Who’s the best director for each Oscar race?

by Cláudio Alves

FRANKENSTEIN is the third Guillermo del Toro movie to win the Best Production Design Oscar.

At the 98th Academy Awards, James Cameron extended his record as the director who has helmed the most Visual Effects Oscar winners, with Avatar: Fire and Ash being his eighth film to do so. At the same ceremony, Guillermo del Toro saw his Frankenstein take the Best Production Design prize, inching ever closer to tying, perhaps one day breaking, Tim Burton’s record of directing four films to this particular trophy. These bits of trivia came up in e-mails with Nathaniel on our post-Oscar debriefing, and they got me thinking. Because every race must have one or two directorial filmographies, taking the title of AMPAS’ favorite. Some time ago, I looked for the Diane Warrens of every category. Now, let me tell you about the preferred auteurs of every feature film Oscar race where directors are not technically up for gold…

BEST PICTURE

BEN-HUR | © MGM
William Wyler

• MRS. MINIVER (1942)
• THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
• BEN-HUR (1959)

Honestly, I don’t see this record being broken or matched anytime soon. The industry is too different from what it was back in the 40s and 50s, and the Academy even more so, having opened up and diversified in ways that tend to preclude such dominance by one single Hollywood auteur. Two living filmmakers are one film away from tying their record, and yet, that seems very unlikely. I say this because they are Francis Ford Coppola (the first two Godfather movies) and Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby). Look at the reception of their latest works, Megalopolis and Juror #2, then draw your own conclusions.

BEST ACTRESS

FUNNY GIRL | © Columbia Pictures

William Wyler

• Bette Davis, JEZEBEL (1938)
• Greer Garson, MRS. MINIVER (1942)
• Olivia de Havilland, THE HEIRESS (1949)
• Audrey Hepburn, ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953)
• Barbra Streisand, FUNNY GIRL (1968) 

This year, Chloé Zhao became the first woman to direct two performances to Best Actress Oscars – Frances McDormand in Nomadland at the 2020 Academy Awards and, now, Jessie Buckley in Hamnet. However, she still has a long way to go before matching Wyler’s record. Indeed, five living directors are tied at two. I’ve mentioned Zhao, but there’s also Woody Allen (Keaton in ’77, Blanchett in ’13), James L. Brooks (MacLaine in ’83, Hunt in ’97), Stephen Daldry (Kidman in ’02, Winslet in ’08), and Yorgos Lanthimos (Colman in ’18, Stone in ’23).

BEST ACTOR

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY | © MGM

George Cukor

• James Stewart, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
• Ronald Colman, A DOUBLE LIFE (1947)
• Rex Harrison, MY FAIR LADY (1964)

I’ve always thought of Cukor as a director whose career was defined by his actress-y collaborations. However, he is the Best Actor category’s favorite director, instead. The only living auteur who can possibly match him is Martin Scorsese, who already directed Robert De Niro to this Oscar in 1980, for Raging Bull, and Paul Newman in 1986, for The Color of Money.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

MIGHTY APHRODITE | © Sweetland Films, B.V.

Woody Allen

• Dianne Wiest, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)
• Dianne Wiest, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994)
• Mira Sorvino, MIGHTY APHRODITE (1995)
• Penélope Cruz, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (2008) 

Elia Kazan

• Celeste Holm, GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (1947)
• Kim Hunter, A SREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
• Eva Marie Saint, ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
• Jo Van Fleet, EAST OF EDEN (1955) 

We have the first tie in Best Supporting Actress, where Woody Allen matched Elia Kazan at four winners each. Below the pair, there are nine directors tied with two, though only one of them is still alive and able to extend his haul of Best Supporting Actress-winning films. He is Tom Hooper, who previously directed Anne Hathaway to the Oscar for Les Misérables, and Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

THE BIG COUNTRY | © United Artists

William Wyler

• Walter Brennan, COME AND GET IT (1936)
• Walter Brennan, THE WESTERNER (1940)
• Harold Russell, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
• Burl Ives, THE BIG COUNTRY (1958)
• Hugh Griffith, BEN-HUR (1959)

Once again, William Wyler shows up on this list. Has there ever been a director more beloved by the Academy? Of the living directors who still have some hope to match him, Clint Eastwood (Hackman in ’92, Robbins in ’03, Freeman in ’04) and Quentin Tarantino (Waltz in ’09, Waltz in ’12, Pitt in ’19) are tied with three each. Still, seeing as Eastwood is at the end of his career due to old age and Tarantino at the end of his due to stubbornness (supposedly, he will only direct one more feature film, his putative tenth), I don’t see how Wyler will ever be dethroned.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ANNIE HALL | © MGM

Woody Allen

• ANNIE HALL (1977)
• HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)
• MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

In this case, the most honored individual is also the director behind most wins, since Allen writes all of his own movies. Tarantino, who has won two, for 1994’s Pulp Fiction and 2012’s Django Unchained, could still catch up to him.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS | © Columbia Pictures

Fred Zinnemann

• FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) Daniel Taradash
• A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966) Robert Bolt
• JULIA (1977) Alvin Sargent

Unlike Allen, Zinnemann did not write his own films. Three living directors are tied at two, behind him. They are Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather in ’72, The Godfather: Part Two in ’74), Ang Lee (Sense & Sensibility in ’95, Brokeback Mountain in ’05) and James Ivory (A Room with a View in ’86, Howards End in ’92). Interestingly enough, the latter has won this award for a project he did not direct, when he became the oldest Oscar winner of all time for penning Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name adaptation.

BEST EDITING

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN | © Amblin Entertainment

Steven Spielberg

• JAWS (1965) Verna Fields
• RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) Michael Kahn
• SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993) Michael Kahn
• SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) Michael Kahn

I’ll give you a fair warning: there’s a lot of Spielberg from here on out. Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull in ’80, The Aviator in ’04, The Departed in ’06) and Oliver Stone (Platoon in ’86, Born on the Fourth of July in ’89, JFK in ’91) are below him with three apiece, but I’m not sure the latter will ever return to the Academy’s good graces. Scorsese, on the other hand, will probably see his next and final features receive plenty of nominations. The issue, as with The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon, will be securing any win.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

RYAN'S DAUGHTER | © MGM

David Lean

• GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1948) Guy Green
• THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) Jack Hildyard
• LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) Freddie Young
• DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) Freddie Young
• RYAN’S DAUGHTER (1970) Freddie Young

For a director who started out as an editor, it’s interesting to note that David Lean is the king of the Best Cinematography category – for the purposes of this post, I’ve aggregated every version of this award, including when it was divided between Color and Black-and-White. That mostly stems from his predilection for landscape cinema. Two living directors have three Best Cinematography winners in their filmography, still two wins away from tying Lean’s record. They are Sam Mendes (American Beauty in ’99, Road to Perdition in ’02, 1917 in ’19) and Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind in ’77, Schindler’s List in ’93, Saving Private Ryan in ’98).

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET | © Warner Bros.

Tim Burton

• BATMAN (1989) Anton Furst & Peter Young
• SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999) Rick Heinrichs & Peter Young
• SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007) Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Schiavo
• ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010) Robert Stromberg & Karen O’Hara

One interesting tidbit of Burton’s record is that each Best Production Design win corresponds to a different decade. Both Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth in ’06, The Shape of Water in ’17, Frankenstein in ’25) and Steven Spielberg (Raiders of the Lost Ark in ’81, Schindler’s List in ’93, Lincoln in ’12) could tie or even dethrone Burton someday.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

MY FAIR LADY | © Warner Bros.

George Cukor

• LES GIRLS (1957) Orry-Kelly
• MY FAIR LADY (1964) Cecil Beaton
• TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT (1972) Anthony Powell

Federico Fellini

• LA DOLCE VITA (1961) Piero Gherardi
• 8 ½ (1963) Piero Gherardi
• CASANOVA (1976) Danilo Donati

Vincente Minnelli

• AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett & Irene Sharaff
• THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952) Helen Rose
• GIGI (1958) Cecil Beaton

William Wyler

• THE HEIRESS (1949) Edith Head & Gile Steele
• ROMAN HOLIDAY (1951) Edith Head
• BEN-HUR (1959) Elizabeth Haffenden

Our first four-way tie! Though, it must be said, that all of these come from a time when the Best Costume Design Oscar was split in two categories. On the other hand, one could argue that Cukor, Minelli and Wyler would all have more Best Costume Design champions in their filmography if the category had been implemented before 1948. Surely, stuff like Meet Me in St. Louis and Camille would have been contenders. In any case, there are four filmmakers tied with two. They are Ryan Coogler (Black Panther in ’18, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in ’22), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge! in ’01, The Great Gatsby in ’13), Rob Marshall (Chicago in ’02, Memoirs of a Geisha in ’05), and Martin Scorsese (The Age of Innocence in ’93, The Aviator in ’04).

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

PAN'S LABYRINTH | © Wild Bunch

Tim Burton

• BEETLEJUICE (1988) Ve Neill, Steve La Porte & Robert Short
• ED WOOD (1994) Rick Baker, Ve Neill & Yolanda Toussieng

Peter Jackson

• THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) Peter Owen & Richard Taylor
• THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003) Richard Taylor & Peter King

Guillermo del Toro

• PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006) David Martí & Montse Ribé
• FRANKENSTEIN (2025) Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel & Cliona Furey

Well, this trio is very unsurprising. Looking at their recent output and the Academy’s reaction to it, I can safely say Guillermo del Toro is on his way to becoming the Makeup branch’s official favorite director. Give it some time, he’ll be back.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH | © 20th Century Studios

James Cameron

• ALIENS (1986)
• THE ABYSS (1989)
• TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991)
• TITANIC (1997)
• AVATAR (2009)
• AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)
• AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH (2025)

Cameron’s dominance here is so clear that there’s a two-picture difference to his living runners-up. They are Peter Jackson (LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring in ’01, LOTR: The Two Towers in ’02, LOTR: The Return of the King in ’03, King Kong in ’05) and Steven Spielberg (Raiders of the Lost Ark in ’81, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in ’82, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in ’84, Jurassic Park in ’93). For this particular category, I included special honors in my count, though that didn’t really affect the final results. For some reason, I thought Jaws had won an Oscar for its effects, but the Academy gave it to The Hindenburg instead that year.

BEST SCORE

THE KING AND I | © 20th Century Studios

Walter Lang

• TIN PAN ALLEY (1940) Alfred Newman
• MOTHER WORE TIGHTS (1947) Alfred Newman
• WITH A SONG IN MY HEART (1952) Alfred Newman
• CALL ME MADAM (1953) Alfred Newman
• THE KING AND I (1956) Ken Darby

This one was hard to count, as there have been multiple score categories. I decided to aggregate them all, as I did with the screenplay races (Story was once a category) and those that were formerly split between color and black-and-white pictures. Including wins for Adapted or Song Score and a bunch of other names and divisions the music prizes had over the years means Walter Lang is our champion. From the crop of living directors, Ang Lee (Jaws in ’75, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in ’82, Schindler’s List in ’93) and Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in ’00, Brokeback Mountain in ’05, Life of Pi in ’12) 

Also, there will be no preferred director for Best Original Song, since 16 people are tied with two wins each. So, let’s skip directly to…

BEST SOUND

E.T. EXRA-TERRESTRIAL | © Amblin Entertainment

Steven Spielberg

• JAWS (1975)
• CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
• RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) x2
• E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) x2
• INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989)
• JURASSIC PARK (1993) x2
• SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) x2

For simplicity’s sake, I aggregated the winners of Sound Mixing and Sound Editing in years when the category was still split. The (x2) next to each title indicates that the film won both Oscar races that year. But even if I didn’t do that data aggregation, Spielberg still triumphs as the individual favored director for Mixing and Editing. Nobody’s really close, though I could see Denis Villeneuve (Editing for Arrival in ’16, Dune in ’21, Dune: Part Two in ’24) getting close someday. 

Since Best Animated Feature has encompassed directors, not just producers, since its third year, I’m not doing that race. Which brings us to…

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

THE VANISHING PRAIRIE | © Disney

James Algar

• THE LIVING DESERT (1953)
• THE VANISHING PRAIRIE (1954)
• WHITE WILDERNESS(1958)

Since AMPAS gave this award to the producers alone, back in the 50s, James Algar was never counted as an Oscar winner. His films’ three victories contribute to Walt Disney’s enormous Academy Award bounty instead. Three living directors are tied below Algar with three Best Documentary Feature champions in their filmography. They are Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk in ’84, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt in ’89), Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA in ’76, American Dream in ’90) and Mark Jonathan Harris (The Long Way Home in ’97, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport in ’00).

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

AMARCORD | © Janus Films

Federico Fellini

• LA STRADA (1954) Italy
• NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957) Italy
• 8 ½ (1963) Italy
• AMARCORD (1973) Italy

Vittorio De Sica

• SHOESHINE (1946) Italy
• BICYCLE THIEVES (1949) Italy
• YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW (1964) Italy
• THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (1970) Italy

Ah yes, what a great ending to this post. Best International Film remains the only category where, technically, no person wins, as it’s the country submitting the film that gets the Oscar. That’s why, if you check IMDB or any official records, Fellini is counted as a twelve-time nominee who never won a single Academy Award. Vittorio De Sica is even worse off, as he was only ever officially nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, for his work in the 1957 adaptation of Farewell to Arms. There is also only one living filmmaker who has directed more than one project to a Best International Film win. That’s Asghar Farhadi, who won Oscars for Iran with A Separation in 2011 and The Salesman in 2016. He may be back in the race this year, with Parallel Tales, a co-production between Belgium, France and Italy.

Would you be interested in variations of this premise? Maybe I could see the preferred director in each category according to nominations. Or perhaps the biggest star of every race – Vanessa Redgrave has been in the most Best Costume Design nominees, but Ian Holm and Richard Burton are tied wins-wise. Sound off in the comments!

Comments

[Tony L]

I LOVE THIS!! More more :)

[Mike in Canada]

I love this!

Also... Wyler's Best Actress club is L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y!