Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s
2000s
2007
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman – Juno
Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton
Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood
2006
Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel
Clint Eastwood – Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears – The Queen
Paul Greengrass – United 93
2005
Ang Lee – Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney – Good Night, and Good Luck
Paul Haggis – Crash
Bennett Miller – Capote
Steven Spielberg – Munich
2004
Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby
Martin Scorsese – The Aviator
Taylor Hackford – Ray
Alexander Payne – Sideways
Mike Leigh – Vera Drake
2003
Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Fernando Meirelles – City of God
Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation
Peter Weir – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Clint Eastwood – Mystic River
2002
Roman Polanski – The Pianist
Rob Marshall – Chicago
Martin Scorsese – Gangs of New York
Stephen Daldry – The Hours
Pedro Almodovar – Talk to Her
2001
Ron Howard – A Beautiful Mind
Robert Altman – Gosford Park
Peter Jackson – Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
David Lynch – Mulholland Drive
Ridley Scott – Black Hawk Down
2000
Steven Soderbergh – Traffic
Stephen Daldry – Billy Elliot
Ang Lee – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ridley Scott – Gladiator
Steven Soderbergh – Erin Brockovich
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1990s
1999
Sam Mendes – American Beauty
Lasse Hallstrom – The Cider House Rules
Spike Jonze – Being John Malkovich
Michael Mann – The Insider
M. Night Shyamalan – The Sixth Sense
1998
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 Show
1997
James Cameron – Titanic
Peter Cattaneo – The Full Monty
Atom Egoyan – The Sweet Hereafter
Curtis Hanson – L.A. Confidential
Gus Van Sant – Good Will Hunting
1996
Anthony Minghella – The English Patient
Joel Coen – Fargo
Milos Forman – The People vs. Larry Flynt
Scott Hicks – Shine
Mike Leigh – Secrets & Lies
1995
Mel Gibson – Braveheart
Mike Figgis – Leaving Las Vegas
Chris Noonan – Babe
Michael Radford – Il Postino
Tim Robbins – Dead Man Walking
1994
Robert Zemeckis – Forrest Gump
Woody Allen – Bullets over Broadway
Krzysztof Kieslowski – Trois couleurs: Rouge (Red)
Robert Redford – Quiz Show
Quentin Tarantino – Pulp Fiction
1993
Steven Spielberg – Schindler's List
Robert Altman – Short Cuts
Jane Campion – The Piano
James Ivory – The Remains of the Day
Jim Sheridan – In the Name of the Father
1992
Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven
Robert Altman – The Player
Martin Brest – Scent of a Woman
James Ivory – Howards End
Neil Jordan – The Crying Game
1991
Jonathan Demme – The Silence of the Lambs
Barry Levinson – Bugsy
Ridley Scott – Thelma & Louise
John Singleton – Boyz N the Hood
Oliver Stone – JFK
1990
Kevin Costner – Dances with Wolves
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather, Part III
Stephen Frears – The Grifters
Barbet Schroeder – Reversal of Fortune
Martin Scorsese – Good Fellas
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1980s
1989
Oliver Stone – Born on the Fourth of July
Woody Allen – Crimes and Misdemeanors
Kenneth Branagh – Henry V
Jim Sheridan – My Left Foot
Peter Weir – Dead Poets Society
1988
Barry Levinson – Rain Man
Charles Crichton – A Fish Called Wanda
Mike Nichols – Working Girl
Alan Parker – Mississippi Burning
Martin Scorsese – The Last Temptation of Christ
1987
Bernardo Bertolucci – The Last Emperor
John Boorman – Hope and Glory
Lasse Hallstrom – Mitt liv som hund (My Life as a Dog)
Norman Jewison – Moonstruck
Adrian Lyne – Fatal Attraction
1986
Oliver Stone – Platoon
Woody Allen – Hannah and Her Sisters
James Ivory – A Room with a View
Roland Joffe – Mission
David Lynch – Blue Velvet
1985
Sydney Pollack – Out of Africa
Hector Babenco – Kiss of the Spider Woman
John Huston – Prizzi's Honor
Akira Kurosawa – Ran
Peter Weir – Witness
1984
Milos Forman – Amadeus
Woody Allen – Broadway Danny Rose
Robert Benton – Places in the Heart
Roland Joffe – The Killing Fields
David Lean – A Passage to India
1983
James L. Brooks – Terms of Endearment
Bruce Beresford – Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman – Fanny & Alexander
Mike Nichols – Silkwood
Peter Yates – The Dresser
1982
Richard Attenborough – Gandhi
Sidney Lumet – The Verdict
Wolfgang Petersen – Das Boot
Sydney Pollack – Tootsie
Steven Spielberg – E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial
1981
Warren Beatty – Reds
Hugh Hudson – Chariots of Fire
Louis Malle – Atlantic City
Mark Rydell – On Golden Pond
Steven Spielberg – Raiders of the Lost Ark
1980
Robert Redford – Ordinary People
David Lynch – The Elephant Man
Richard Rush – The Stunt Man
Roman Polanski – Tess
Martin Scorsese – Raging Bull
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1970s
1979
Robert Benton – Kramer vs. Kramer
Francis Ford Coppola – Apocalypse Now
Bob Fosse – All That Jazz
Edouard Molinaro – La Cage aux Folles
Peter Yates – Breaking Away
1978
Michael Cimino – The Deer Hunter
Woody Allen – Interiors
Hal Ashby – Coming Home
Warren Beatty – Heaven Can Wait
Buck Henry – Heaven Can Wait
Alan Parker – Midnight Express
1977
Woody Allen – Annie Hall
George Lucas – Star Wars
Herbert Ross – The Turning Point
Steven Spielberg – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Fred Zinnemann – Julia
1976
John G. Avildsen – Rocky
Ingmar Bergman – Face to Face
Sidney Lumet – Network
Alan J. Pakula – All the President's Men
Lina Wertmuller – Seven Beauties
1975
Milos Forman – One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Robert Altman – Nashville
Federico Fellini – Amarcord
Stanley Kubrick – Barry Lyndon
Sidney Lumet – Dog Day Afternoon
1974
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather, Part II
John Cassavetes – A Woman Under the Influence
Bob Fosse – Lenny
Roman Polanski – Chinatown
Francois Truffaut – Day for Night
1973
George Roy Hill – The Sting
Ingmar Bergman – Cries and Whispers
Bernardo Bertolucci – Last Tango in Paris
William Friedkin – The Exorcist
George Lucas – American Graffiti
1972
Bob Fosse – Cabaret
John Boorman – Deliverance
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather
Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Sleuth
Jan Troell – The Emigrants
1971
William Friedkin – The French Connection
Peter Bogdanovich – The Last Picture Show
Norman Jewison – Fiddler on the Roof
Stanley Kubrick – A Clockwork Orange
John Schlesinger – Sunday, Bloody Sunday
1970
Franklin J. Schaffner – Patton
Robert Altman – M*A*S*H
Federico Fellini – Fellini Satyricon
Arthur Hiller – Love Story
Ken Russell – Women in Love
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1960s
1969
John Schlesinger – Midnight Cowboy
Costa-Gavras – Z
George Roy Hill – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Arthur Penn – Alice's Restaurant
Sydney Pollack – They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
1968
Carol Reed – Oliver!
Anthony Harvey – The Lion in Winter
Stanley Kubrick – 2001: A Space Odyssey
Gillo Pontecorvo – The Battle of Algiers
Franco Zeffirelli – Romeo & Juliet
1967
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 Clyde
1966
Fred Zinnemann – A Man for All Seasons
Michelangelo Antonioni – Blow-Up
Richard Brooks – The Professionals
Claude Lelouch – A Man and a Woman
Mike Nichols – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1965
Robert Wise – The Sound of Music
David Lean – Doctor Zhivago
John Schlesinger – Darling
Hiroshi Teshigahara – Woman in the Dunes
William Wyler – The Collector
1964
George Cukor – My Fair Lady
Michael Cacoyannis – Zorba the Greek
Peter Glenville – Becket
Stanley Kubrick – Dr. Strangelove
Robert Stevenson – Mary Poppins
1963
Tony Richardson – Tom Jones
Federico Fellini – Federico Fellini's 8 1/2
Elia Kazan – America, America
Otto Preminger – The Cardinal
Martin Ritt – Hud
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
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
1960
Billy Wilder – The Apartment
Jack Cardiff – Sons and Lovers
Jules Dassin – Never on Sunday
Alfred Hitchcock – Psycho
Fred Zinnemann – The Sundowners
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1950s
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
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!
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
1956
George Stevens – Giant
Michael Anderson – Around the World in 80 Days
Walter Lang – The King and I
William Wyler – Friendly Persuasion
King Vidor – War and Peace
1955
Delbert Mann – Marty
Elia Kazan – East of Eden
David Lean – Summertime
Joshua Logan – Picnic
John Sturges – Bad Day at Black Rock
1954
Elia Kazan – On the Waterfront
Alfred Hitchcock – Rear Window
George Seaton – The Country Girl
William A. Wellman – The High and the Mighty
Billy Wilder – Sabrina
1953
Fred Zinnemann – From Here to Eternity
George Stevens – Shane
Charles Walters – Lili
Billy Wilder – Stalag 17
William Wyler – Roman Holiday
1952
John Ford – The Quiet Man
Cecil B. De Mille – The Greatest Show on Earth
John Huston – Moulin Rouge
Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Five Fingers
Fred Zinnemann – High Noon
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
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
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1940s
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
1948
John Huston – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Anatole Litvak – The Snake Pit
Jean Negulesco – Johnny Belinda
Laurence Olivier – Hamlet
Fred Zinnemann – The Search
1947
Elia Kazan – Gentleman's Agreement
Edward Dmytryk – Crossfire
George Cukor – A Double Life
Henry Koster – The Bishop's Wife
David Lean – Great Expectations
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
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
1944
Leo McCarey – Going My Way
Alfred Hitchcock – Lifeboat
Henry King – Wilson
Otto Preminger – Laura
Billy Wilder – Double Indemnity
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
1942
William Wyler – Mrs. Miniver
Michael Curtiz – Yankee Doodle Dandy
John Farrow – Wake Island
Mervyn LeRoy – Random Harvest
Sam Wood – King's Row
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
1940
John Ford – The Grapes of Wrath
George Cukor – The Philadelphia Story
Alfred Hitchcock – Rebecca
Sam Wood – Kitty Foyle
William Wyler – The Letter
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1930s
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
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
1937
Leo McCarey – The Awful Truth
William Dieterle – The Life of Emile Zola
Sidney Franklin – The Good Earth
Gregory La Cava – Stage Door
William A. Wellman – A Star Is Born
1936
Frank Capra – Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Gregory La Cava – My Man Godfrey
Robert Z. Leonard – The Great Ziegfeld
W.S. Van Dyke – San Francisco
William Wyler – Dodsworth
1935
John Ford – The Informer
Michael Curtiz – Captain Blood
Henry Hathaway – Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Frank Lloyd – Mutiny on the Bounty
1934
Frank Capra – It Happened One Night
Victor Schertzinger – One Night of Love
W.S. Van Dyke – The Thin Man
1933
Frank Lloyd – Cavalcade
Frank Capra – Lady for a Day
George Cukor – Little Women
1932
Frank Borzage – Bad Girl
King Vidor – The Champ
Josef Von Sternberg – Shanghai Express
1931
Norman Taurog – Skippy
Clarence Brown – A Free Soul
Lewis Milestone – The Front Page
Wesley Ruggles – Cimarron
Josef Von Sternberg – Morocco
1930
Lewis Milestone – All Quiet on the Western Front
Clarence Brown – Anna Christie
Clarence Brown – Romance
Robert Z. Leonard – The Divorcee
Ernst Lubitsch – The Love Parade
King Vidor – Hallelujah
Index | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | Top of page
1920s
1929
Frank Lloyd – The Divine Lady
Lionel Barrymore – Madame X
Harry Beaumont – Broadway Melody
Irving Cummings – In Old Arizona
Ernst Lubitsch – The Patriot
1928
Frank Borzage – Seventh Heaven (Drama)
Lewis Milestone – Two Arabian Knights (Comedy)
Herbert Brenon – Sorrell and Son
Charles Chaplin – The Circus
King Vidor – The Crowd
Ted Wilde – Speedy
