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Academy Award for Directing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Academy Award for Directing is an accolade given to the person that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences feels was best director of the past year. The expression of approval is given, along with an Oscar Statuette and a chance for the director to speak, at an annual Academy Awards ceremony. Since the inception of this award in 1929, 58 of the 79 Oscars for Best Director were for films that also won the Oscar for Best Picture. The Academy has selected one director from five nominees each year for the past seven decades to receive the honor. For the first few Academy Awards ceremonies, starting in 1927, the ceremony honored the best films released in a year-long period between August of one year and August of the following year.
While the award is considered a good way to sum up the most successful and talented film directors, several revered directors have never won the award, including Robert Altman (5 nominations), Ingmar Bergman (3 nominations), John Cassavetes (1 nomination), Charles Chaplin (1 nomination), Federico Fellini (4 nominations), Howard Hawks (1 nomination), Alfred Hitchcock (5 nominations), Stanley Kramer (3 nominations), Stanley Kubrick (4 nominations), Akira Kurosawa (1 nomination), Sergio Leone (0 nominations), Ernst Lubitsch (3 nominations), Sidney Lumet (4 nominations), David Lynch (3 nominations), Terence Malick (1 nomination), Arthur Penn (3 nominations), Ridley Scott (3 nominations), King Vidor (5 nominations), Peter Weir (4 nominations), George Lucas (2 nominations),and Orson Welles (1 nomination). Stephen Daldry has been nominated for both of his first two features without winning on either, a unique feat.
No female director has ever won this award, and only three (Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Lina Wertmuller) have ever been nominated.
John Ford is the only director with four Best Director Oscars, followed by Frank Capra and William Wyler, with three Best Director Academy Awards apiece. Wyler has the most nominations, 12. Clarence Brown has the most nominations without a win, six.
The oldest person ever to be nominated for this award is John Huston, who was 79 years old when he was nominated for Prizzi's Honor (1985). The oldest person ever to win this award is Clint Eastwood, who was 74 years old when he won for Million Dollar Baby (2004). The youngest person ever to be nominated for this award is John Singleton, who was 24 years old when he was nominated for Boyz N the Hood (1991). The youngest person ever to win this award is Norman Taurog, who was 32 years old when he won for Skippy (1930/31).
Contents |
Each Academy Award ceremony is listed chronologically below along with the winner of the Academy Award for Directing and the film associated with the award. In the column next to the winner of each award are the other nominees for best director.
In the first year only, the award was separated into Dramatic Direction and Comedy Direction.
| Year | Winner film |
Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| 1927/1928 Dramatic |
Frank Borzage Seventh Heaven |
Herbert Brenon - Sorrell and Son King Vidor - The Crowd |
| Comedy | Lewis Milestone Two Arabian Knights |
Charles Chaplin - The Circus Ted Wilde - Speedy |
| 1928/1929 | Frank Lloyd The Divine Lady |
Lionel Barrymore - Madame X Harry Beaumont - The Broadway Melody Irving Cummings - In Old Arizona Frank Lloyd - Weary River and Drag Ernst Lubitsch - The Patriot |
- List of movies
- List of actors
- List of directors
- List of documentaries
- List of Hollywood movie studios