Here are our nominees and winners from each year (directors in parentheses). Winners in bold.

 

1930

L’Age d’Or (Luis Buñuel)

All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)

Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman)

Anna Christie (Clarence Brown)

The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg)

 

1931

City Lights (Charles Chaplin)

Dracula (Tod Browning)

Frankenstein (James Whale)

M (Fritz Lang)

The Public Enemy (Wiliam Wellman)

 

1932

Freaks (Tod Browning)

Scarface (Howard Hawks)

Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg)

Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch)

Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

 

1933

Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)

42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy)

King Kong (Merian Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack)

Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian)

 

1934

L’Atalante (Jean Vigo)

Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl)

It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)

The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg)

The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke)

 

1935

Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale)

A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood)

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)

Top Hat (Mark Sandrich)

Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl)

​

1936

Fury (Fritz Lang)

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (Frank Capra)

Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)

Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock)

Swing Time (George Stevens)

​

1937

The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)

Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)

Pepe le Moko (Julien Duvivier)

Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand et al)

Stella Dallas (King Vidor)

​

1938

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz)

Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein)

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)

Jezebel (William Wyler)

The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock)

​

1939

Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming et al)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)

The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)

Stagecoach (John Ford)

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming et al)

​

1940

Fantasia (Ben Sharpsteen et al)

The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)

The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin)

His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)

Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)

​

1941

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen et al)

The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)

Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges)

​

1942

Bambi (David Hand et al)

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)

Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)

The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

To Be Or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch)

​

1943

Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

The Life & Death of Col. Blimp (Powell & Pressburger)

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren)

Ossessione (Luchino Visconti)

Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)

​

1944

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)

Gaslight (George Cukor)

Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Sergei Eisenstein)

Laura (Otto Preminger)

Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli)

​

1945

Brief Encounter (David Lean)

Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné)

Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer)

Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz)

Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini)

​

1946

La Belle et la Bete (Jean Cocteau)

The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)

The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)

It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)

Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)

​

1947

Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger)

The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)

Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton)

M. Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)

Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)

​

1948

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls)

The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger)

Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)

​

1949

Adam's Rib (George Cukor)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
Late Spring (Yasujirō Ozu)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
White Heat (Raoul Walsh)

​

1950

All About Eve (Joseph Mankiewicz)

In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)

Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel)

Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)

Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)

​

1951

An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)

Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)

Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan)

​

1952

The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli)

High Noon (Fred Zinnemann)

Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)

Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)

Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica)

​

1953

The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls)

Roman Holiday (William Wyler)

Tokyo Story (Yasujirō Ozu)

Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)

The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

​

1954

Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)

On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)

The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)

La Strada (Federico Fellini)

​

1955

Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)

Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)

Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray)

​

1956

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)

A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)

Night and Fog (Alain Resnais)
The Searchers (John Ford)
Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)

​

1957

The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)

Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)

Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)

The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)

Twelve Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)

​

1958

Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda)

Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle)

Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati)

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

​

1959

The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais)

North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)

Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)

​

1960

The Apartment (Billy Wilder)

L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)

Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)

La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini)

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

​

1961

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards)

Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)

Viridiana (Luis Buñuel)

West Side Story (Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins)

Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa)

​

1962

Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)

La Jetée (Chris Marker)

Jules et Jim (François Truffaut)

Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)

To Kill A Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)

​

1963

The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)

Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard)

8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)

The Great Escape (John Sturges)

The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)

​

1964

Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)

A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester)

Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)

Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)

​

1965

Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles)

Dr. Zhivago (David Lean)

Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)

Repulsion (Roman Polanski)

The Sound of Music (Robert Wise)

​

1966

Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)

Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)

Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)

Persona (Ingmar Bergman)

​

1967

Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel)

Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)

The Graduate (Mike Nichols)

Playtime (Jacques Tati)

Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)

​

1968

Faces (John Cassavetes)

Night of the Living Dead (George Romero)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)

Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)

​

1969

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)

Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
Kes (Ken Loach)

Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)

The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)

​

1970

The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson)
Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin)
MASH (Robert Altman)
Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner)

​

1971

A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick)

Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti)

The French Connection (William Friedkin)

The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich)

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)

​

1972

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)

​

1973

American Graffiti (George Lucas)

Badlands (Terrence Malick)

Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)

The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)

​

1974

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)

A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)

Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)

​

1975

Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)

Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet)

Jaws (Steven Spielberg)

Jeanne Dielman... (Chantal Ackerman)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman)

​

1976

All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula)
Carrie (Brian De Palma)

Network (Sidney Lumet)

Rocky (John G. Avildsen)

Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)

​

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Winning directors:

Alfred Hitchcock (4)

​

Stanley Kubrick (3)

​

Ingmar Bergman (2)

Frank Capra (2)

Charles Chaplin (2)

Francis Ford Coppola (2)

Akira Kurosawa (2)

Billy Wilder (2)

​

Bernardo Bertolucci

Marcel Carné

Michael Curtiz

Vittorio De Sica

Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly

Federico Fellini

Victor Fleming

John Ford

William Friedkin

Jean-Luc Godard

Howard Hawks

Fritz Lang

David Lean

Ernst Lubitsch

Leo McCarey

Mike Nichols

Yasujirō Ozu

Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger

Satyajit Ray

Carol Reed

Jean Renoir

John Schlesinger

Steven Spielberg

Josef von Sternberg

François Truffaut

Orson Welles

James Whale

 

Directors with multiple nominations:

Alfred Hitchcock (13)

​

Luis Buñuel* (5)

Stanley Kubrick (5)

Orson Welles (5)

 

Frank Capra (4)

Charles Chaplin (4)

Federico Fellini (4)

Howard Hawks (4)

Akira Kurosawa (4)

David Lean (4)

Billy Wilder (4)

​

Robert Bresson* (3)

Michael Curtiz (3)

Carl Theodor Dreyer* (3)

John Ford (3)

Jean-Luc Godard (3)

Sidney Lumet* (3)

Vincente Minnelli* (3)

Roman Polanski* (3)

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (3)

Nicholas Ray* (3)

Alain Resnais* (3)

Josef von Sternberg (3)

Luchino Visconti* (3)

Robert Wise* (3)

William Wyler* (3)

​

Robert Altman* (2)

Michelangelo Antonioni* (2)

Ingmar Bergman (2)

Tod Browning* (2)

John Cassavetes* (2)

Henri-Georges Clouzot* (2)

Francis Ford Coppola (2)

George Cukor* (2)

Vittorio De Sica (2)

Sergei Eisenstein* (2)

Victor Fleming (2)

William Friedkin* (2)

David Hand* (2)

John Huston* (2)

Elia Kazan* (2)

Fritz Lang (2)

Sergio Leone* (2)

Ernst Lubitsch (2)

Leo McCarey (2)

Max Ophüls* (2)

Yasujirō Ozu (2)

Jean Renoir (2)

Martin Scorsese* (2)

Ben Sharpsteen* (2)

Preston Sturges* (2)

Andrei Tarkovsky* (2)

Jacques Tati* (2)

Jacques Tourneur* (2)

François Truffaut (2)

James Whale (2)

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(* - no wins)

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