Looking at Film from Every Angle

Precursor History: Directors Guild of America (Picture)

Category Details

Category Active: 1948 – Present

Note

The comparisons to Oscar below are based on the DGA’s correlation to Best Picture.

Key

Precursor Winner
[O] – Oscar Nominee
[O] – Oscar Winner

Decade Shortcuts

2010s | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s

2010s

2013

DIRECTING

David O. Russell – American Hustle [O]
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips [O]
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity [O]
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave [O]
Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street [O]

2012

DIRECTING

Ben Affleck – Argo [O]
Ang Lee – Life of Pi [O]
Steven Spielberg – Lincoln [O]
Tom Hooper – Les Misérables [O]
Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty [O]

2011

DIRECTING

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist [O]
Alexander Payne – The Descendants [O]
David Fincher – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Martin Scorsese – Hugo [O]
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris [O]

2010

DIRECTING

Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan [O]
David O. Russell – The Fighter [O]
Christopher Nolan – Inception [O]
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech [O]
David Fincher – The Social Network [O]

2000s

2009

DIRECTING

James Cameron – The Avatar [O]
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker [O]
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds [O]
Lee Daniels – Precious [O]
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air [O]

2008

DIRECTING

David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [O]
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon [O]
Gus Van Sant – Milk [O]
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire

2007

DIRECTING

Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sean Penn – Into the Wild
Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton [O]
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men [O]
Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood [O]

2006

DIRECTING

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Babel [O]
Martin Scorsese – The Departed [O]
Bill Condon – Dreamgirls
Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris – Little Miss Sunshine [O]
Stephen Frears – The Queen [O]

2005

DIRECTING

Ang Lee – Brokeback Mountain [O]
Bennett Miller – Capote [O]
Paul Haggis – Crash [O]
George Clooney – Good Night, and Good Luck [O]
Steven Spielberg – Munich [O]

2004

DIRECTING

Martin Scorsese – The Aviator [O]
Marc Forster – Finding Neverland [O]
Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby [O]
Taylor Hackford – Ray [O]
Alexander Payne – Sideways [O]

2003

DIRECTING

Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [O]
Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation [O]
Peter Weir – Master and Commander [O]
Clint Eastwood – Mystic River [O]
Gary Ross – Seabiscuit [O]

2002

DIRECTING

Rob Marshall – Chicago [O]
Martin Scorsese – Gangs of New York [O]
Stephen Daldry – The Hours [O]
Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [O]
Roman Polanski – The Pianist [O]

2001

DIRECTING

Ron Howard – A Beautiful Mind [O]
Ridley Scott – Black Hawk Down
Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [O]
Christopher Nolan – Memento
Baz Luhrmann – Moulin Rouge [O]

2000

DIRECTING

Cameron Crowe – Almost Famous
Ang Lee – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [O]
Steven Soderbergh – Erin Brockovich [O]
Ridley Scott – Gladiator [O]
Steven Soderbergh – Traffic [O]

1990s

1999

DIRECTING

Sam Mendes – American Beauty [O]
Spike Jonze – Being John Malkovich
Frank Darabont – The Green Mile [O]
Michael Mann – The Insider [O]
M. Night Shyamalan – The Sixth Sense [O]

1998

DIRECTING

Roberto Benigni – Life Is Beautiful [O]
Steven Spielberg – Saving Private Ryan [O]
John Madden – Shakespeare in Love [O]
Terrence Malick – The Thin Red Line [O]
Peter Weir – The Truman Show

1997

DIRECTING

Steven Spielberg – Amistad
James L. Brooks – As Good As It Gets [O]
Gus Van Sant – Good Will Hunting [O]
Curtis Hanson – L.A. Confidential [O]
James Cameron – Titanic [O]

1996

DIRECTING

Anthony Minghella – The English Patient [O]
Joel Coen – Fargo [O]
Cameron Crowe – Jerry Maguire [O]
Mike Leigh – Secrets & Lies [O]
Scott Hicks – Shine [O]

1995

DIRECTING

Ron Howard – Apollo 13 [O]
Mel Gibson – Braveheart [O]
Mike Figgis – Leaving Las Vegas
Michael Radford – The Postman [O]
Ang Lee – Sense and Sensibility [O]

1994

DIRECTING

Robert Zemeckis – Forrest Gump [O]
Mike Newell – Four Weddings and a Funeral [O]
Quentin Tarantino – Pulp Fiction [O]
Robert Redford – Quiz Show [O]
Frank Darabont – The Shawshank Redemption [O]

1993

DIRECTING

Martin Scorsese – The Age of Innocence
Andrew Davis – The Fugitive [O]
Jane Campion – The Piano [O]
James Ivory – The Remains of the Day [O]
Steven Spielberg – Schindler’s List [O]

1992

DIRECTING

Neil Jordan – The Crying Game [O]
Rob Reiner – A Few Good Men [O]
James Ivory – Howards End [O]
Robert Altman – The Player
Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven [O]

1991

DIRECTING

Barry Levinson – Bugsy [O]
Oliver Stone – JFK [O]
Barbra Streisand – The Prince of Tides [O]
Jonathan Demme – The Silence of the Lambs [O]
Ridley Scott – Thelma & Louise

1990

DIRECTING

Barry Levinson – Avalon
Giuseppe Tornatore – Cinema Paradiso
Kevin Costner – Dances with Wolves [O]
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather, Part III [O]
Martin Scorsese – Goodfellas [O]

1980s

1989

DIRECTING

Oliver Stone – Born on the Fourth of July [O]
Woody Allen – Crimes and Misdemeanors
Peter Weir – Dead Poets Society [O]
Phil Alden Robinson – Field of Dreams [O]
Rob Reiner – When Harry Met Sally

1988

DIRECTING

Charles Crichton – A Fish Called Wanda
Alan Parker – Mississippi Burning [O]
Barry Levinson – Rain Man [O]
Robert Zemeckis – Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Mike Nichols – Working Girl [O]

1987

DIRECTING

James L. Brooks – Broacast News [O]
Steven Spielberg – Empire of the Sun
Adrian Lyne – Fatal Attraction [O]
Bernardo Bertolucci – The Last Emperor [O]
Lasse Hallstrom – My Life As a Dog

1986

DIRECTING

Randa Haines – Children of a Lesser God [O]
Woody Allen – Hannah and Her Sisters [O]
Oliver Stone – Platoon [O]
James Ivory – A Room with a View [O]
Rob Reiner – Stand by Me

1985

DIRECTING

Steven Spielberg – The Color Purple [O]
Ron Howard – Cocoon
Sydney Pollack – Out of Africa [O]
John Huston – Prizzi’s Honor [O]
Peter Weir – Witness [O]

1984

DIRECTING

Milos Forman – Amadeus [O]
Roland Joffe – The Killing Fields [O]
David Lean – A Passage to India [O]
Robert Benton – Places in the Heart [O]
Norman Jewison – A Soldier’s Story [O]

1983

DIRECTING

Lawrence Kasdan – The Big Chill [O]
Ingmar Bergman – Fanny & Alexander
Philip Kaufman – The Right Stuff [O]
Bruce Beresford – Tender Mercies [O]
James L. Brooks – Terms of Endearment [O]

1982

DIRECTING

Wolfgang Petersen – Das Boot
Steven Spielberg – E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial [O]
Richard Attenborough – Gandhi [O]
Taylor Hackford – An Officer and a Gentleman
Sydney Pollack – Tootsie [O]

1981

DIRECTING

Louis Malle – Atlantic City [O]
Hugh Hudson – Chariots of Fire [O]
Mark Rydell – On Golden Pond [O]
Steven Spielberg – Raiders of the Lost Ark [O]
Warren Beatty – Reds [O]

1980

DIRECTING

Michael Apted – Coal Miner’s Daughter [O]
David Lynch – The Elephant Man [O]
Robert Redford – Ordinary People [O]
Martin Scorsese – Raging Bull [O]
Richard Rush – The Stunt Man

1970s

1979

DIRECTING

Francis Ford Coppola – Apocalypse Now [O]
Peter Yates – Breaking Away [O]
James Bridges – The China Syndrome
Robert Benton – Kramer vs. Kramer [O]
Woody Allen – Manhattan

1978

DIRECTING

Hal Ashby – Coming Home [O]
Michael Cimino – The Deer Hunter [O]
Warren Beatty, Buck Henry – Heaven Can Wait [O]
Alan Parker – Midnight Express [O]
Paul Mazursky – An Unmarried Woman [O]

1977

DIRECTING

Woody Allen – Annie Hall [O]
Steven Spielberg – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Fred Zinnemann – Julia [O]
George Lucas – Star Wars [O]
Herbert Ross – The Turning Point [O]

1976

DIRECTING

Alan J. Pakula – All the President’s Men [O]
Sidney Lumet – Network [O]
John G. Avildsen – Rocky [O]
Lina Wertmuller – Seven Beauties
Martin Scorsese – Taxi Driver [O]

1975

DIRECTING

Stanley Kubrick – Barry Lyndon [O]
Sidney Lumet – Dog Day Afternoon [O]
Steven Spielberg – Jaws [O]
Robert Altman – Nashville [O]
Milos Forman – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [O]

1974

DIRECTING

Roman Polanski – Chinatown [O]
Francis Ford Coppola – The Conversation [O]
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather, Part II [O]
Bob Fosse – Lenny [O]
Sidney Lumet – Murder on the Orient Express

1973

DIRECTING

George Lucas – American Graffiti [O]
William Friedkin – The Exorcist [O]
Bernardo Bertolucci – Last Tango in Paris
Sidney Lumet – Serpico
George Roy Hill – The Sting [O]

1972

DIRECTING

Bob Fosse – Cabaret [O]
John Boorman – Deliverance [O]
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather [O]
George Roy Hill – Slaughterhouse-Five
Martin Ritt – Sounder [O]

1971

DIRECTING

Stanley Kubrick – A Clockwork Orange [O]
William Friedkin – The French Connection [O]
Peter Bogdanovich – The Last Picture Show [O]
Robert Mulligan – Summer of ’42
John Schlesinger – Sunday Bloody Sunday

1970

DIRECTING

Bob Rafelson – Five Easy Pieces [O]
Arthur Hiller – Love Story [O]
Robert Altman – MASH [O]
Franklin J. Schaffner – Patton [O]
David Lean – Ryan’s Daughter

1960s

1969

DIRECTING

George Roy Hill – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [O]
Dennis Hopper – Easy Rider
Larry Peerce – Goodbye, Columbus
Gene Kelly – Hello, Dolly! [O]
Haskell Wexler – Medium Cool
John Schlesinger – Midnight Cowboy [O]
Richard Attenborough – Oh! What a Lovely War
Sydney Pollack – They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Sam Peckinpah – The Wild Bunch
Costa-Gavras – Z [O]

1968

DIRECTING

Jiri Menzel – Closely Watched Trains
William Wyler – Funny Girl [O]
Paul Almond – Isabel
Anthony Harvey – The Lion in Winter [O]
Gene Saks – The Odd Couple
Carol Reed – Oliver! [O]
Paul Newman – Rachel, Rachel [O]
Franco Zeffirelli – Romeo & Juliet [O]
Roman Polanski – Rosemary’s Baby
Stanley Kubrick – 2001: A Space Odyssey

1967

DIRECTING

Arthur Penn – Bonnie and Clyde [O]
Stuart Rosenberg – Cool Hand Luke
Robert Aldrich – The Dirty Dozen
Mike Nichols – The Graduate [O]
Stanley Kramer – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner [O]
Richard Brooks – In Cold Blood
Norman Jewison – In the Heat of the Night [O]
James Clavell – To Sir, with Love
Stanley Donen – Two for the Road
Joseph Strick – Ulysses

1966

DIRECTING

Lewis Gilbert – Alfie [O]
James Hill – Born Free
Silvio Narizzano – Georgy Girl
John Frankenheimer – Grand Prix
Claude Lelouch – A Man and a Woman
Fred Zinnemann – A Man for All Seasons [O]
Richard Brooks – The Professionals
Norman Jewison – The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming [O]
Robert Wise – The Sand Pebbles [O]
Mike Nichols – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [O]

1965

DIRECTING

Elliot Silverstein – Cat Ballou
John Schlesinger – Darling [O]
Sidney J. Furie – The Ipcress File
Sidney Lumet – The Pawnbroker
Robert Wise – The Sound of Music [O]

1964

DIRECTING

Peter Glenville – Becket [O]
Stanley Kubrick – Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [O]
Robert Stevenson – Mary Poppins [O]
George Cukor – My Fair Lady [O]
John Huston – The Night of the Iguana

1963

DIRECTING

Elia Kazan – America, America [O]
Federico Fellini – Federico Fellini’s 8-1/2
Martin Ritt – Hud
Ralph Nelson – Lilies of the Field [O]
Tony Richardson – Tom Jones [O]

1962

DIRECTING

Peter Ustinov – Billy Budd
John Frankenheimer – Birdman of Alcatraz
Pietro Germi – Divorce–Italian Style
John Huston – Freud
David Lean – Lawrence of Arabia [O]
Stanley Kubrick – Lolita
Sidney Lumet – Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki – The Longest Day [O]
John Frankenheimer – The Manchurian Candidate
Morton DaCosta – Meredith Willson’s The Music Man
Arthur Penn – The Miracle Worker [O]
Lewis Milestone – Mutiny on the Bounty [O]
Ralph Nelson – Requiem for a Heavyweight
Tony Richardson – A Taste of Honey
Robert Mulligan – To Kill a Mockingbird [O]
Robert Aldrich – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

1961

DIRECTING

Robert Stevenson – The Absent Minded Professor
Blake Edwards – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
William Wyler – The Children’s Hour
Anthony Mann – El Cid
Joshua Logan – Fanny [O]
Henry Koster – Flower Drum Song
Robert Mulligan – The Great Impostor
J. Lee Thompson – The Guns of Navarone [O]
Philip Leacock – Hand in Hand
Robert Rossen – The Hustler [O]
Jack Clayton – The Innocents
Stanley Kramer – Judgment at Nuremberg [O]
Mervyn LeRoy – A Majority of One
John Huston – The Misfits
Marlon Brando – One-Eyed Jacks
Frank Capra – Pocketful of Miracles
Daniel Petrie – A Raisin in the Sun
Peter Ustinov – Romanoff and Juliet
Elia Kazan – Splendor in the Grass
Peter Glenville – Summer and Smoke
Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins – West Side Story [O]

1960

DIRECTING

Billy Wilder – The Apartment [O]
Vincente Minnelli – Bells Are Ringing
Walter Lang – Can-Can
Delbert Mann – The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Richard Brooks – Elmer Gantry [O]
Alain Resnais – Hiroshima Mon Amour
Vincente Minnelli – Home from the Hill
Carol Reed – Our Man in Havana
Charles Walters – Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
Alfred Hitchcock – Psycho
Lewis Gilbert – Sink the Bismarck!
Jack Cardiff – Sons and Lovers [O]
Fred Zinnemann – The Sundowners [O]
Vincent J. Donehue – Sunrise at Campobello

1950s

1959

DIRECTING

Otto Preminger – Anatomy of a Murder [O]
William Wyler – Ben-Hur [O]
Richard Fleischer – Compulsion
George Stevens – The Diary of Anne Frank [O]
Frank Capra – A Hole in the Head
John Ford – The Horse Soldiers
Douglas Sirk – Imitation of Life
Alfred Hitchcock – North by Northwest
Fred Zinnemann – The Nun’s Story [O]
Leo McCarey – Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys!
Howard Hawks – Rio Bravo
Charles Barton – The Shaggy Dog
Billy Wilder – Some Like It Hot

1958

DIRECTING

William Wyler – The Big Country
Richard Brooks – The Brothers Karamazov
Richard Brooks – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [O]
Delmer Daves – Cowboy
George Abbott, Stanley Donen – Damn Yankees!
Stanley Kramer – The Defiant Ones [O]
Vincente Minnelli – Gigi [O]
Robert Wise – I Want to Live!
Mark Robson – The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Martin Ritt – The Long, Hot Summer
George Seaton – Teacher’s Pet
Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo
Richard Fleischer – The Vikings
Edward Dmytryk – The Young Lions

1957

DIRECTING

Leo McCarey – An Affair to Remember
David Lean – The Bridge on the River Kwai [O]
Elia Kazan – A Face in the Crowd
Robert Mulligan – Fear Strikes Out
Stanley Donen – Funny Face
Jose Ferrer – The Great Man
John Sturges – Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Fred Zinnemann – A Hatful of Rain
John Huston – Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
George Cukor – Les Girls
Billy Wilder – Love in the Afternoon
Anthony Mann – Men in War
Mark Robson – Peyton Place [O]
Stanley Kramer – The Pride and the Passion
Joshua Logan – Sayonara [O]
Sidney Lumet – 12 Angry Men [O]
Billy Wilder – Witness for the Prosecution [O]

1956

DIRECTING

Robert Rossen – Alexander the Great
Michael Anderson – Around the World in 80 Days [O]
Joshua Logan – Bus Stop
Henry King – Carousel
George Sidney – The Eddy Duchin Story
William Wyler – Friendly Persuasion [O]
George Stevens – Giant [O]
Walter Lang – The King and I [O]
Nunnally Johnson – The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Alfred Hitchcock – The Man Who Knew Too Much
Roy Rowland – Meet Me in Las Vegas
John Huston – Moby Dick
John Ford – The Searchers
Robert Wise – Somebody Up There Likes Me
Daniel Mann – The Teahouse of the August Moon
Carol Reed – Trapeze
Alfred Hitchcock – The Trouble with Harry
King Vidor – War and Peace

1955

DIRECTING

John Sturges – Bad Day at Black Rock
Richard Brooks – Blackboard Jungle
Mark Robson – The Bridges of Toko-Ri
Elia Kazan – East of Eden
John Ford – The Long Gray Line
Charles Vidor – Love Me or Leave Me
Henry Koster – A Man Called Peter
Delbert Mann – Marty [O]
John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy – Mister Roberts [O]
Joshua Logan – Picnic [O]
Daniel Mann – The Rose Tattoo [O]
Billy Wilder – The Seven Year Itch

1954

DIRECTING

Edward Dmytryk – The Caine Mutiny [O]
George Seaton – The Country Girl [O]
Alfred Hitchcock – Dial M for Murder
Robert Wise – Executive Suite
Anthony Mann – The Glenn Miller Story
Samuel Fuller – Hell and High Water
William A. Wellman – The High and Mighty
Henry King – King of Khyber Rifles
Melvin Frank, Norman Panama – Knock on Wood
Elia Kazan – On the Waterfront [O]
Alfred Hitchcock – Rear Window
Don Siegel – Riot in Cell Block 11
Billy Wilder – Sabrina
Stanley Donen – Seven Brides for Seven Brothers [O]
George Cukor – A Star Is Born
Jean Negulesco – Three Coins in the Fountain [O]

1953

DIRECTING

Melvin Frank, Norman Panama – Above and Beyond
Walter Lang – Call Me Madam
Daniel Mann – Come Back, Little Sheba
Fred Zinnemann – From Here to Eternity [O]
Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Julius Caesar [O]
Charles Walters – Lili
Henry Koster – The Robe [O]
William Wyler – Roman Holiday [O]
George Stevens – Shane [O]
Billy Wilder – Stalag 17
Jean Negulesco – Titanic
George Sidney – Young Bess

1952

DIRECTING

Vincente Minnelli – The Bad and the Beautiful
Howard Hawks – The Big Sky
Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Five Fingers
Cecil B. DeMille – The Greatest Show on Earth [O]
Charles Vidor – Hans Christian Andersen
Fred Zinnemann – High Noon [O]
Michael Curtiz – I’ll See You in My Dreams
Richard Thorpe – Ivanhoe [O]
Charles Crichton – The Lavendar Hill Mob
Hugo Fregonese – My Six Convicts
Albert Lewin – Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
George Cukor – Pat and Mike
John Ford – The Quiet Man [O]
Akira Kurosawa – Rashomon
George Sidney – Scaramouche
Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly – Singin’ in the Rain
Henry King – The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Elia Kazan – Viva Zapata!

1951

DIRECTING

Vincente Minnelli – An American in Paris [O]
Michael Gordon – Cyrano de Bergerac
Henry King – David and Bathsheba
Laszlo Benedek – Death of a Salesman
Anatole Litvak – Decision Before Dawn [O]
William Wyler – Detective Story
Richard Thorpe – The Great Caruso
George Stevens – A Place in the Sun [O]
Mervyn LeRoy – Quo Vadis [O]
George Sidney – Show Boat
Alfred Hitchcock – Strangers on a Train
Elia Kazan – A Streetcar Named Desire [O]

1950

DIRECTING

Joseph L. Mankiewicz – All About Eve [O]
John Huston – The Asphault Jungle
Vincente Minnelli – Father’s Little Dividend
Billy Wilder – Sunset Blvd. [O]