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

John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.