In the history of the Academy Awards, ninety men and one woman have won the Oscar for Best Director (not a thrilling ratio, but an exciting category all the same). This Sunday, Barry Jenkins could make history as the first black man to take home this honor for his stunning work on Moonlight. It’s a tight race this year, with Damien Chazelle‘s work on groundbreaking musical La La Land in the mix along with Kenneth Lonergan’s affinity for intimate drama on display in Manchester by the Sea. Wondering who came before these talented guys? We’ve put together a list of where to stream almost every Oscar for Best Director-winning film.
- Frank Borzage, Seventh Heaven; Dramatic (1927/1928)
- Lewis Milestone, Two Arabian Knights; Comedy (1927/1928)
- Frank Lloyd, The Divine Lady (1928/1929)
- Lewis Milestone, All Quiet On the Western Front (1929/1930)
- Norman Taurog, Skippy (1930/1931)
- Frank Borzage, Bad Girl (1931/1932)
- Frank Lloyd, Cavalcade (1932/1933)
- Frank Capra, It Happened One Night (1934)
- John Ford, The Informer (1935)
- Frank Capra, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
- Leo McCarey, The Awful Truth (1937)
- Frank Capra, You Can’t Take It With You (1938)
- Victor Fleming, Gone with the Wind (1939)
- John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- John Ford, How Green Was My Valley (1941)
- William Wyler, Mrs. Miniver (1942)
- Michael Curtiz, Casablanca (1943)
- Leo McCarey, Going My Way (1944)
- Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend (1945)
- William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
- Elia Kazan, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
- John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve (1950)
- George Stevens, A Place in the Sun (1951)
- John Ford, The Quiet Man (1952)
- Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity (1953)
- Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront (1954)
- Delbert Mann, Marty (1955)
- George Stevens, Giant (1956)
- David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- Vincente Minnelli, Gigi (1958)
- Willian Wyler, Ben-Hur (1959)
- Billy Wilder, The Apartment (1960)
- Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, West Side Story (1961)
- David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- Tony Richardson, Tom Jones (1963)
- George Cukor, My Fair Lady (1964)
- Robert Wise, The Sound of Music (1965)
- Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons (1966)
- Mike Nichols, The Graduate (1967)
- Carol Reed, Oliver! (1968)
- John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy (1969)
- Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton (1970)
- William Friedkin, The French Connection (1971)
- Bob Fosse, Cabaret (1972)
- George Roy Hill, The Sting (1973)
- Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (1974)
- Miloš Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- John G. Avildsen, Rocky (1976)
- Woody Allen, Annie Hall (1977)
- Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter (1978)
- Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
- Robert Redford, Ordinary People (1980)
- Warren Beatty, Reds (1981)
- Richard Attenborough, Gandhi (1982)
- James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment (1983)
- Miloš Forman, Amadeus (1984)
- Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa (1985)
- Oliver Stone, Platoon (1986)
- Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor (1987)
- Barry Levinson, Rain Man (1988)
- Oliver Stone, Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
- Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves (1990)
- Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992)
- Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List (1993)
- Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump (1994)
- Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995)
- Anthony Minghella, The English Patient (1996)
- James Cameron, Titanic (1997)
- Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Sam Mendes, American Beauty (1999)
- Steven Soderbergh, Traffic (2000)
- Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind (2001)
- Roman Polanski, The Pianist (2002)
- Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby (2004)
- Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- Martin Scorsese, The Departed (2006)
- Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men (2007)
- Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
- Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (2009)
- Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech (2010)
- Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist (2011)
- Ang Lee, Life of Pi (2012)
- Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity (2013)
- Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
- Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant