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Academy Award for Directing

The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. As is the customary practice in AskFactMaster.Com for listing Oscar results, the winner of the award for that year is listed first. The films below are listed with their production year, so for example the Oscar awarded in 2000 went to the Best Supporting Actor in 1999. Typically this award goes to the eventual winner of Best Picture, although in recent years this trend seems to breaking.

Contents

1920s

1927/1928 Frank Borzage - Seventh Heaven
- Herbert Brenon - Sorrell and Son
- King Vidor - The Crowd

In the first year only a separate award was given for Comedy Direction

1927/1928 Lewis Milestone Two Arabian Knights
- Charles Chaplin - The Circus
- Ted Wilde - Speedy (movie)

1928/1929 Frank Lloyd - The Divine Lady, Weary River and Drag
- Lionel Barrymore - Madame X
- Harry Beaumont - Broadway Melody
- Irving Cummings - In Old Arizona
- Ernst Lubitsch - The Patriot

1929/1930 Lewis Milestone - All Quiet on the Western Front
- Clarence Brown - Anna Christie
- Clarence Brown - Romance
- Robert Z. Leonard - The Divorcée
- Ernst Lubitsch - The Love Parade
- King Vidor - Hallelujah

1930s

1930/1931 Norman Taurog - Skippy
- Clarence Brown - A Free Soul
- Lewis Milestone - The Front Page
- Wesley Ruggles - Cimarron
- Josef von Sternberg - Morocco

1931/1932 Frank Borzage - Bad Girl
- King Vidor - The Champ
- Josef von Sternberg - Shanghai Express

1932/1933 Frank Lloyd - Cavalcade
- Frank Capra - Lady for a Day
- George Cukor - Little Women

1934 Frank Capra - It Happened One Night
- Victor Schertzinger - One Night of Love
- W. S. Van Dyke - The Thin Man

1935 John Ford - The Informer
- Henry Hathaway - Lives of a Bengal Lancer
- Frank Lloyd - Mutiny on the Bounty

1936 Frank Capra - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- Gregory La Cava - My Man Godfrey
- Robert Z. Leonard - The Great Ziegfeld
- Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke - San Francisco
- William Wyler - Dodsworth

1937 Leo McCarey - The Awful Truth
- William Dieterle - The Life of Emile Zola
- Sidney Franklin - The Good Earth
- Gregory La Cava - Stage Door
- William Wellman - A Star Is Born

1938 Frank Capra - You Can't Take It with You
- Michael Curtiz - Angels With Dirty Faces
- Michael Curtiz - Four Daughters
- Norman Taurog - Boys Town
- King Vidor - The Citadel

1939 Victor Fleming - Gone With the Wind
- Frank Capra - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- John Ford - Stagecoach
- Sam Wood - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- William Wyler - Wuthering Heights

1940s

1940 John Ford - The Grapes of Wrath
- George Cukor - The Philadelphia Story
- Alfred Hitchcock - Rebecca
- Sam Wood - Kitty Foyle
- William Wyler - The Letter

1941 John Ford - How Green Was My Valley
- Alexander Hall - Here Comes Mr. Jordan
- Howard Hawks - Sergeant York
- Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
- William Wyler - The Little Foxes

1942 William Wyler - Mrs. Miniver
- Michael Curtiz - Yankee Doodle Dandy
- John Farrow - Wake Island
- Mervyn LeRoy - Random Harvest
- Sam Wood - Kings Row

1943 Michael Curtiz - Casablanca
- Clarence Brown - The Human Comedy
- Henry King - The Song of Bernadette
- Ernst Lubitsch - Heaven Can Wait
- George Stevens - The More the Merrier

1944 Leo McCarey - Going My Way
- Alfred Hitchcock - Lifeboat
- Henry King - Wilson
- Otto Preminger - Laura
- Billy Wilder - Double Indemnity

1945 Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend
- Clarence Brown - National Velvet
- Alfred Hitchcock - Spellbound
- Leo McCarey - The Bells of St. Mary's
- Jean Renoir - The Southerner

1946 William Wyler - The Best Years of Our Lives
- Clarence Brown - The Yearling
- Frank Capra - It's a Wonderful Life
- David Lean - Brief Encounter
- Robert Siodmak - The Killers

1947 Elia Kazan - Gentleman's Agreement
- George Cukor - A Double Life
- Edward Dmytryk - Crossfire
- Henry Koster - The Bishop's Wife
- David Lean - Great Expectations

1948 John Huston - Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- Anatole Litvak - The Snake Pit
- Jean Negulesco - Johnny Belinda
- Laurence Olivier - Hamlet
- Fred Zinnemann - The Search

1949 Joseph L. Mankiewicz - A Letter to Three Wives
- Carol Reed - The Fallen Idol
- Robert Rossen - All the King's Men
- William A. Wellman - Battleground
- William Wyler - The Heiress

1950s

1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz - All About Eve
- George Cukor - Born Yesterday
- John Huston - The Asphalt Jungle
- Carol Reed - The Third Man
- Billy Wilder - Sunset Boulevard

1951 George Stevens - A Place in the Sun
- John Huston - The African Queen
- Elia Kazan - A Streetcar Named Desire
- Vincente Minnelli - An American in Paris
- William Wyler - Detective Story

1952 John Ford - The Quiet Man
- Cecil B. DeMille - The Greatest Show on Earth
- John Huston - Moulin Rouge
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Five Fingers
- Fred Zinnemann - High Noon

1953 Fred Zinnemann - From Here to Eternity
- George Stevens - Shane
- Charles Walters - Lili
- Billy Wilder - Stalag 17
- William Wyler - Roman Holiday

1954 Elia Kazan - On the Waterfront
- Alfred Hitchcock - Rear Window
- George Seaton - The Country Girl
- William Wellman - The High and the Mighty
- Billy Wilder - Sabrina

1955 Delbert Mann - Marty
- Elia Kazan - East of Eden
- David Lean - Summertime
- Joshua Logan - Picnic
- John Sturges - Bad Day at Black Rock

1956 George Stevens - Giant
- Michael Anderson - Around the World in Eighty Days
- Walter Lang - The King and I
- King Vidor - War and Peace
- William Wyler - Friendly Persuasion

1957 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 Prosecution

1958 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 William Wyler - Ben-Hur
- Jack Clayton - Room at the Top
- George Stevens - The Diary of Anne Frank
- Billy Wilder - Some Like It Hot
- Fred Zinnemann - The Nun's Story

1960s

1960 Billy Wilder - The Apartment
- Jack Cardiff - Sons and Lovers
- Jules Dassin - Never on Sunday
- Alfred Hitchcock - Psycho
- Fred Zinnemann - The Sundowners

1961 Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins - West Side Story
- Federico Fellini - La Dolce Vita
- Stanley Kramer - Judgment at Nuremberg
- Robert Rossen - The Hustler
- J. Lee Thompson - The Guns of Navarone

1962 David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia
- Pietro Germi - Divorce - Italian Style
- Robert Mulligan - To Kill a Mockingbird
- Arthur Penn - The Miracle Worker
- Frank Perry - David and Lisa