Every Best Director Winner In Oscar History
The ’90s
The ’90s saw the rise of Steven Spielberg, at least in terms of awards that he won; he snagged two Oscars in the same decade, and one with no small measure of controversy. Additionally, two actors actually won Best Director awards for movies in which they also starred, although neither Kevin Costner nor Mel Gibson actually won the Best Actor award. (Gibson wasn’t even nominated. Guess the Academy didn’t respond well to “They can take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”)
1990: Kevin Costner — Dances with Wolves
- Costner has a role in one of this year’s Best Picture nominees: Hidden Figures.
1991: Jonathan Demme — The Silence of the Lambs
- Demme directed Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, which seems like the complete opposite of The Silence of the Lambs.
1992: Clint Eastwood — Unforgiven
- Eastwood’s also been nominated for directing movies like Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima.
1993: Steven Spielberg — Schindler’s List
- Spielberg, being that he’s Spielberg, has directed all of the Indiana Jones movies so far, E.T., the first two Jurassic Park movies. Need we say more?
1994: Robert Zemeckis — Forrest Gump
- Yep, same guy who directed Back to the Future.
1995: Mel Gibson — Braveheart
- Gibson has a Best Director nod for this year’s Oscars, for directing Hacksaw Ridge.
1996: Anthony Minghella — The English Patient
- Minghella also directed The Talented Mr. Ripley.
1997: James Cameron — Titanic
- Prior to Titanic, Cameron had also directed Aliens, True Lies, and more.
1998: Steven Spielberg — Saving Private Ryan
- Oh, yes, Spielberg directed this, too. And Lincoln. And Bridge of Spies. You get the picture. (However, Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture.)
1999: Sam Mendes — American Beauty
- Mendes later directed Skyfall and Spectre.