Film Debut Nominees/Winners of Best Director Oscars:

Only six directors have won the Best Director Oscar for their film debut, while a sampling of others were nominated:

• (1) Delbert Mann for Marty (1955) (win)
• (2) Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961) (win)
• (3) Robert Redford for Ordinary People (1980) (win)
• (4) James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983) (win)
• (5) Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves (1990) (win)
• (6) Sam Mendes for American Beauty (1999) (win)

• Orson Welles for Citizen Kane (1941) (nominated)
• Sidney Lumet for 12 Angry Men (1957) (nominated)
• Jack Clayton for Room at the Top (1959) (nominated)
• Frank Perry for David and Lisa (1962) (nominated)
• Mike Nichols for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (nominated)
• Warren Beatty/Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978) (nominated)
• John Singleton for Boys N the Hood (1991) (nominated)
• Rob Marshall for Chicago (2002) (nominated)
• Bennett Miller for Capote (2005) (nominated)
• Paul Haggis for Crash (2005) (nominated)
• Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) (nominated)
• Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (2017) (nominated) **First female director nominated for debut film
• Jordan Peele for Get Out (2017) (nominated)
• Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman (2020) (nominated)

Directors With Two Best Director Nominations in the Same Year:

Only three directors have received two Best Director nominations in the same year:

• Clarence Brown for Romance (1929/30) and Anna Christie (1929/30)
• Michael Curtiz, for Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Four Daughters (1938)
• Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000) (win)

Duo Directing Teams Nominated for Best Director:

Only four duo directing teams have been nominated for Best Director in Oscars history, and only thrice have the duo-directors won:

• Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for West Side Story (1961) - (win) - two Best Director Oscars were awarded to co-directors Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise; it marked the first time that awards went to co-directors. The only Best Director Oscar winner to win for the only film he ever directed was also Jerome Robbins
  
• 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. Joel and Ethan Coen were again nominated as Best Director for True Grit (2010).
  
• Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978)
  
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known as the two 'Daniels') for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) - (win)

The Director with the Most Film Nominations in a Single Year:

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

The Director with the Most Oscar Wins For Films in the Same Year:

Director Steven Spielberg holds the record for the most Oscars wins 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)

African-American (Black) Best Director Nominees/Winners:

No African-American (or black) has ever won Best Director.

African-Americans (or blacks) nominated as Best Director include only six individuals:

• John Singleton for Boyz N the Hood (1991) - the first African-American to earn a Best Director nomination
• Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009) - the second African-American nominated director; it was the first-ever Best Picture nominee to be directed by an African-American filmmaker
• British director Steve McQueen for Best Picture-winning 12 Years a Slave (2013) [Note: If McQueen had won Best Director, he would have been the first black filmmaker to win that honor] - while the film won Best Picture (and McQueen earned a statuette as a producer), he lost the directing Oscar
• Barry Jenkins for Moonlight (2016) - co-producers Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Adele Romanski were accorded the Best Picture win, but Jenkins lost Best Director to Damien Chazelle for La La Land (2016)
• actor turned film-maker Jordan Peele for Best Picture-nominated Get Out (2017) - his solo directorial debut film; Peele also received a second nomination (and Oscar win) for Best Original Screenplay - and became the first African-American to earn such an Oscar. He was also honored as the producer of the Best Picture nominee; therefore, he became the first black filmmaker (and the third filmmaker of all time, after Warren Beatty and James L. Brooks) ever nominated for directing, writing, and producing in the same year for a debut feature film
• Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman (2018)
  [Note: Lee had been previously nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Do the Right Thing (1989), and Best Documentary Feature (4 Little Girls (1997). He won his first Oscar, Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman (2018).]

Female Directors: Three Winners - and the Only Ones Nominated

Three Female Director Winners:

1. Kathryn Bigelow for Best Picture-winning The Hurt Locker (2009)
2. Chloe Zhao for Best Picture-winning Nomadland (2020)
3. Jane Campion for Best Picture-nominated The Power of the Dog (2021)

There have only been nine female Best Director nominees (although it should be noted that Jane Campion was the first woman to be nominated more than once for Best Director):

1. Italian film director Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976, It.) - the first woman to be nominated for Best Director
2. New Zealander Jane Campion for Best Picture-nominated The Piano (1993) - her second Best Director nomination
3. American Sofia Coppola for her Best Picture-nominated Lost in Translation (2003) - the first American woman nominated for Best Director and only the third woman ever to be nominated for Best Director
4. American Kathryn Bigelow for her Best Picture-nominated The Hurt Locker (2009) - the second American woman nominated as Best Director and only the fourth woman nominated in the category
5. American Greta Gerwig for her Best Picture-nominated Lady Bird (2017) - the third American woman nominated as Best Director and only the fifth woman nominated in the category. In fact, she was also the first woman to be nominated as Best Director for her solo directorial debut
6. Chinese director Chloe Zhao for her Best Picture-nominated Nomadland (2020) - she was the first woman of Asian descent (and the first "woman of color") to be nominated and the first female Asian to win in the category. She also became the first woman to ever receive four Oscar nominations in a single year, and just the 9th person to ever earn that much recognition in a single ceremony.
7. British director Emerald Fennell for Best Picture-nominated Promising Young Woman (2020) - she shared honors in 2020 with Chloe Zhao, when it marked the first time that more than one woman was nominated for the directors' prize in the awards' 93-year history. She also became the second woman to be nominated as Best Director for her solo directorial debut, after Greta Gerwig (above).
8. Jane Campion received her second Best Director nomination for Best Picture-nominated The Power of the Dog (2021). It was the first female-directed film to receive more than 10 nominations. With Campion's Best Director nomination, she became the oldest woman ever nominated in this category at age 67.
9. 45 year-old French director Justine Triet was nominated for the Best Picture-nominated Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Fr.)

A number of films directed by women have been nominated for Best Picture (without a corresponding Best Director nomination), including:

• Randa Haines' Children of a Lesser God (1986)
• Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990)
• Barbra Streisand's The Prince of Tides (1991)
• Valerie Faris' (with Jonathan Dayton) Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
• Lone Scherfig's An Education (2009)
• Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right (2010)
• Debra Granik's Winter's Bone (2010)
• Greta Gerwig's Little Women (2019)
• Sarah Polley's Women Talking (2022)
• Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023)

There are only three films in Oscar history solely written, directed and produced by women, that received a Best Picture nomination:

• The Piano (1993, NZ), d. Jane Campion
• Winter's Bone (2010), d. Debra Granik
• Little Women (2019), d. Greta Gerwig

Foreign-Born Best Director Nominees and Winners:

Note: A sampling of the most significant foreign-born directors (that have been nominated or won) are included here (there are many others from the UK or Central/Western Europe - see below): Bong Joon Ho (South Korea), Chloe Zhao (China), Pedro Almodóvar (Spain), Roberto Benigni (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy), Federico Fellini (Italy), Costa-Gavras (Greece), Michael Curtiz (Austria-Hungary), Miloš Forman (Czech.), Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece), Lewis Milestone (Russia), Mike Nichols (Germany), Wolfgang Petersen (Germany), Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland), Billy Wilder (Austria-Hungary/Poland), William Wyler (Germany), Fred Zinnemann (Austria-Hungary).

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi was the third Japanese director to be Oscar-nominated for Best Director (Drive My Car (2021)), following Hiroshi Teshigahara (Woman in the Dunes (1964), with a win for Best Foreign Language Film) and Akira Kurosawa (Ran (1985)).

There are numerous UK-born (includes NZ, and CAN) and French-born (FR) directors that have been nominated or have won: Michel Hazanavicius (FR), Tom Hooper, Kenneth Branagh, Danny Boyle, Peter Jackson (NZ), Roman Polanski (FR, but considered himself Polish), Sam Mendes, James Cameron (CAN), Anthony Minghella, Richard Attenborough, François Truffaut (FR), Jonathan Glazer, Christopher Nolan, to name just a few. Danish director Thomas Vinterberg was nominated for Another Round (2020), and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos was nominated for Poor Things (2023).

Ang Lee was the first Asian (or non-white) filmmaker to win Hollywood's main filmmaking honor for Brokeback Mountain (2005). He also won Best Director for Life of Pi (2012). He was also nominated as Best Director for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Other Asian Best Director nominees include Hiroshi Teshigahara for Woman in the Dunes (1964), Akira Kurosawa for Ran (1985), and M. Night Shyamalan for The Sixth Sense (1999). It was a remarkable achievement that South Korea's Parasite (2019) won Best International Feature Film, Best Picture, and Best Director for Bong Joon Ho. He was only the second Asian director ever to win a directing Oscar, following two-time champ Ang Lee. For Nomadland (2020), Chloe Zhao became the third Asian person to win Best Director, after Ang Lee's two wins for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life of Pi (2012), and Bong Joon-ho's win for Parasite (2019).

The first time (in the awards' 93 year history) that more than one woman was nominated for Best Director in the same year occurred in 2020: British director Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman (2020) and Chinese director Chloe Zhao for Nomadland (2020). Zhao became the first woman of Asian descent (and the first "woman of color") to be nominated and to win for Best Director. Zhao also became the third Asian person to win Best Director, after Ang Lee's two wins for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life of Pi (2012), and Bong Joon-ho's win for Parasite (2019).

From 2013 to 2018, Mexican film-makers have won Oscars for Best Director in five of the six years:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Roma (2018)
• Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water (2017) - Del Toro became the third Mexican-born filmmaker to win the award
• Alejandro Inarritu, The Revenant (2015)
• Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman (2014)
• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity (2013)

And the consecutive string of non-Americans (6) winning Best Director stretched from 2010 to 2015:

• Alejandro Inarritu, The Revenant (2015)
• Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman (2014)
• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity (2013)
• Ang Lee (Taiwanese-born), Life of Pi (2012)
• Michel Hazanavicius (Fr.), The Artist (2011)
• Tom Hooper (UK), The King's Speech (2010)

Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro won his first Best Director Oscar for the Best Picture-winning The Shape of Water (2017), with a whopping 13 nominations. [Note: This was del Toro's first nomination and win in the category, although he had a number of previous nominations in other categories. For The Shape of Water, he also won the Best Picture Oscar as co-producer, and had been nominated for Best Original Screenplay. He had previously been nominated twice for another fantasy film, Pan's Labyrinth (2006), for Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language film.]

Mexican film-maker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also won his first Best Director Oscar for the Best Picture-winning Birdman (2014), and won Best Original Screenplay for the same film. [Note: Inarritu had three previous Oscar nominations: Best Foreign Language Film Amores Perros (2000, Mex.), and Best Director/ Best Picture for Babel (2006).] The next year, he also won Best Director for Best Picture-nominated The Revenant (2015). He became the first person in 65 years and only the third ever to win back-to-back Best Director Oscars since Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter To Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950), and only the third in history, also after John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941).

Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón was nominated for the first time as Best Director in 2013 and won the Oscar for Gravity (2013). He was the first Mexican-born director to win Best Director. He also received a Best Director Oscar for Roma (2018, Mex./US), voted the Best Foreign Language Film. With his Best Director win for Roma (2018), Cuarón became the first person to win Best Director for directing a foreign-language film. In fact, Cuaron received a total of four individual nominations (with two wins): Best Original Screenplay, Best Director (win), Best Cinematography (win), and Best Picture for Roma (2018) - thereby tying the record of most decorated Oscar nominee ever, with previous nominees Orson Welles (for Citizen Kane (1941)) and Warren Beatty (twice for Reds (1981) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).

In 2012, German-born directorial nominee Michael Haneke was nominated as Best Director for Amour (2012, Austria). Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius won for The Artist (2011).

In 2006, Alejandro González Iñárritu was the first Mexican director nominated for the top prize for Babel (2006). French film director Michel Hazanavicius was nominated for The Artist (2011). In the year 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.

For the 2004 awards, Brazilian-born Fernando Meirelles was nominated as Best Director for City of God (2002) (aka Cidade de Deus).

The first Canadian to win Best Director was James Cameron, for Titanic (1997).

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)

Matching Best Picture and Best Director Nominees:

Up until recently, it was very rare for all the Best Picture nominees and Best Director nominees to directly correspond. It only happened five times in Oscar history when there were only 5 nominees for both Best Picture and Best Director. As of 2009, when the Best Picture list was expanded to 10 nominees, it wasn't as remarkable an occurrence:

• 1957
• 1964
• 1981
• 2005
• 2008
  
  
• 2009 - the first year with 10 Best Picture nominees
• 2010
• 2011
• 2013
• 2016
• 2017
• 2019
• 2021
• 2022
• 2023

Best Director and Best Picture Correlations:

There is a direct correlation between the Best Picture and Director awards. Usually, the film voted Best Picture has been directed by the person named (or at least nominated) as Best Director. In a number of cases, however, the Best Picture win went to one film and Best Director went to another even though the helmer of the big winner was nominated.

Of the 96 films (through the year 2023) that have been awarded Best Picture, 68 have also been awarded Best Director. About a quarter of the time, however, in Academy history, the Best Picture and Best Director winners have been for different films.

The Oscars (through the year 2023) have split Best Picture and Best Director 27 times: see years 2021, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2005, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1989, 1981, 1972, 1967, 1956, 1952, 1951, 1949, 1948, 1940, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1931/32, 1930/31, 1928/29, 1927/28 (two Best Director co-winners didn't win Best Picture).

In the first ten years of Oscar awards, seven of the first 10 Best Picture winners didn't include any honor for the directors beyond a nomination. [The exceptions were in the years 1929/30, 1932/33, and 1934, when the Academy honored the director as Best Director for a corresponding Best Picture.]

Here are some examples in more recent years (from 1967 onwards):

• 1967: director Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night (1967) won Best Picture, but Mike Nichols won Best Director for The Graduate (1967)
• 1972: Francis Ford Coppola's multi-award winning The Godfather (1972) took Best Picture, while Bob Fosse won Best Director for Cabaret (1972) (Cabaret won eight Academy Awards — a record for the most Oscars won by a movie that didn't win Best Picture)
• 1981: director Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981) won Best Picture, but Warren Beatty won Best Director for Reds (1981)
• 1989: director Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy (1989) won Best Picture, while Oliver Stone won Best Director for Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
• 1998: director John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (1998) won Best Picture, but Steven Spielberg won Best Director for Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• 2000: director Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) won Best Picture, but Steven Soderbergh won Best Director for Traffic (2000)
• 2002: director Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002) won Best Picture, but Roman Polanski won Best Director for The Pianist (2002)
• 2005: director Paul Haggis' Crash (2005) won Best Picture, but Ang Lee won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
• 2012: un-nominated director Ben Affleck's Argo (2012) won Best Picture, but Ang Lee won Best Director for Life of Pi (2012)
• 2013: director Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013) won Best Picture, but Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for Gravity (2013)
• 2015: director Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (2015) won Best Picture, but Alejandro Iñárritu won Best Director for The Revenant (2015)
• 2016: director Barry Jenkins' Moonlight (2016) won Best Picture, but Damien Chazelle won Best Director for La La Land (2016)
• 2018: director Peter Farrelly's Green Book (2018) won Best Picture, but Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for Roma (2018)
  

It has often happened that a Best Director winner is not also honored with a simultaneous Best Picture win, especially in regards to John Ford and George Stevens. John Ford won Best Director three times even though his film lost the big prize, and George Stevens had the same shock twice:

• 1935: John Ford won Best Director for The Informer (1935), while director Frank Lloyd's Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) won Best Picture
• 1940: John Ford won Best Director for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), while director Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) won Best Picture
• 1952: John Ford won Best Director for The Quiet Man (1952), while director Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) won Best Picture
  
  
• 1951: George Stevens won Best Director for A Place in the Sun (1951), while director Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951) won Best Picture
• 1956: George Stevens won Best Director for Giant (1956), while director Michael Anderson Sr.'s Around the World in 80 Days (1956) won Best Picture

The Only Best Picture-Winning Films Without Best Director Nominations:

It is very rare for a film to win the Best Picture Oscar while omitting the film's director from the Best Director nominations - this has happened only six times:

• 1927/28: Wings (1927/28), the Best Picture winner, was directed by un-nominated William Wellman, while the Best Director award went to Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven (1927/28)
• 1931/32: Grand Hotel (1931/32), the Best Picture winner, was directed by un-nominated Edmund Goulding, while the Best Director award went to Frank Borzage for Bad Girl (1931/32)
• 1989: Driving Miss Daisy (1989), the Best Picture winner, was directed by un-nominated Bruce Beresford, while the Best Director award went to Oliver Stone for Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
• 2012: Argo (2012), the Best Picture winner, was directed by un-nominated Ben Affleck, while the Best Director award went to Ang Lee for Life of Pi (2012)
• 2018: Green Book (2018), the Best Picture winner, was directed by un-nominated Peter Farrelly, while the Best Director award went to Alfonso Cuarón for Roma (2018, Mex.)
• 2021: CODA (2021), the Best Picture winner, was directed by un-nominated Sian Heder, while the Best Director Oscar went to Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (2021)

The Only Films to Win Best Director Without a Best Picture Nomination:

• Two Arabian Knights (1927/28), not nominated for Best Picture, but Lewis Milestone won Best Director (Comedy)
• The Divine Lady (1928/29), not nominated for Best Picture, but Frank Lloyd won Best Director

The Most Best Picture Nominations: William Wyler - the Winning-est Best Picture Director

Up until 2015, William Wyler held the record for the most nominations and wins for his films in all categories: 127 nominations and 39 awards. Half of the nominations he received were in the major categories of Best Picture, Acting, and Directing. With his Best Picture nomination for Bridge of Spies (2015), Spielberg's films had now earned 128 nominations, the most of any director of all time, passing up William Wyler (127).

William Wyler holds the record for directing more Best Picture nominees (13) and more Best Picture winners (3) than anyone else. His 13 Best Picture-nominated and winning films (marked with *) were:

• 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)

Wyler also has 12 Best Director nominations, and 3 awards. There is much overlap with the above list.
His 12 Best Director-nominated and winning films (marked with *) were:

• Dodsworth (1936)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• The Letter (1940)
• The Little Foxes (1941)
• Mrs. Miniver (1942)*
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*
• The Heiress (1949)
• Detective Story (1951)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• Friendly Persuasion (1956)
• Ben-Hur (1959)*
• The Collector (1965)

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:

William Wyler directed more nominated and winning acting performances (36 and 14, respectively - not counting Honorary Awards), than anyone in history (see below).

William Wyler holds the record for directing performers to 36 acting nominations, with 14 performance Oscars (in a lead or supporting role):

• Walter Brennan (BSA for Come and Get It (1936) (co-directed with Howard Hawks)
• Bette Davis (BA for Jezebel (1938))
• Faye Bainter (BSA for Jezebel (1938))
• Walter Brennan (BSA for The Westerner (1940))
• 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 (James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Celeste Holm in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Anthony Quinn in Viva Zapata! (1952), Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront (1954), and Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden (1955)).
• Martin Scorsese directed 26 nominated performers to 5 Oscars (Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull (1980), Paul Newman in The Color of Money (1986), Joe Pesci in GoodFellas (1990), and Cate Blanchett in The Aviator (2004)).
• George Cukor directed 21 nominated actors/actresses who went on to win 5 Oscars (James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940), Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944), Ronald Colman in A Double Life (1947), Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950), and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964)).
• Fred Zinnemann directed 20 nominated performers to 6 Oscars (Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952), Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity (1953), Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons (1966), and Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Robards in Julia (1977)).
• Woody Allen directed 18 nominated performers to 7 Oscar wins (Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (1977), Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (2013)).

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). And Martin Ritt was also the only one to direct four black performers to four nominations in three films: The Great White Hope (1970) (James Earl Jones, Lead), Sounder (1972) (Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield, Leads), and Cross Creek (1983) (Alfre Woodard, Supporting).

The only acting performance in an Alfred Hitchcock-directed film to win an Oscar was Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941), in the role of harried wife Lina McLaidlaw, opposite Cary Grant. The only Academy Award-winning performance in a Stanley Kubrick-directed film was Peter Ustinov, who won the Best Supporting Actor Award (his first Oscar win) for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (1960).

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)
• Martin Scorsese - he had 5 Best Director nominations (from 1980-2004) without a win, and then won with his 6th nomination for The Departed (2006)

Films with Only a Best Director Nomination: (* denotes win)

• Speedy (1927/28) (comedy, Ted Wilde), Sorrel and Son (1927/28) (drama, Herbert Brenon), Two Arabian Knights (1927/28) (comedy, Lewis Milestone*)
• Drag (1928/29) (Frank Lloyd)
• Hallelujah! (1929/30) (King Vidor)
• The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) (Mark Robson)
• Woman in the Dunes (1964) (Hiroshi Teshigahara) (also Best Foreign Language Film nominee)
• Alice's Restaurant (1969) (Arthur Penn)
• Fellini Satyricon (1970) (Federico Fellini)
• Blue Velvet (1986) (David Lynch)
• The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) (Martin Scorsese)
• Short Cuts (1993) (Robert Altman)
• Mulholland Dr. (2001) (David Lynch)

Nominees for Best Actor and Best Director for the Same Film:

Eight individuals have been nominated for both Best Actor and Best Director for the same film. Two were nominees twice. No one yet has won both awards. (Four won Best Director but not Best Actor. Two won Best Actor but not Best Director. Three lost both nominations.)

• Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (1941) - nominated for Best Actor and Director (didn't win either)
• Sir Laurence Olivier, Hamlet (1948), nominated for Best Director, won Best Actor
• Woody Allen, Annie Hall (1977) - nominated for Best Actor, won Best Director
• Warren Beatty, Heaven Can Wait (1978), nominated for Best Actor and Best Director (didn't win either)
• Warren Beatty, Reds (1981) - nominated for Best Actor, won Best Director
• Kenneth Branagh, Henry V (1989) - nominated for Best Actor and Best Director (didn't win either)
• Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves (1990) - nominated for Best Actor, won Best Director
• Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992) - nominated for Best Actor, won Best Director
• Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful (1998, It.) - nominated for Best Director, won Best Actor
• Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby (2004) - nominated for Best Actor, won Best Director

The only two actors/performers that ever directed themselves (without winning Best Director) to win a competitive Best Actor Academy Award were:

• British actor Sir Laurence Olivier for Hamlet (1948) as the title character, the year's Best Picture (he received two other self-directed actor nominations for Henry V (1946) and Richard III (1956))
• Italian actor Roberto Benigni, the director of Life is Beautiful (1998, It.) for his role as Guido, the Best Foreign Language Film of the year

Multiple Wins: Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers

Eight directors have accomplished the 'hat trick' of triple Oscar wins for Producing, Directing, and Writing in a single year:

• Leo McCarey for Going My Way (1944) - McCarey was the first person to win Oscars for Directing and Writing
• Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960) - Wilder was the first person to win Oscars for Directing, Writing, and Best Picture [Note: This wouldn't have been possible before 1951, when the Best Picture Award went to the studio rather than individual producers.]
• 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)
• Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)
• Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
• Bong Joon Ho for Parasite (2019)

Warren Beatty and George Clooney are the only two people to have competitive nominations in the Picture, Director, Screenplay and Acting (Actor or Supporting) categories:

• Warren Beatty
  Picture (Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Heaven Can Wait, (1978), Reds (1981), Bugsy (1991))
  Director (Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981))
  Screenplay (Shampoo (1975), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981), Bulworth (1998))
  Acting (Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981), Bugsy (1991))
• George Clooney
  Picture (Argo (2012))
  Director (Good Night, and Good Luck (2005))
  Screenplay (Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), The Ides of March (2011))
  Acting (Syriana (2005), Michael Clayton (2007), Up in the Air (2009), The Descendants (2011))

Four directors have directed themselves to an acting nomination on more than one film:

• Laurence Olivier
  Henry V (1946), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1956)
• Warren Beatty
  Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981)
• Clint Eastwood
  Unforgiven (1992), Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Bradley Cooper
  A Star Is Born (2018), Maestro (2023)
  

Individual Nominations For the Same Film in the Same Year:

Warren Beatty received four nominations for Producing, Acting, Directing, and Writing for the same film in one year:

• Heaven Can Wait (1978)
• Reds (1981) (with a win for Best Director)

[Note: It could be strongly argued that Orson Welles also received four similar nominations for Citizen Kane (1941). However, it should be noted that Welles' Mercury Theatre and the RKO Radio Pictures production company (producer Welles) were credited with the Best Picture/Production nomination, not Welles as an individual.]

For Roma (2018, Mex./US), Alfonso Cuaron also received a total of four individual nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Picture - thereby tying the record of most decorated Oscar nominee ever for the same film in the same year, with the two previous nominees Orson Welles (for Citizen Kane (1941)) and Warren Beatty (twice for Reds (1981) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).]

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

• Charles Chaplin for The Great Dictator (1940)

In addition to Beatty (Welles, and Cuaron), 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)

Actors That Won Their First Oscar as Best Director (Not as Performer):

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) - won Best Director (his first Oscar win) - Allen became the first Oscar-winning director to win an Academy Award for a film he starred in
• Robert Redford, Ordinary People (1980) - not nominated as Best Actor, won Best Director (his first Oscar win)
• Warren Beatty, Reds (1981) - won Best Director (his first Oscar win)
• Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves (1990) - won Best Director (his first Oscar win)
• Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992) - won Best Director (his first Oscar win)
• Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995) - not nominated as Best Actor, won Best Director (his first Oscar win)

Related Winners: Three-Generation Oscar-Winning Families

• The Hustons were the first family with three generations of Oscar winners (they became the the only grandfather-granddaughter ever to win Academy Awards):
  • John Huston won Best Director and Best Screenplay for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
  • Walter Huston won Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) (directed by his son John)
  • Granddaughter Anjelica Huston won Best Supporting Actress for Prizzi's Honor (1985), 37 years later (directed by her father)
• The Coppolas were the second family with three generations of Oscar winners (they became the only father-daughter-nephew grouping to ever win Academy Awards):
  • 1st Generation: Carmine Coppola (2 nominations with 1 win) won Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974)
  • 2nd Generation: Son Francis Ford Coppola (14 nominations with 5 wins) had his first win for Best Original Screenplay for Patton (1970)
  • 3rd Generation: Granddaughter Sofia Coppola won Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation (2003)

Further connections could be made for the Coppolas, combining for a family total of 24 nominations (number of nominations for each are in parentheses):

• 1st GENERATION
  - Carmine Coppola (2 nominations with 1 win) won Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974)
• 2nd GENERATION
  - Francis Ford Coppola (14 nominations with 5 wins) - Best Original Screenplay winner for Patton (1970), then Best Adapted Screenplay winner for The Godfather (1972), and Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture and Best Director winner for The Godfather Part II (1974) - he was the son of composer Carmine Coppola and Italia Coppola
  - Talia Shire (2 nominations with 0 wins) - she was the daughter of composer Carmine Coppola and Italia Coppola
• 3rd GENERATION
  - Sofia Coppola (3 nominations with 1 win), Best Original Screenplay winner for Lost in Translation (2003) - she was the daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola
  - Nicolas Cage (2 nominations with 1 win), Best Actor winner for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) - he was the son of August Coppola (a brother of director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang
  - Roman Coppola (1 nomination with 0 wins) - the sixth member of the Coppola clan to receive a nomination, for Best Original Screenplay for Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - he was the son of Francis Ford Coppola, brother of Sofia, and grand-son of Carmine, the nephew of Talia Shire, and cousin of Nicolas Cage
  

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

Best Actress Nominees/Winners Who Were Directed by Husbands:

• Joanne Woodward was nominated as Best Actress for Rachel Rachel (1968), a Best Picture-nominated film directed by her husband Paul Newman.
• 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. Robbins did not win Best Director.
• Otherwise, it would be Frances McDormand who also won the Best Actress Oscar for Fargo (1996), directed by her spouse, nominated 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 nominated husband Jules Dassin (both lost)
• Gena Rowlands, nominated for Best Actress for A Woman Under the Influence (1974), was directed by nominated husband John Cassavetes (both lost)
• Julie Andrews, nominated for Best Actress for Victor/Victoria (1982), was directed by unnominated husband Blake Edwards (Andrews lost)

Diane Keaton, nominated for Best Actress for Best Director-winning Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), won the Oscar - although romantically linked to Woody Allen, she was never married to him.

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

An Anomaly:

Seven out of the first eleven Best Director Oscars were won by men named Frank: Frank Borzage, Frank Lloyd, and Frank Capra.

With two nominations for Best Director, for Juno (2007) and Up in the Air (2009), 32 year-old Jason Reitman became the youngest filmmaker to have received two Oscar nominations for Best Director.