In 1948, the 12-year-old Directors Guild of America (DGA), then known as the Screen Directors Guild (SDG), began handing out annual achievement awards. Three Best Director Oscar winners – Frank Capra, John Ford, and Norman Taurog – alongside George Sidney, Delmer Daves, H. Bruce Humberstone, Irving Pichel, and, ex-officio, Guild president George Marshall took part in the initial Awards Committee in the selection of the Directors Guild Award honorees. The DGA Awards’ first winner was Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives, a critically acclaimed comedy-drama that would earn Mankiewicz a Best Director Academy Award the following year.
Before 1970 (awards handed out in 1971), the Guild’s list of finalists consisted of a variable number of directors, almost always more than five. From 1970 on, when the Directors Guild began restricting its list of motion picture nominees to five directors per year, a DGA nod has generally translated into an Academy Award nod.
There have been, however, quite a few exceptions to this rule. In fact, to date only five times have the DGA choices exactly matched the Academy’s shortlist: 1977, 1981, 1998, 2005, and 2009. (A DGA win has mostly – though not invariably – translated into an Oscar win as well; see discrepancies further below.)
Generally speaking, non-Hollywood and less commercial films tend to fare better with the Directors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) than with the Guild, partly because screeners aren’t allowed to be sent to DGA members (foreign and small independent films would then be less readily available for viewing), but perhaps chiefly because of the DGA’s huge membership.
For comparison’s sake: the DGA boasts about 14,500 members while the Academy’s considerably more elitist Directors Branch has 367 (in Jan. 2012). The Guild’s membership includes motion picture and television directors, first and second assistant directors, unit production managers, technical coordinators, tape associate directors, stage managers, and production associates.
All things being equal, the larger the voting body the more mundane – or more mainstream, if you wish – are the choices. That also helps to explain why the likes of Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Atom Egoyan, Pietro Germi, Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Lina Wertmüller, Louis Malle, Michelangelo Antonioni, Gillo Pontecorvo, David Lynch, François Truffaut, Jan Troell, Fernando Meirelles, Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Robert Altman, Costa-Gavras, Pedro Almodóvar, and Krzysztof Kieslowski have received Best Director Oscar nods without any of them ever coming out on top. After all, every Academy member – currently about 6,000 of them – is entitled to vote for the winner in each category.
Since 1970, when the DGA instituted the five-nominee limit, a mere ten directors of (at least mostly) non-English-language films have received DGA nods: Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties, 1976), Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, 1982), Ingmar Bergman (Fanny and Alexander, 1983), Lasse Hallström (My Life As a Dog, 1987), Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, 1990), Michael Radford (Il Postino / The Postman, 1995), Robert Benigni (Life Is Beautiful, 1998), Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 2000), Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), and Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 2009).
The above list can be expanded to twelve if you include Bernardo Bertolucci for Last Tango in Paris, which has a sizable amount of English dialogue, and Michel Hazanavicius’ French-made but Hollywood-set The Artist.
During that same period (excepting 2011, as Oscar nominations will be announced only later this month), 21 directors of non-English-language films received Academy Award nominations. (Twenty-two if you include Bertolucci and his Last Tango.)
Additionally, directors of English-language – but non-American – films tend to be better liked by Academy members as well. Paul Greengrass (United 93, UK), Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Canada), Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty, UK), Ken Russell (Women in Love, UK), Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father, UK/Ireland), John Boorman (Hope and Glory, UK), Chris Noonan (Babe, Australia), Peter Yates (The Dresser, UK), Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, UK), David Lean (Summertime, UK), Hector Babenco (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Brazil), and Kenneth Branagh (Henry V, UK), among others, were left out of the DGA shortlists but went on to receive Academy Award nominations.
Cult or “niche” faves like John Cassavetes (A Woman Under the Influence, 1974), David Lynch (Blue Velvet in 1986, Mulholland Dr. in 2001), Robert Altman (Short Cuts in 1993, Gosford Park in 2001), and Woody Allen (Interiors in 1978, Broadway Danny Rose in 1984, Bullets Over Broadway in 1994) are also better liked by the Academy’s Directors Branch (all of the aforementioned movies were nominated) than by the Directors Guild (none of the aforementioned movies was nominated).
The same can be said about controversial box office disappointments or modest performers like The Last Temptation of Christ (an Oscar nod for Martin Scorsese in 1988), The People vs. Larry Flynt (Milos Forman in 1996), Vera Drake (Mike Leigh in 2004), and The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008), none of which was to be found in the DGA’s list of nominees.
On the other hand, DGA members are big fans of Steven Spielberg, who has garnered 10 nominations (versus six Best Director Oscar nods), including three wins (versus two Oscar wins).
That said, there have been a few instances when DGA members went for a less commercial name while the Academy’s Director’s branch opted for the big box office guy. The most egregious example is probably the Academy’s 1971 Best Director nod for Norman Jewison for his blockbuster musical Fiddler on the Roof, while the DGA nominated Robert Mulligan for his small-scale, coming-of-age romantic drama Summer of ’42.
In an even stranger twist, Directors Branch fave Woody Allen (six nominations, including one win) was somehow left out of the 1979 Oscar shortlist even though he did receive a DGA nod for Manhattan – regarded as one of his greatest films.
Since pre-1970 Directors Guild Award finalists often consisted of more than five directors, it was impossible to get an exact match for the DGA’s and the Academy’s lists of nominees. In the list below, the years before 1970 include DGA finalists (DGA) who didn’t receive an Academy Award nod and, if applicable, those Academy Award-nominated directors (AMPAS) not found in the – usually much lengthier – DGA list. The label “DGA/AMPAS” means the directors in question received nominations for both the DGA Award and the Academy Award.
The DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards list below goes from 1948 (the DGA Awards’ first year) to 1952. Follow-up posts will cover the ensuing decades. The number in parentheses next to “DGA” indicates that year’s number of DGA finalists if other than five.
It should be noted that for a number of years, the DGA/AMPAS eligibility periods didn’t exactly match. As a result, movies eligible for the DGA Awards one year would be eligible for the Oscars the next – or vice-versa.
For instance, Joseph L. Mankiewicz became the first DGA Award winner – for the year 1948 – for the drama A Letter to Three Wives, an early 1949 release that would earn him the Best Director Oscar for that year (at the 1950 Academy Awards ceremony). Also, Carol Reed’s The Third Man was shortlisted by the DGA in 1949, but its Oscar nomination came out in 1950. Additionally, Jose Ferrer won the 1950 Best Actor Oscar for Cyrano de Bergerac, which would earn director Michael Gordon a DGA Award nomination the following year.
I should also note that Directors Guild members could vote for the Best Director Academy Award nominations until 1956. Discrepancies in the DGA/AMPAS nominations during that period, such as Oscar but not DGA nominations for John Huston (The African Queen and Moulin Rouge) and David Lean (Summertime), could be related to eligibility rules (all three aforementioned titles, for instance, were either British or Anglo-American productions – though The Third Man was shortlisted by the DGA), screening availability (both Huston films were last-minute releases), or to different methods of tabulating votes. The Academy uses the notorious preferential voting system.
See list of DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards further below.
Catherine Zeta-Jones in Rob Marshall’s Chicago.
Since its inception in 1948, 51 out of 62 winners of the Directors Guild Award (DGA) have gone on to win a matching Best Director Academy Award (AMPAS). The eight exceptions are listed below.
In one of those instances, the same director/film won both awards but in different years. Joseph L. Mankiewicz won the 1948 DGA Award for A Letter to Three Wives, an early 1949 release. Eventually, Mankiewicz went on to win the 1949 Best Director Oscar for that film as well. (John Huston won the 1948 Best Director Academy Award for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Robert Rossen won the 1949 DGA Award for All the King’s Men, which also took home the Best Picture Oscar.)
It should be noted that to date Steven Spielberg (for The Color Purple in 1985) and Ron Howard (for Apollo 13 in 1995) are the only two DGA Award winners who failed to receive a matching Best Director Oscar nomination.
In early 2003, something particularly curious took place. As usual, the DGA Award voters opted for the safe choice, Rob Marshall for the popular 2002 musical Chicago, which went on to win the Best Picture Oscar. Somewhat surprisingly, the Academy membership – well, at least enough of them to guarantee a victory – opted for a controversial choice: Roman Polanski, who couldn’t show up to accept his award because in the United States he was (and remains) a fugitive from the law.
1948
DGA
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three WivesAMPAS
John Huston for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre1949
DGA
Robert Rossen for All the King’s MenAMPAS
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives [see 1948]1968
DGA
Anthony Harvey for The Lion in WinterAMPAS
Carol Reed for Oliver!1972
DGA
Francis Ford Coppola for The GodfatherAMPAS
Bob Fosse for Cabaret1985
DGA
Steven Spielberg for The Color PurpleAMPAS
Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa [Spielberg wasn’t even nominated]1995
DGA
Ron Howard for Apollo 13AMPAS
Mel Gibson for Braveheart [Howard wasn’t even nominated]2000
DGA
Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger Hidden DragonAMPAS
Steven Soderbergh for Traffic2002
DGA
Rob Marshall for ChicagoAMPAS
Roman Polanski for The Pianist
DGA Awards vs. Best Director Oscar nominations
1948
DGA (04)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives*
Howard Hawks, Red RiverAMPAS
John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Jean Negulesco, Johnny Belinda
Laurence Olivier, HamletAMPAS/DGA
Anatole Litvak, The Snake Pit
Fred Zinnemann, The Search* DGA Award eligibility extended into early 1949
1949
DGA (04)
Mark Robson, Champion
Alfred L. Werker, Lost Boundaries
Carol Reed, The Third Man*AMPAS
William A. Wellman, Battleground
Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol
William Wyler, The Heiress
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives (see 1948 DGA nominees)AMPAS/DGA
Robert Rossen, All the King’s Men* DGA Award eligibility extended into early 1950
1950
DGA (04)
Vincente Minnelli, Father’s Little DividendAMPAS
Carol Reed, The Third Man (see 1949 DGA nominees)
George Cukor, Born YesterdayAMPAS/DGA
John Huston, The Asphalt Jungle
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve
Billy Wilder, Sunset Blvd.1951
DGA (12)
Michael Gordon, Cyrano de Bergerac
Henry King, David and Bathsheba
Laslo Benedek, Death of a Salesman
Anatole Litvak, Decision Before Dawn
Richard Thorpe, The Great Caruso
Mervyn LeRoy, Quo Vadis?
George Sidney, Show Boat
Alfred Hitchcock, Strangers on a TrainAMPAS
John Huston, The African QueenDGA/AMPAS
George Stevens, A Place in the Sun
Elia Kazan, A Streetcar Named Desire
Vincente Minnelli, An American in Paris
William Wyler, Detective Story1952
DGA (18)
Vincente Minnelli, The Bad and the Beautiful
Howard Hawks, The Big Sky
Charles Vidor, Hans Christian Andersen
Michael Curtiz, I’ll See You in My Dreams
Richard Thorpe, Ivanhoe
Charles Crichton, The Lavender Hill Mob
Hugo Fregonese, My Six Convicts
Albert Lewin, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
George Cukor, Pat and Mike
Akira Kurosawa, Rashomon
George Sidney, Scaramouche
Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, Singin’ in the Rain
Henry King, The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Elia Kazan, Viva Zapata!AMPAS
John Huston, Moulin RougeDGA/AMPAS
John Ford, The Quiet Man
Cecil B. DeMille, The Greatest Show on Earth
Fred Zinnemann, High Noon
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 5 Fingers
1953
DGA (12)
Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond
Walter Lang, Call Me Madam
Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar
Henry Koster, The Robe
Jean Negulesco, Titanic
George Sidney, Young BessDGA/AMPAS
George Stevens, Shane
Charles Walters, Lili
Billy Wilder, Stalag 17
William Wyler, Roman Holiday
Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity1954
DGA (16)
Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny
Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder
Robert Wise, Executive Suite
Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story
Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water
Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles
Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood
Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11
Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
George Cukor, A Star Is Born
Jean Negulesco, Three Coins in the FountainDGA/AMPAS
Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront
Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window
George Seaton, The Country Girl
William A. Wellman, The High and the Mighty
Billy Wilder, Sabrina1955
DGA (12)
Richard Brooks, Blackboard Jungle
Mark Robson, The Bridges of Toko-Ri
John Ford, The Long Gray Line
Charles Vidor, Love Me or Leave Me
Henry Koster, A Man Called Peter
John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, Mister Roberts
Daniel Mann, The Rose Tattoo
Billy Wilder, The Seven Year ItchAMPAS
David Lean, SummertimeDGA/AMPAS
Delbert Mann, Marty
Elia Kazan, East of Eden
Joshua Logan, Picnic
John Sturges, Bad Day at Black Rock1956
DGA (18)
Robert Rossen, Alexander the Great
Joshua Logan, Bus Stop
Henry King, Carousel
George Sidney, The Eddy Duchin Story
Nunnally Johnson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Alfred Hitchcock, The Man Who Knew Too Much
Roy Rowland, Meet Me in Las Vegas
John Huston, Moby Dick
John Ford, The Searchers
Robert Wise, Somebody Up There Likes Me
Daniel Mann, The Teahouse of the August Moon
Carol Reed, Trapeze
Alfred Hitchcock, The Trouble with HarryDGA/AMPAS
George Stevens, Giant
Michael Anderson, Around the World in 80 Days
Walter Lang, The King and I
King Vidor, War and Peace
William Wyler, Friendly Persuasion1957
DGA (17)
Leo McCarey, An Affair to Remember
Elia Kazan, A Face in the Crowd
Robert Mulligan, Fear Strikes Out
Stanley Donen, Funny Face
Jose Ferrer, The Great Man
John Sturges, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Fred Zinnemann, A Hatful of Rain
John Huston, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
George Cukor, Les Girls
Billy Wilder, Love in the Afternoon
Anthony Mann, Men in War
Stanley Kramer, The Pride and the PassionDGA/AMPAS
David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Joshua Logan, Sayonara
Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men
Mark Robson, Peyton Place
Billy Wilder, Witness for the Prosecution1958
DGA (14)
William Wyler, The Big Country
Richard Brooks, The Brothers Karamazov
Delmer Daves, Cowboy
George Abbott and Stanley Donen, Damn Yankees!
Martin Ritt, The Long, Hot Summer
George Seaton, Teacher’s Pet
Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo
Richard Fleischer, The Vikings
Edward Dmytryk, The Young LionsDGA/AMPAS
Vincente Minnelli, Gigi
Richard Brooks, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Stanley Kramer, The Defiant Ones
Mark Robson, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Robert Wise, I Want to Live!1959
DGA (13)
Otto Preminger, Anatomy of a Murder
Richard Fleischer, Compulsion
Frank Capra, A Hole in the Head
John Ford, The Horse Soldiers
Douglas Sirk, Imitation of Life
Alfred Hitchcock, North by Northwest
Leo McCarey, Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys!
Howard Hawks, Rio Bravo
Charles Barton, The Shaggy DogAMPAS
Jack Clayton, Room at the TopDGA/AMPAS
William Wyler, Ben-Hur
George Stevens, The Diary of Anne Frank
Billy Wilder, Some Like It Hot
Fred Zinnemann, The Nun’s Story
1960
DGA (14)
Vincente Minnelli, Bells Are Ringing
Walter Lang, Can-Can
Delbert Mann, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Richard Brooks, Elmer Gantry
Alain Resnais, Hiroshima Mon Amour
Vincente Minnelli, Home from the Hill
Carol Reed, Our Man in Havana
Charles Walters, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
Lewis Gilbert, Sink the Bismarck!
Vincent J. Donehue, Sunrise at CampobelloAMPAS
Jules Dassin, Never on SundayDGA/AMPAS
Billy Wilder, The Apartment
Jack Cardiff, Sons and Lovers
Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho
Fred Zinnemann, The Sundowners1961
DGA (21)
Robert Stevenson, The Absent Minded Professor
Blake Edwards, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
William Wyler, The Children’s Hour
Anthony Mann, El Cid
Joshua Logan, Fanny
Henry Koster, Flower Drum Song
Robert Mulligan, The Great Impostor
Philip Leacock, Hand in Hand
Jack Clayton, The Innocents
Mervyn LeRoy, A Majority of One
John Huston, The Misfits
Marlon Brando, One-Eyed Jacks
Frank Capra, Pocketful of Miracles
Daniel Petrie, A Raisin in the Sun
Peter Ustinov, Romanoff and Juliet
Elia Kazan, Splendor in the Grass
Peter Glenville, Summer and SmokeAMPAS
Federico Fellini, La Dolce VitaDGA/AMPAS
Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, West Side Story
Stanley Kramer, Judgment at Nuremberg
Robert Rossen, The Hustler
J. Lee Thompson, The Guns of Navarone1962
DGA (16)
Peter Ustinov, Billy Budd
John Frankenheimer, Birdman of Alcatraz
John Huston, Freud
Stanley Kubrick, Lolita
Sidney Lumet, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, The Longest Day
John Frankenheimer, The Manchurian Candidate
Morton DaCosta, The Music Man
Lewis Milestone, Mutiny on the Bounty
Ralph Nelson, Requiem for a Heavyweight
Tony Richardson, A Taste of Honey
Robert Aldrich, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?AMPAS
Frank Perry, David and LisaDGA/AMPAS
David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia
Pietro Germi, Divorce, Italian Style
Robert Mulligan, To Kill a Mockingbird
Arthur Penn, The Miracle Worker1963
DGA
Ralph Nelson, Lilies of the FieldAMPAS
Otto Preminger, The CardinalDGA/AMPAS
Tony Richardson, Tom Jones
Federico Fellini, 8½
Elia Kazan, America, America
Martin Ritt, Hud1964
DGA
John Huston, The Night of the IguanaAMPAS
Michael Cacoyannis, Zorba the GreekDGA/AMPAS
George Cukor, My Fair Lady
Peter Glenville, Becket
Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove
Robert Stevenson, Mary Poppins1965
DGA
Elliot Silverstein, Cat Ballou
Sidney J. Furie, The Ipcress File
Sidney Lumet, The PawnbrokerAMPAS
William Wyler, The Collector
David Lean, Doctor Zhivago
Hiroshi Teshigahara, Woman in the DunesDGA/AMPAS
Robert Wise, The Sound of Music
John Schlesinger, Darling1966
DGA (10)
Lewis Gilbert, Alfie
James Hill, Born Free
Silvio Narizzano, Georgy Girl
John Frankenheimer, Grand Prix
Norman Jewison, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
Robert Wise, The Sand PebblesAMPAS
Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow-UpDGA/AMPAS
Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons
Richard Brooks, The Professionals
Claude Lelouch, A Man and a Woman
Mike Nichols, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?1967
DGA (10)
Stuart Rosenberg, Cool Hand Luke
Robert Aldrich, The Dirty Dozen
James Clavell, To Sir, with Love
Stanley Donen, Two for the Road
Joseph Strick, UlyssesDGA/AMPAS
Mike Nichols, The Graduate
Richard Brooks, In Cold Blood
Norman Jewison, In the Heat of the Night
Stanley Kramer, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde1968
DGA (10)
William Wyler, Funny Girl
Paul Almond, Isabel
Gene Saks, The Odd Couple
Jirí Menzel, Closely Watched Trains
Paul Newman, Rachel, Rachel
Roman Polanski, Rosemary’s BabyAMPAS
Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of AlgiersDGA/AMPAS
Carol Reed, Oliver!
Anthony Harvey, The Lion in Winter
Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Franco Zeffirelli, Romeo and Juliet1969
DGA (10)
Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider
Larry Peerce, Goodbye, Columbus
Gene Kelly, Hello, Dolly!
Haskell Wexler, Medium Cool
Richard Attenborough, Oh! What a Lovely War
Sam Peckinpah, The Wild BunchAMPAS
Arthur Penn, Alice’s RestaurantDGA/AMPAS
John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy
Costa-Gavras, Z
George Roy Hill, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Sydney Pollack, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
1970
DGA
David Lean, Ryan’s Daughter
Bob Rafelson, Five Easy PiecesAMPAS
Federico Fellini, Satyricon
Ken Russell, Women in LoveDGA/AMPAS
Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton
Robert Altman, MASH
Arthur Hiller, Love Story1971
DGA
Robert Mulligan, Summer of ’42AMPAS
Norman Jewison, Fiddler on the RoofDGA/AMPAS
William Friedkin, The French Connection
Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show
Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange
John Schlesinger, Sunday Bloody Sunday1972
DGA
George Roy Hill, Slaughterhouse-Five
Martin Ritt, SounderAMPAS
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Sleuth
Jan Troell, The EmigrantsDGA/AMPAS
Bob Fosse, Cabaret
John Boorman, Deliverance
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather1973
DGA
Sidney Lumet, SerpicoAMPAS
Ingmar Bergman, Cries & WhispersDGA/AMPAS
George Roy Hill, The Sting
Bernardo Bertolucci, Last Tango in Paris
William Friedkin, The Exorcist
George Lucas, American Graffiti1974
DGA
Sidney Lumet, Murder on the Orient Express
Francis Ford Coppola, The ConversationAMPAS
John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence
François Truffaut, Day for NightDGA/AMPAS
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather: Part II
Bob Fosse, Lenny
Roman Polanski, Chinatown1975
DGA
Steven Spielberg, JawsAMPAS
Federico Fellini, AmarcordDGA/AMPAS
Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Robert Altman, Nashville
Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon
Sidney Lumet, Dog Day Afternoon1976
DGA
Martin Scorsese, Taxi DriverAMPAS
Ingmar Bergman, Face to FaceDGA/AMPAS
John G. Avildsen, Rocky
Sidney Lumet, Network
Alan J. Pakula, All the President’s Men
Lina Wertmüller, Seven Beauties1977
DGA/AMPAS
Woody Allen, Annie Hall
George Lucas, Star Wars
Herbert Ross, The Turning Point
Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Fred Zinnemann, Julia1978
DGA
Paul Mazursky, An Unmarried WomanAMPAS
Woody Allen, InteriorsDGA/AMPAS
Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter
Hal Ashby, Coming Home
Warren Beatty & Buck Henry, Heaven Can Wait
Alan Parker, Midnight Express1979
DGA
Woody Allen, Manhattan
James Bridges, The China SyndromeAMPAS
Bob Fosse, All That Jazz
Edouard Molinaro, La Cage aux follesDGA/AMPAS
Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer
Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now
Peter Yates, Breaking Away
1980
DGA
Michael Apted, Coal Miner’s DaughterAMPAS
Roman Polanski, TessDGA/AMPAS
Robert Redford, Ordinary People
David Lynch, The Elephant Man
Richard Rush, The Stunt Man
Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull1981
DGA/AMPAS
Warren Beatty, Reds
Hugh Hudson, Chariots of Fire
Louis Malle, Atlantic City
Mark Rydell, On Golden Pond
Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark1982
DGA
Taylor Hackford, An Officer and a GentlemanAMPAS
Sidney Lumet, The VerdictDGA/AMPAS
Richard Attenborough, Gandhi
Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot
Sydney Pollack, Tootsie
Steven Spielberg, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1983
DGA
Lawrence Kasdan, The Big Chill
Philip Kaufman, The Right StuffAMPAS
Mike Nichols, Silkwood
Peter Yates, The DresserDGA/AMPAS
James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Bruce Beresford, Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander1984
DGA
Norman Jewison, A Soldier’s StoryAMPAS
Woody Allen, Broadway Danny RoseDGA/AMPAS
Milos Forman, Amadeus
Robert Benton, Places in the Heart
Roland Joffé, The Killing Fields
David Lean, A Passage to India1985
DGA
Steven Spielberg, The Color Purple
Ron Howard, CocoonAMPAS
Akira Kurosawa, Ran
Hector Babenco, Kiss of the Spider WomanDGA/AMPAS
Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa
John Huston, Prizzi’s Honor
Peter Weir, Witness1986
DGA
Randa Haines, Children of a Lesser God
Rob Reiner, Stand By MeAMPAS
Roland Joffé, The Mission
David Lynch, Blue VelvetDGA/AMPAS
Oliver Stone, Platoon
Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters
James Ivory, A Room with a View1987
DGA
James L. Brooks, Broadcast News
Steven Spielberg, Empire of the SunAMPAS
Norman Jewison, Moonstruck
John Boorman, Hope and GloryDGA/AMPAS
Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor
Lasse Hallström, My Life as a Dog
Adrian Lyne, Fatal Attraction1988
DGA
Robert Zemeckis, Who Framed Roger RabbitAMPAS
Martin Scorsese, The Last Temptation of ChristDGA/AMPAS
Barry Levinson, Rain Man
Charles Crichton, A Fish Called Wanda
Mike Nichols, Working Girl
Alan Parker, Mississippi Burning1989
DGA
Phil Alden Robinson, Field of Dreams
Rob Reiner, When Harry Met Sally…AMPAS
Kenneth Branagh, Henry V
Jim Sheridan, My Left FootDGA/AMPAS
Oliver Stone, Born on the Fourth of July
Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Peter Weir, Dead Poets Society
1990
DGA
Barry Levinson, Avalon
Giuseppe Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso [the 1988 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner; ineligible for the 1990 Academy Awards]AMPAS
Stephen Frears, The Grifters
Barbet Schroeder, Reversal of FortuneDGA/AMPAS
Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather: Part III
Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas1991
DGA
Barbra Streisand, The Prince of TidesAMPAS
John Singleton, Boyz n the HoodDGA/AMPAS
Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
Barry Levinson, Bugsy
Ridley Scott, Thelma & Louise
Oliver Stone, JFK1992
DGA
Rob Reiner, A Few Good MenAMPAS
Martin Brest, Scent of a WomanDGA/AMPAS
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
Robert Altman, The Player
James Ivory, Howards End
Neil Jordan, The Crying Game1993
DGA
Martin Scorsese, The Age of Innocence
Andrew Davis, The FugitiveAMPAS
Jim Sheridan, In the Name of the Father
Robert Altman, Short CutsDGA/AMPAS
Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List
Jane Campion, The Piano
James Ivory, The Remains of the Day1994
DGA
Mike Newell, Four Weddings and a Funeral
Frank Darabont, The Shawshank RedemptionAMPAS
Woody Allen, Bullets Over Broadway
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Three Colors: RedDGA/AMPAS
Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump
Robert Redford, Quiz Show
Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction1995
DGA
Ron Howard, Apollo 13
Ang Lee, Sense and SensibilityAMPAS
Chris Noonan, Babe
Tim Robbins, Dead Man WalkingDGA/AMPAS
Mel Gibson, Braveheart
Mike Figgis, Leaving Las Vegas
Michael Radford, Il Postino1996
DGA
Cameron Crowe, Jerry MaguireAMPAS
Milos Forman, The People vs. Larry FlyntDGA/AMPAS
Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
Joel Coen, Fargo
Scott Hicks, Shine
Mike Leigh, Secrets & Lies1997
DGA
James L. Brooks, As Good as It Gets
Steven Spielberg, AmistadAMPAS
Peter Cattaneo, The Full Monty
Atom Egoyan, The Sweet HereafterDGA/AMPAS
James Cameron, Titanic
Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential
Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting1998
DGA/AMPAS
Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan
Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful
John Madden, Shakespeare in Love
Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line
Peter Weir, The Truman Show1999
DGA
Frank Darabont, The Green MileAMPAS
Lasse Hallström, The Cider House RulesDGA/AMPAS
Sam Mendes, American Beauty
Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich
Michael Mann, The Insider
M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense
2000
DGA
Cameron Crowe, Almost FamousAMPAS
Stephen Daldry, Billy ElliotDGA/AMPAS
Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Ridley Scott, Gladiator
Steven Soderbergh, Erin Brockovich2001
DGA
Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge!
Christopher Nolan, MementoAMPAS
Robert Altman, Gosford Park
David Lynch, Mulholland Dr.DGA/AMPAS
Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down2002
DGA
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersAMPAS
Pedro Almodóvar, Talk to HerDGA/AMPAS
Roman Polanski, The Pianist
Stephen Daldry, The Hours
Rob Marshall, Chicago
Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York2003
DGA
Gary Ross, SeabiscuitAMPAS
Fernando Meirelles, City of GodDGA/AMPAS
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
Clint Eastwood, Mystic River
Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World2004
DGA
Marc Forster, Finding NeverlandAMPAS
Mike Leigh, Vera DrakeDGA/AMPAS
Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Taylor Hackford, Ray
Alexander Payne, Sideways
Martin Scorsese, The Aviator2005
DGA/AMPAS
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck.
Paul Haggis, Crash
Bennett Miller, Capote
Steven Spielberg, Munich2006
DGA
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine
Bill Condon, DreamgirlsAMPAS
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Paul Greengrass, United 93DGA/AMPAS
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel2007
DGA
Sean Penn, Into the WildAMPAS
Jason Reitman, JunoDGA/AMPAS
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly2008
DGA
Christopher Nolan, The Dark KnightAMPAS
Stephen Daldry, The ReaderDGA/AMPAS
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, Milk2009
DGA/AMPAS
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds2010
DGA
Christopher Nolan, InceptionAMPAS
Joel and Ethan Coen, True GritDGA/AMPAS
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
David O. Russell, The Fighter2011
DGA
David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon TattooAMPAS
Terrence Malick, The Tree of LifeDGA/AMPAS
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris2012
DGA
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Source for the DGA nominations: IMDb.
Ralph Fiennes The Reader image: The Weinstein Co.
5 comments
Try as I might, and I’m very bright, this very long list really made no sense without a legend to explain it. Just a bunch of director’s names listed under either Academy Awards or Directors Guild, but without an explanatory legend. And what does the occasional blue highlight signifying? Finally, where’s the connection to Streisand and Spielberg? Is there missing text?
@Rafe,
Point well taken re: explanatory legends if/when this article is expanded.
Having said that, the list is just that: a list, where you can see who was nominated for either the DGA Awards or the Best Director Oscar – or both.
The “occasional blue highlight” means: live hyperlink.
Elia Kazan has to be one of the great directors of all time. He really understood the science of acting unlike many of today’s great directors who are effects heavy and story light.
Yes, I agree with Jonathan. Barbra has been overlooked and it is shameful. She truly is the talent of the century.
Barbra Streisand has been snubbed for Best Director not only for “The Prince Of Tides” (1991) but for “Yentl” (1983) as well… She always gets her “Best Picture” nominations… but who made the film? The director. Not alone of course, anyone who knows anything about Streisand is that she is detail obsessed!
But time after time… she is overlooked by the Oscars for her directorial efforts.
She deserved to have been the first woman to win best director.