IF JOHN NOMINATED BEST DIRECTOR (1970-2019) – PART V

By John H. Foote

To be clear, with my choices a Best Picture nomination comes automatically with a Best Director nomination, it just makes sense. The best directed film must be the years best film, how else can it go I ask?

So here we go, my nominees for Best Director since 1970 with my choice for winner marked as always with an *.

1970

• Bob Rafelson for Five Easy Pieces
• Franklin J. Schaffner for Patton*
• Arthur Penn for Little Big Man
• Robert Altman for M*A*S*H
• Federico Fellini for Satyricon

1971

• Stanley Kubrick for A Clockwork Orange*
• Peter Bogdonavich for The Last Picture Show
• Alan J. Pakula for Klute
• William Friedkin for The French Connection
• John Scheslinger for Sunday Bloody Sunday

1972

• Bob Fosse for Cabaret
• Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather*
• John Boorman for Deliverance
• Martin Ritt for Sounder
• Sydney Pollack for Jeremiah Johnson

1973

• William Friedkin for The Exorcist
• George Lucas for American Grafitti*
• Hal Ashby for The Last Detail
• Sidney Lumet for Serpico
• Sydney Pollack for The Way We Were

1974

• Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part II*
• Francis Ford Coppola for The Conversation
• Roman Polanski for Chinatown
• Bob Fosse for Lenny
• Sidney Lumet for Murder on the Orient Express

1975

• Milos Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest*
• Steven Spielberg for Jaws
• Sidney Lumet for Dog Day Afternoon
• Stanley Kubrick for Barry Lyndon
• John Huston for The Man Who Would Be King

1976

• Sidney Lumet for Network
• Alan J. Pakula for All the Presidents Men*
• John G. Avildsen for Rocky
• Martin Scorsese for Taxi Driver
• Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties

1977

• George Lucas for Star Wars
• Steven Spielberg for Close Encounters of the Third Kind*
• John Frankenheimer for Black Sunday
• Woody Allen for Annie Hall
• Fred Zinnemann for Julia

1978

• Hal Ashby for Coming Home*
• Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait
• Alan Parker for Midnight Express
• Paul Mazursky for An Unmarried Woman
• Ingmar Bergman for Autumn Sonata

1979

• Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now*
• Woody Allen for Manhattan
• Bob Fosse for All That Jazz
• Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer
• Milos Forman for Hair

1980

• Martin Scorsese for Raging Bull*
• Robert Redford for Ordinary People
• Irvin Kershner for The Empire Strikes Back
• Stanley Kubrick for The Shining
• Richard Rush for The Stunt Man

1981

• Milos Forman for Ragtime
• Warren Beatty for Reds*
• Steven Spielberg for Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Brian De Palma for Blow Out
• Louis Malle for Atlantic City

1982

• Steven Spielberg for E.T. – The Extraterrestrial*
• Sydney Pollack for Tootsie
• Sidney Lumet for The Verdict
• Alan J. Pakula for Sophie’s Choice
• Alan Parker for Shoot the Moon

1983

• Phillip Kaufman for The Right Stuff
• Roger Spottiswoode for Under Fire
• James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment*
• Bruce Beresford for Tender Mercies
• Mike Nichols for Silkwood

1984

• Sergio Leone for Once Upon a Time in America
• Milos Forman for Amadeus*
• Robert Benton for Places in the Heart
• Roland Joffe for The Killing Fields
• Paul Mazursky for Moscow on the Hudson

1985

• Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa*
• Peter Weir for Witness
• Woody Allen for The Purple Rose of Cairo
• Robert Zemeckis for Back to the Future
• John Huston for Prizzi’s Honor

1986

• James Cameron for Aliens
• Woody Allen for Hannah and Her Sisters
• Oliver Stone for Platoon*
• Rob Reiner for Stand By Me
• James Ivory for A Room with a View

1987

• John Boorman for Hope and Glory
• James L. Brooks for Broadcast News
• Steven Spielberg for Empire of the Sun*
• Norman Jewison for Moonstruck
• Bernando Bertolucci for The Last Emperor

1988

• Martin Scorsese for The Last Temptation of Christ*
• Barry Levinson for Rain Man
• Robert Zemeckis for Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Alan Parker for Mississippi Burning
• Clint Eastwood for Bird

1989

• Oliver Stone for Born on the Fourth of July
• Bruce Beresford for Driving Miss Daisy
• Woody Allen for Crimes and Misdameanors
• Spike Lee for Do the Right Thing*
• Edward Zwick for Glory

1990

• Penny Marshall for Awakenings
• Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves
• Martin Scorsese for GoodFellas*
• Stephen Frears for The Grifters
• Bernardo Bertolucci for The Sheltering Sky

1991

• Oliver Stone for JFK
• Jonathan Demme for The SIlence of the Lambs*
• Barry Levinson for Bugsy
• Barbra Stresiand for The Prince of the Tides
• Ridley Scott for Thelma and Louise

1992

• Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven*
• Spike Lee for Malcolm X
• Penny Marshall for Awakenings
• James Ivory for Howard’s End
• Michael Mann for The Last of the Mohicans

1993

• Peter Weir for Fearless
• Martin Scorsese for The Age of Innocence
• Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List*
• Jane Campion for The Piano
• James Ivory for The Remains of the Day

1994

• Robert Zemeckis for Forrest Gump
• Oliver Stone for Natural Born Killers
• Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction*
• Frank Darabont for The Shawshank Redemption
• Woody Allen for Bullets Over Broadway

1995

• Oliver Stone for Nixon
• Mike Figgis for Leaving Las Vegas
• Tim Robbins for Dead Man Walking
• Clint Eaastwood for The Bridges of Madison County
• Ron Howard for Apollo 13*

1996

• The Coen Brothers for Fargo
• Danny Boyle for Trainspotting*
• Milos Forman for The People vs. Larry Flynt
• Cameron Crowe for Jerry Maguire
• NIcholas Hytner for The Crucible

1997

• Atom Egoyan for The Sweet Hereafter
• James Cameron for Titanic
• Curtis Hanson for LA Confidential*
• Paul Thomas Anderson for Boogie Nights
• Robert Duvall for The Apostle

1998

• Terrence Malick for The Thin Red Line
• Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan*
• Peter Weir for The Truman Show
• John Madden for Shakespeare in Love
• Warren Beatty for Bulworth

1999

• Paul Thomas Anderson for Magnolia*
• David Fincher for Fight Club
• Sam Mendes for American Beauty
• Night Shymalan for The SIxth Sense
• MIchael Mann for The Insider

2000

• Cameron Crowe for Almost Famous
• Darren Aronofsky for Requiem for a Dream*
• The Coen Brothers for O Brother Where Art Thou
• Steven Soderbergh for Traffic
• Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2001

• Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring*
• Wes Anderson for The Royal Tenenbaums
• Steven Spielberg for A.I. – Artificial Intelligence
• Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge
• Ridley Scott for Black Hawk Down

2002

• Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New York
• Sam Mendes for Road to Perdition
• Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
• Steven Spielberg for Minority Report
• Todd Haynes for Far from Heaven*

2003

• Clint Eastwood for Mystic River
• Sophia Coppola for Lost in Translation
• Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King*
• Anthony Minghella for Cold Mountain
• Edward Zwick for The Last Samurai

2004

• Alexander Payne for Sideways*
• Martin Scorsese for The Aviator
• Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby
• Mel Gibson for The Passion of the Christ
• Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2005

• Peter Jackson for King Kong
• George Clooney for Good Night and Good Luck
• Steven Spielberg for Munich
• Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain*
• David Cronenberg for A History of Violence

2006

• Bill Condon for Dreamgirls
• Martin Scorsese for The Departed*
• Paul Greengrass for United 93
• Mel Gibson for Apocalypto
• Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima

2007

• Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood*
• David Fincher for Zodiac
• The Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men
• Sarah Polley for Away from Her
• Sean Penn for Into the Wild
• Andrew Dominick for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2008

• Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight*
• Ron Howard for Frost-Nixon
• Darren Aronofksy for The Wrestler
• Gus Van Sant for Milk
• Sam Mendes for Revolutionary Road

2009

• James Cameron for Avatar
• Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker*
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglorious Basterds
• John Hillcoat for The Road

2010

• The Coen Brothers for True Grit
• David Fincher for The Social Network*
• Christopher Nolan for Inception
• Danny Boyle for 127 Hours
• Martin Scorsese for Shutter Island

2011

• Alexander Payne for The Descendants*
• Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
• Steven Spielberg for War Horse
• Martin Scorsese for Hugo
• Lynn Ramsey for We Need to Talk About Kevin

2012

• Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty* (tie)
• Ang Lee for Life of Pi
• Steven Spielberg for Lincoln* (tie)
• Ben Affleck for Argo
• Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

2013

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

2014

• Clint Eastwood for American Sniper
• Alejandro G. Inarritu for Birdman
• Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel*
• Richard Linklater for Boyhood
• Damien Chazelle for Whiplash

2015

• Ridley Scott for The Martian
• Alejandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant*
• Tom McCarthy for Spotlight
• Steven Spielberg for Bridge of Spies
• George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road

2016

• Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester By the Sea*
• Damien Chazelle for La La Land
• Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
• Denis Villenueve for Arrival
• Martin Scorsese for Silence

2017

• Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water*
• Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
• Steven Spielberg for The Post
• Martin McDonough for Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
• Scott Cooper for Hostiles

2018

• Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman
• Damien Chazelle for First Man*
• Bradley Cooper for A Star is Born
• Peter Farrelly for Green Book
• Alfonso Cuaron for Roma

2019

• Martin Scorsese for The Irishman*
• Sam Mendes for 1917
• Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story
• Taika Watiti for Jo Jo Rabbit