The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures is one of the annual Directors Guild of America Awards presented by the Directors Guild of America. With 3 wins out of 13 nominations, Steven Spielberg is both the most awarded and most nominated director of this category in the history of DGA, and the first director to receive DGA nominations in six consecutive decades. Additionally, Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the only director to win twice successively; he was awarded in 2015 and 2016 for his directorial achievements for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant, respectively. Three directing teams have shared the award: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007), and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
Predicting the Oscar's outcome
This award has traditionally been a very good barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director. The DGA winner has always gone on to win the Oscar, with the exception of the following:
1968 – Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter); lost to Carol Reed (Oliver!) 1972 – Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather); lost to Bob Fosse (Cabaret) 1985 – Steven Spielberg (The Color Purple); lost to Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa); Spielberg was not nominated at the Oscars. 1995 – Ron Howard (Apollo 13); lost to Mel Gibson (Braveheart); Howard was not nominated at the Oscars. 2000 – Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); lost to Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) 2002 – Rob Marshall (Chicago); lost to Roman Polanski (The Pianist) 2012 – Ben Affleck (Argo); lost to Ang Lee (Life of Pi); Affleck was not nominated at the Oscars. 2019 – Sam Mendes (1917); lost to Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)
Winners and nominees
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Directors with multiple wins
3 wins
Steven Spielberg
2 wins
Francis Ford Coppola
Alfonso Cuarón
Clint Eastwood
Miloš Forman
Ron Howard
Alejandro González Iñárritu (consecutive) David Lean Ang Lee Joseph L. Mankiewicz Sam Mendes George Stevens Oliver Stone Robert Wise Fred Zinnemann
Directors with multiple nominations
The following directors have received four or more nominations: