2003
Sofia Coppola for Lost In Translation
Clint Eastwood for Mystic River
Peter Jackson for The Lord Of the Rings: The Return Of the King
Anthony Minghella for Cold Mountain
Peter Weir for Master and Commander: The Far Side Of the World

2002
Stephen Daldry for The Hours
Peter Jackson for The Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers
Spike Jonze for Adaptation
Rob Marshall for Chicago
Alexander Payne for About Schmidt
Martin Scorsese for Gangs Of New York

2001
Robert Altman for Gosford Park
Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind
Peter Jackson for The Lord Of the Rings: The Fellowship Of the Ring
Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge!
David Lynch for Mulholland Dr.
Steven Spielberg for A. I.: Artificial Intelligence

2000
Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ridley Scott for Gladiator
Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich
Steven Soderbergh for Traffic
István Szabó for Sunshine

1999
Norman Jewison for The Hurricane
Neil Jordan for The End Of the Affair
Michael Mann for The Insider
Sam Mendes for American Beauty
Anthony Minghella for The Talented Mr. Ripley

1998
Shekhar Kapur for Elizabeth
John Madden for Shakespeare In Love
Robert Redford for The Horse Whisperer
Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan
Peter Weir for The Truman Show

1997
James L. Brooks for As Good As It Gets
James Cameron for Titanic
Curtis Hanson for L. A. Confidential
Jim Sheridan for The Boxer
Steven Spielberg for Amistad

1996
Joel Coen for Fargo
Miloš Forman for The People vs. Larry Flynt
Scott Hicks for Shine
Anthony Minghella for The English Patient
Alan Parker for Evita

1995
Mike Figgis for Leaving Las Vegas
Mel Gibson for Braveheart
Ron Howard for Apollo 13
Ang Lee for Sense and Sensibility
Rob Reiner for The American President
Martin Scorsese for Casino

1994
Robert Redford for Quiz Show
Oliver Stone for Natural Born Killers
Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction
Robert Zemeckis for Forrest Gump
Edward Zwick for Legends Of the Fall

1993
Jane Campion for The Piano
Andrew Davis for The Fugitive
James Ivory for The Remains Of the Day
Martin Scorsese for The Age Of Innocence
Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List

1992
Robert Altman for The Player
Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven
James Ivory for Howards End
Robert Redford for A River Runs Through It
Rob Reiner for A Few Good Men

1991
Jonathan Demme for The Silence Of the Lambs
Terry Gilliam for The Fisher King
Barry Levinson for Bugsy
Oliver Stone for JFK
Barbra Streisand for The Prince Of Tides

1990
Bernardo Bertolucci for The Sheltering Sky
Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part III
Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves
Barbet Schroeder for Reversal Of Fortune
Martin Scorsese for GoodFellas

1989
Spike Lee for Do the Right Thing
Rob Reiner for When Harry Met Sally…
Oliver Stone for Born On the Fourth Of July
Peter Weir for Dead Poets Society
Edward Zwick for Glory

1988
Clint Eastwood for Bird
Barry Levinson for Rain Man
Sidney Lumet for Running On Empty
Mike Nichols for Working Girl
Alan Parker for Mississippi Burning
Fred Schepisi for A Cry In the Dark

1987
Richard Attenborough for Cry Freedom
Bernardo Bertolucci for The Last Emperor
John Boorman for Hope and Glory
James L. Brooks for Broadcast News
Adrian Lyne for Fatal Attraction

1986
Woody Allen for Hannah and Her Sisters
James Ivory for A Room With a View
Roland Joffé for The Mission
Rob Reiner for Stand By Me
Oliver Stone for Platoon

1985
Richard Attenborough for A Chorus Line: The Movie
John Huston for Prizzi's Honor
Sydney Pollack for Out Of Africa
Steven Spielberg for The Color Purple
Peter Weir for Witness

1984
Francis Ford Coppola for The Cotton Club
Miloš Forman for Amadeus
Roland Joffé for The Killing Fields
David Lean for A Passage To India
Sergio Leone for Once Upon a Time In America

1983
Bruce Beresford for Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman for Fanny & Alexander
James L. Brooks for Terms Of Endearment
Mike Nichols for Silkwood
Barbra Streisand for Yentl
Peter Yates for The Dresser

1982
Richard Attenborough for Gandhi
Constantin Costa-Gavras for Missing
Sidney Lumet for The Verdict
Sydney Pollack for Tootsie
Steven Spielberg for E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

1981
Warren Beatty for Reds
Miloš Forman for Ragtime
Sidney Lumet for Prince Of the City
Louis Malle for Atlantic City
Mark Rydell for On Golden Pond
Steven Spielberg for Raiders Of the Lost Ark

1980
David Lynch for The Elephant Man
Roman Polanski for Tess
Robert Redford for Ordinary People
Richard Rush for The Stunt Man
Martin Scorsese for Raging Bull

1979
Hal Ashby for Being There
Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer
James Bridges for The China Syndrome
Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now
Peter Yates for Breaking Away

1978
Woody Allen for Interiors
Hal Ashby for Coming Home
Michael Cimino for The Deer Hunter
Terrence Malick for Days Of Heaven
Paul Mazursky for An Unmarried Woman
Alan Parker for Midnight Express

1977
Woody Allen for Annie Hall
George Lucas for Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
Herbert Ross for The Turning Point
Steven Spielberg for Close Encounters Of the Third Kind
Fred Zinnemann for Julia

1976
Hal Ashby for Bound For Glory
John G. Avildsen for Rocky
Sidney Lumet for Network
Alan J. Pakula for All the President's Men
John Schlesinger for Marathon Man

1975
Robert Altman for Nashville
Miloš Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Stanley Kubrick for Barry Lyndon
Sidney Lumet for Dog Day Afternoon
Steven Spielberg for Jaws

1974
John Cassavetes for A Woman Under the Influence
Francis Ford Coppola for The Conversation
Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part II
Bob Fosse for Lenny
Roman Polanski for Chinatown

1973
Bernardo Bertolucci for Last Tango In Paris
Peter Bogdanovich for Paper Moon
William Friedkin for The Exorcist
George Lucas for American Graffiti
Fred Zinnemann for The Day Of the Jackal

1972
John Boorman for Deliverance
Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather
Bob Fosse for Cabaret
Alfred Hitchcock for Frenzy
Billy Wilder for Avanti!

1971
Peter Bogdanovich for The Last Picture Show
William Friedkin for The French Connection
Norman Jewison for Fiddler On the Roof
Stanley Kubrick for A Clockwork Orange
Robert Mulligan for Summer Of '42

1970
Robert Altman for M*A*S*H
Arthur Hiller for Love Story
Bob Rafelson for Five Easy Pieces
Ken Russell for Women In Love
Franklin J. Schaffner for Patton

1969
Charles Jarrott for Anne Of the Thousand Days
Gene Kelly for Hello, Dolly!
Stanley Kramer for The Secret Of Santa Vittoria
Sydney Pollack for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
John Schlesinger for Midnight Cowboy

1968
Anthony Harvey for The Lion In Winter
Paul Newman for Rachel, Rachel
Carol Reed for Oliver!
William Wyler for Funny Girl
Franco Zeffirelli for Romeo and Juliet

1967
Norman Jewison for In the Heat Of the Night
Stanley Kramer for Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Mike Nichols for The Graduate
Arthur Penn for Bonnie and Clyde
Mark Rydell for The Fox

1966
Lewis Gilbert for Alfie
Claude Lelouch for A Man and A Woman
Mike Nichols for Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Robert Wise for The Sand Pebbles
Fred Zinnemann for A Man For All Seasons

1965
Guy Green for A Patch Of Blue
David Lean for Doctor Zhivago
John Schlesinger for Darling
Robert Wise for The Sound Of Music
William Wyler for The Collector

1964
Michael Cacoyannis for Zorba the Greek
George Cukor for My Fair Lady
John Frankenheimer for Seven Days In May
Peter Glenville for Becket
John Huston for The Night Of the Iguana

1963
Hall Bartlett for The Caretakers
George Englund for The Ugly American
Elia Kazan for America, America
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Cleopatra
Otto Preminger for The Cardinal
Tony Richardson for Tom Jones
Martin Ritt for Hud
Robert Wise for The Haunting

1962
George Cukor for The Chapman Report
Morton Da Costa for Meredith Willson's The Music Man
Blake Edwards for Days Of Wine and Roses
John Frankenheimer for The Manchurian Candidate
John Huston for Freud
Stanley Kubrick for Lolita
David Lean for Lawrence Of Arabia
Mervyn LeRoy for Gypsy
Robert Mulligan for To Kill a Mockingbird
Martin Ritt for Adventures Of a Young Man
Ismael Rodríguez for The Brothers

1961
Stanley Kramer for Judgment At Nuremberg
J. Lee Thompson for The Guns Of Navarone
Anthony Mann for El Cid
Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise for West Side Story
William Wyler for The Children's Hour

1960
Richard Brooks for Elmer Gantry
Jack Cardiff for Sons and Lovers
Stanley Kubrick for Spartacus
Billy Wilder for The Apartment
Fred Zinnemann for The Sundowners

1959
Stanley Kramer for On the Beach
Otto Preminger for Anatomy Of a Murder
George Stevens for The Diary Of Anne Frank
William Wyler for Ben-Hur
Fred Zinnemann for The Nun's Story

1958
Richard Brooks for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Stanley Kramer for The Defiant Ones
Delbert Mann for Separate Tables
Vincente Minnelli for Gigi
Robert Wise for I Want To Live!

1957
David Lean for The Bridge On the River Kwai
Joshua Logan for Sayonara
Sidney Lumet for 12 Angry Men
Billy Wilder for Witness For the Prosecution
Fred Zinnemann for A Hatful Of Rain

1956
Michael Anderson for Around the World In 80 Days
Elia Kazan for Baby Doll
Vincente Minnelli for Lust For Life
George Stevens for Giant
King Vidor for War and Peace

1955
Joshua Logan for Picnic

1954
Elia Kazan for On the Waterfront

1953
Fred Zinnemann for From Here To Eternity

1952
Cecil B. DeMille for The Greatest Show On Earth
Richard Fleischer for The Happy Time
John Ford for The Quiet Man

1951
László Benedek for Death Of a Salesman
Vincente Minnelli for An American In Paris
George Stevens for A Place In the Sun

1950
George Cukor for Born Yesterday
John Huston for The Asphalt Jungle
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for All About Eve
Billy Wilder for Sunset Boulevard

1949
Robert Rossen for All the King's Men
William Wyler for The Heiress

1948
John Huston for The Treasure Of the Sierra Madre

1947
Elia Kazan for Gentleman's Agreement

1946
Frank Capra for It's a Wonderful Life

1945
Billy Wilder for The Lost Weekend

1944
Leo McCarey for Going My Way