Every Best Director Winner In Oscar History

Culturess Oscars Coverage (Image via Kalistrya)

Although we usually don’t see them on film, a director plays a very important role in the shaping of a movie. Here are all the Oscar-winning directors.

Directors don’t just sit and yell “action!” They have specific ideas about how the movie they’re working on should go. They give notes to actors in order to shape performances. With all that in mind, is it any surprise that they have a chance to win an Oscar, too?

The answer, by the way, is no.

But we don’t often remember directors’ names in the same way we do those of the actors and actresses — or even the pictures. That seems a bit lacking, doesn’t it? That’s why, with the help of this list from AMC’s Filmsite, we’ve put together this list of every single director who has won an Academy Award for their efforts. (Spoilers: there’s exactly one woman on this list.)

We’ll sort them by decade, let you know (with links to IMDb) what other awards the director may have won, and even drop a few recommendations of other films each director has worked on that you may want to check out.

We know, we know: the pile of movies to be watched gets bigger all the time. But hey, who knows? You may discover a new favorite.