Who Won the Oscar for Best Director Every Year Since the Oscars Began

Though nominated for an Oscar prior to 2018, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro did not win until 2018 when he took home Best Director and Best Picture for sci-fi fable “The Shape of Water.” Del Toro bested industry giants including Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan, as well as newer talents Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig, to win the directing award.

Alfonso Cuarón, who had already made history by becoming the first Mexican-born filmmaker to win an Oscar for Best Director in 2014 for “Gravity,” burnished his cinematic credentials by winning for Best Director in 2019 for the film “Roma,” an autobiographical movie about a middle class family in Mexico City. The motion picture was also the first Mexican film to win a foreign-language Oscar.

South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” surprised many by winning Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars despite being among the lesser seen nominees. Reception of the film has been near universally positive, however, especially among critics, who have given it a 98% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film tells the story of a lower-class family that dupes a wealthier family into employing them with unexpected results.

“Nomadland” filmmaker Chloé Zhao made history as the first woman of color to be nominated for — and win — an Oscar for Best Director. “Nomadland” follows a woman who decides to travel across the American West, living out of a van, after she loses everything during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.