Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures is one of the annual awards given by Directors Guild of America. With 3 wins out of 11 nominations, Steven Spielberg is both the most awarded and most nominated director for this category in the history of DGA. Additionally, Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the only director to win consecutive awards. He was awarded in 2015 and 2016 for his directorial work in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant, respectively.
The Directors Guild of America Award for Feature Film has traditionally been a near perfect barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director. Only seven times since the DGA Award's inception has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award; in 1968 (Carol Reed won the Oscar for directing Oliver!); 1972 (Bob Fosse won the Oscar for directing Cabaret); 1985 (Sydney Pollack won the Oscar for directing Out of Africa, as Steven Spielberg was not nominated for directing The Color Purple); 1995 (Mel Gibson won for directing Braveheart, as Ron Howard was not nominated for directing Apollo 13); 2000 (Steven Soderbergh won the Oscar for directing Traffic); 2002 (Roman Polanski won the Oscar for directing The Pianist); and 2012 (Ang Lee won the Oscar for directing Life of Pi as Ben Affleck was not nominated for directing Argo). This does not count 1948–49, when the DGA used a non-calendar award year (unlike the Academy Awards); both 1948 and 1949 DGA winners competed for the 1949 Academy Award for Best Director, which went to the 1948 DGA winner (Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives).
Winners and nominees
† Won the Academy Award for Best Director
‡ Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director
1940s
- 1948: Joseph L. Mankiewicz – A Letter to Three Wives †
- 1949: Robert Rossen – All the King's Men ‡
1950s
- 1950: Joseph L. Mankiewicz – All About Eve †
- 1951: George Stevens – A Place in the Sun †
- László Benedek – Death of a Salesman
- Michael Gordon – Cyrano de Bergerac
- Alfred Hitchcock – Strangers on a Train
- Elia Kazan – A Streetcar Named Desire ‡
- Henry King – David and Bathsheba
- Mervyn LeRoy – Quo Vadis
- Anatole Litvak – Decision Before Dawn
- George Sidney – Show Boat
- Richard Thorpe – The Great Caruso
- William Wyler – Detective Story ‡
- 1952: John Ford – The Quiet Man †
- George Cukor – Pat and Mike
- Michael Curtiz – I'll See You in My Dreams
- Cecil B. DeMille – The Greatest Show on Earth ‡
- Hugo Fregonese – My Six Convicts
- Howard Hawks – The Big Sky
- Elia Kazan – Viva Zapata!
- Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen – Singin' in the Rain
- Henry King – The Snows of Kilimanjaro
- Akira Kurosawa – Rashomon
- Albert Lewin – Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
- Vincente Minnelli – The Bad and the Beautiful
- George Sidney – Scaramouche
- Richard Thorpe – Ivanhoe
- Charles Vidor – Hans Christian Andersen
- 1953: Fred Zinnemann – From Here to Eternity †
- 1954: Elia Kazan – On the Waterfront †
- George Cukor – A Star Is Born
- Edward Dmytryk – The Caine Mutiny
- Stanley Donen – Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
- Melvin Frank and Norman Panama – Knock on Wood
- Samuel Fuller – Hell and High Water
- Henry King – King of the Khyber Rifles
- Anthony Mann – The Glenn Miller Story
- Jean Negulesco – Three Coins in the Fountain
- Don Siegel – Riot in Cell Block 11
- Robert Wise – Executive Suite
- 1955: Delbert Mann – Marty †
- 1956: George Stevens – Giant †
- 1957: David Lean – The Bridge on the River Kwai †
- George Cukor – Les Girls
- Stanley Donen – Funny Face
- José Ferrer – The Great Man
- John Huston – Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
- Elia Kazan – A Face in the Crowd
- Stanley Kramer – The Pride and the Passion
- Anthony Mann – Men in War
- Leo McCarey – An Affair to Remember
- Robert Mulligan – Fear Strikes Out
- John Sturges – Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
- Fred Zinnemann – A Hatful of Rain
- 1958: Vincente Minnelli – Gigi †
- 1959: William Wyler – Ben-Hur †
- Charles Barton – The Shaggy Dog
- Frank Capra – A Hole in the Head
- Richard Fleischer – Compulsion
- John Ford – The Horse Soldiers
- Howard Hawks – Rio Bravo
- Alfred Hitchcock – North by Northwest
- Leo McCarey – Rally Round the Flag, Boys!
- Otto Preminger – Anatomy of a Murder
- Douglas Sirk – Imitation of Life
- 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 †
- 1961: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins – West Side Story †
- Marlon Brando – One-Eyed Jacks
- Frank Capra – Pocketful of Miracles
- Jack Clayton – The Innocents
- Peter Glenville – Summer and Smoke
- John Huston – The Misfits
- Elia Kazan – Splendor in the Grass
- Henry Koster – Flower Drum Song
- Stanley Kramer – Judgment at Nuremberg ‡
- Philip Leacock – Hand in Hand
- Mervyn LeRoy – A Majority of One
- Joshua Logan – Fanny
- Anthony Mann – El Cid
- Robert Mulligan – The Great Impostor
- Daniel Petrie – A Raisin in the Sun
- Robert Stevenson – The Absent-Minded Professor
- Peter Ustinov – Romanoff and Juliet
- William Wyler – The Children's Hour
- 1962: David Lean – Lawrence of Arabia †
- 1963: Tony Richardson – Tom Jones †
- 1964: George Cukor – My Fair Lady †
- 1965: Robert Wise – The Sound of Music †
- 1966: Fred Zinnemann – A Man for All Seasons †
- Richard Brooks – The Professionals ‡
- John Frankenheimer – Grand Prix
- Lewis Gilbert – Alfie
- James Hill – Born Free
- Norman Jewison – The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
- Claude Lelouch – A Man and a Woman ‡
- Silvio Narizzano – Georgy Girl
- Mike Nichols – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ‡
- Robert Wise – The Sand Pebbles
- 1967: Mike Nichols – The Graduate †
- Robert Aldrich – The Dirty Dozen
- Richard Brooks – In Cold Blood ‡
- James Clavell – To Sir, with Love
- Stanley Donen – Two for the Road
- Norman Jewison – In the Heat of the Night ‡
- Stanley Kramer – Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ‡
- Arthur Penn – Bonnie and Clyde ‡
- Stuart Rosenberg – Cool Hand Luke
- Joseph Strick – Ulysses
- 1968: Anthony Harvey – The Lion in Winter ‡
- 1969: John Schlesinger – Midnight Cowboy †
- Richard Attenborough – Oh! What a Lovely War
- Costa-Gavras – Z ‡
- George Roy Hill – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ‡
- Dennis Hopper – Easy Rider
- Gene Kelly – Hello, Dolly!
- Sam Peckinpah – The Wild Bunch
- Larry Peerce – Goodbye, Columbus
- Sydney Pollack – They Shoot Horses, Don't They? ‡
- Haskell Wexler – Medium Cool
1970s
- 1970: Franklin J. Schaffner – Patton †
- 1971: William Friedkin – The French Connection †
- 1972: Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather ‡
- 1973: George Roy Hill – The Sting †
- 1974: Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather Part II †
- 1975: Miloš Forman – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest †
- 1976: John G. Avildsen – Rocky †
- 1977: Woody Allen – Annie Hall †
- 1978: Michael Cimino – The Deer Hunter †
- 1979: Robert Benton – Kramer vs. Kramer †
1980s
- 1980: Robert Redford – Ordinary People †
- 1981: Warren Beatty – Reds †
- 1982: Richard Attenborough – Gandhi †
- 1983: James L. Brooks – Terms of Endearment †
- 1984: Miloš Forman – Amadeus †
- 1985: Steven Spielberg – The Color Purple
- 1986: Oliver Stone – Platoon †
- 1987: Bernardo Bertolucci – The Last Emperor †
- 1988: Barry Levinson – Rain Man †
- 1989: Oliver Stone – Born on the Fourth of July †
1990s
2000s
2010s
See also
- BAFTA Award for Best Direction
- Academy Award for Best Director
- Golden Globe Award for Best Director
- Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Director
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