Best Directors: Winners of Oscar Price 1927-2005

(note: the ceremony has often take place in the next year but in this classament was counted by the year the movie has made)

• 2004: Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby


• 2003: Peter Jackson - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King


• 2002: Roman Polanski - The Pianist


• 2001: Ron Howard - A Beautiful Mind


• 2000: Stephen Soderbergh - Traffic


• 1999: Sam Mendes - American Beauty


• 1998: Steven Spielberg - Saving Private Ryan


• 1997: James Cameron - Titanic


• 1996: Anthony Minghella - The English Patient


• 1995: Mel Gibson - Braveheart


• 1994: Robert Zemeckis - Forrest Gump


• 1993: Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List


• 1992: Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven


• 1991: Jonathan Demme - The Silence of the Lambs


• 1990: Kevin Costner - Dances With Wolves

• 1989: Oliver Stone - Born on the Fourth of July


• 1988: Barry Levinson - Rain Man


• 1987: Bernardo Bertolucci - The Last Emperor


• 1986: Oliver Stone - Platoon


• 1985: Sydney Pollack - Out of Africa


• 1984: Milos Forman - Amadeus


• 1983: James L. Brooks - Terms of Endearment


• 1982: Richard Attenborough - Gandhi


• 1981: Warren Beatty - Reds


• 1980: Robert Redford - Ordinary People


• 1979: Robert Benton - Kramer vs. Kramer


• 1978: Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter


• 1977: Woody Allen - Annie Hall


• 1976: John G. Aviildsen - Rocky


• 1975: Milos Forman - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest


• 1974: Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather Part II


• 1973: George Roy Hill - The Sting


• 1972: Bob Fosse - Cabaret


• 1971: William Friedkin - The French Connection


• 1970: Franklin J. Schaffner - Patton


• 1969: John Schlesinger - Midnight Cowboy


• 1968: Carol Reed - Oliver!


• 1967: Mike Nichols - The Graduate


• 1966: Fred Zinnemann - A Man for All Seasons


• 1965: Robert Wise - The Sound of Music


• 1964: George Cukor - My Fair Lady


• 1963: Tony Richardson - Tom Jones


• 1962: David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia


• 1961: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins - West Side Story


• 1960: Billy Wilder - The Apartment


• 1959: William Wyler - Ben-Hur


• 1958: Vincente Minnelli - Gigi


• 1957: David Lean - The Bridge on the River Kwai


• 1956: George Stevens - Giant


• 1955: Delbert Mann - Marty


• 1954: Elia Kazan - On the Waterfront


• 1953: Fred Zinnemann - From Here to Eternity


• 1952: John Ford - The Quiet Man


• 1951: George Stevens - A Place in the Sun


• 1950: Joseph L. Mankiewicz - All About Eve


• 1949: Joseph L. Mankiewicz - A Letter to Three Wives


• 1948: John Huston - Treasure of the Sierra Madre


• 1947: Elia Kazan - Gentleman's Agreement


• 1946: William Wyler - The Best Years of Our Lives


• 1945: Billy Wilder - The Lost Weekend


• 1944: Leo McCarey - Going My Way


• 1943: Michael Curtiz - Casablanca


• 1942: William Wyler - Mrs. Miniver


• 1941: John Ford - How Green Was My Valley


• 1940: John Ford - The Grapes of Wrath


• 1939: Victor Fleming - Gone With the Wind


• 1938: Frank Capra - You Can't Take It With You


• 1937: Leo McCarey - The Awful Truth


• 1936: Frank Capra - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town


• 1935: John Ford - The Informer


• 1934: Frank Capra - It Happened One Night


• 1932/33: Frank Lloyd - Cavalcade


• 1931/32: Frank Borzage - Bad Girl


• 1930/31: Norman Taurog - Skippy


• 1929/30: Lewis Milestone - All Quiet on the Western Front


• 1928/29: Frank Lloyd - The Divine Lady


• 1927/28: Frank Borzage - Seventh Heaven