first director to win an Academy Award for a film he starred in
• Robert Redford, Ordinary People (1980) - won Best Director
• Warren Beatty, Reds (1981) - nominated as Best Actor, won Best Director
• Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves (1990) - nominated as Best Actor, won Best
Director
• Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992) - nominated as Best Actor, won Best Director
• Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995) - won Best Director
• Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (1941) - nominated for Best Actor and Director (didn't win
either)
• Charles Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940) - nominated as Best Actor only (didn't win)
• Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful (1998) - won Best Actor, nominated for Best Director
• Kenneth Branagh, Henry V (1989) - nominated for Best Actor and Best Director (didn't
win either)
• Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade (1996) - nominated as Best Actor
• Robert Duvall, The Apostle (1997) - nominated as Best Actor

The only two directors that ever directed themselves to a competitive acting Academy Award
were:

• Best Actor-winning director Sir Laurence Olivier for Hamlet (1948), the year's Best
Picture (he received two other self-directed actor nominations for Henry V (1946) and
Richard III (1956))
• Best Actor-winning Roberto Benigni, the director of Life is Beautiful (1998), the Best
Foreign Language Film of the year

Also, Best Director-winning Mel Gibson acted in and directed Braveheart (1995), the year's Best
Picture. Likewise, Best Director-winning Clint Eastwood acted in and directed Best Picture-
winning Million Dollar Baby (2004). And two Best Director Oscars were awarded to co-directors
Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for West Side Story (1961). And the only Best Director Oscar
winner to win for the only film he ever directed was also Jerome Robbins.

Related Winners:
1948's Oscar-winning director John Huston directed both his father (Walter Huston) to a Best
Supporting Actor Oscar and his daughter (Anjelica) to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in
respectively, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Prizzi's Honor (1985) 37 years later.
This remarkable feat made the Hustons the first family with three generations of Oscar winners.
In addition, this made the Hustons the only grandfather-granddaughter ever to win Academy
Awards:

• Walter Huston, Best Supporting Actor winner for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
(1948) (directed by his son John Huston)
• Anjelica Huston, Best Supporting Actress winner for Prizzi's Honor (1985) (directed by
her father John Huston)

The Coppolas became the second family with three generations of Oscar winners - with Sofia
Coppola's win for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation (2003). (Sofia's father Francis
Ford Coppola is a five-time winner and her grandfather, Carmine Coppola, won for musical score
on The Godfather Part II (1974).) Further connections can be made for the Coppolas - the only
father-daughter-nephew grouping to win Oscars:

• Francis Ford Coppola, Best Director winner for The Godfather Part II (1974)
• Sofia Coppola, Best Original Screenplay winner for Lost in Translation (2003)
• Nicolas Cage, Best Actor winner for Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Siblings Warren Beatty (Best Director for Reds (1981)) and Shirley MacLaine (Best Actress for
Terms of Endearment (1983)) are related Oscar winners.

Susan Sarandon won the Best Actress Oscar for Dead Man Walking (1995) (directed by her Best
Director-nominated husband (unofficial live-in) Tim Robbins). She became the first star to win in a
film directed by a spouse. Otherwise, it would be Frances McDormand who also won the Best
Actress Oscar for Fargo (1996), directed by her spouse, husband Joel Coen. McDormand's
brother-in-law, Ethan Coen, was the film's producer.

Other wives nominated for films made by their director husbands:

• Melina Mercouri, nominated for Best Actress for Never on Sunday (1960), was directed
by husband Jules Dassin
• Gena Rowlands, nominated for Best Actress for A Woman Under the Influence (1974),
was directed by husband John Cassavetes
• Julie Andrews, nominated for Best Actress for Victor/Victoria (1982), was directed by
husband Blake Edwards

To date, no female directors have had their starring husbands receive an Oscar nod.

ACADEMY of MOTION PICTURE

ARTS and SCIENCES

BEST DIRECTOR
(*Best Achievement in Directing)
Year of Best Director* Film
Award Winners Honored
1927-28 Frank Borzage Seventh Heaven (Dramatic
Lewis Milestone Picture)
Two Arabian Knights
(Comedy Picture)
1928-29 Frank Lloyd The Divine Lady
1929-30 Lewis Milestone All Quiet on the Western
Front
1930-31 Norman Taurog Skippy
1931-32 Frank Borzage Bad Girl
1932-33 Frank Lloyd Cavalcade
1934 Frank Capra It Happened One Night
1935 John Ford The Informer
1936 Frank Capra Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1937 Leo McCarey The Awful Truth
1938 Frank Capra You Can't Take It With You
1939 Victor Fleming Gone With The Wind
1940 John Ford The Grapes of Wrath
1941 John Ford How Green Was My Valley
1942 William Wyler Mrs. Miniver
1943 Michael Curtiz Casablanca
1944 Leo McCarey Going My Way
1945 Billy Wilder The Lost Weekend
1946 William Wyler The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 Elia Kazan Gentleman's Agreement
1948 John Huston The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre
1949 Joseph Mankiewicz A Letter to Three Wives
1950 Joseph Mankiewicz All About Eve
1951 George Stevens A Place in the Sun
1952 John Ford The Quiet Man
1953 Fred Zinnemann From Here to Eternity
1954 Elia Kazan On The Waterfront
1955 Delbert Mann Marty
1956 George Stevens Giant
1957 David Lean The Bridge On The River
Kwai
1958 Vincente Minnelli Gigi
1959 William Wyler Ben-Hur
1960 Billy Wilder The Apartment
1961 Jerome Robbins West Side Story
Robert Wise
1962 David Lean Lawrence of Arabia
1963 Tony Richardson Tom Jones
1964 George Cukor My Fair Lady
1965 Robert Wise The Sound of Music
1966 Fred Zinnemann A Man for All Seasons
1967 Mike Nichols The Graduate
1968 Carol Reed Oliver!
1969 John Schlesinger Midnight Cowboy
1970 Franklin Schaffner Patton
1971 William Friedkin The French Connection
1972 Bob Fosse Cabaret
1973 George Roy Hill The Sting
1974 Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather, Part II
1975 Milos Forman One Flew Over The Cuckoo's
Nest
1976 John Avildsen Rocky
1977 Woody Allen Annie Hall
1978 Michael Cimino The Deer Hunter
1979 Robert Benton Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 Robert Redford Ordinary People
1981 Warren Beatty Reds
1982 Richard Attenborough Gandhi
1983 James L. Brooks Terms of Endearment
1984 Milos Forman Amadeus
1985 Sydney Pollack Out of Africa
1986 Oliver Stone Platoon
1987 Bernardo Bertolucci The Last Emperor
1988 Barry Levinson Rain Man
1989 Oliver Stone Born on the Fourth of July
1990 Kevin Costner Dances With Wolves
1991 Jonathan Demme The Silence of the Lambs
1992 Clint Eastwood Unforgiven
1993 Steven Spielberg Schindler's List
1994 Robert Zemeckis Forrest Gump
1995 Mel Gibson Braveheart
1996 Anthony Minghella The English Patient
1997 James Cameron Titanic
1998 Steven Spielberg Saving Private Ryan
1999 Sam Mendes American Beauty
2000 Steven Soderbergh Traffic
2001 Ron Howard A Beautiful Mind
2002 Roman Polanski The Pianist
2003 Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King
2004 Clint Eastwood Million Dollar Baby
2005 Ang Lee Brokeback Mountain
2006 Martin Scorsese The Departed
2007 Joel and Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men