Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director

The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director is one of the awards given to film directors working in the film industry by the Critics Choice Association at the annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. It was first given out to Mel Gibson for Braveheart in 1996 as a juried award. Until 2001, only the winner was presented; since then, a set of nominees is announced every year.

Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director
2024 recipient: Jon M. Chu
Awarded for	Best Direction of a Motion Picture
Location	Los Angeles, California
Presented by	Critics Choice Association
First award	Mel Gibson for Braveheart (1995)
Currently held by	Jon M. Chu for Wicked (2024)
Website	www.criticschoice.com

Only four directors have received the award more than once with two wins each: Alfonso Cuarón, Sam Mendes, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. The latter also holds the record of most nominations in the category with eight. Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, and Chloé Zhao are the only female winners of the award.

Winners and nominees

Mel Gibson is the first recipient of this award

Steven Spielberg won this award twice for his films Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Catch Me if You Can / Minority Report (2002)

Martin Scorsese won this award twice for The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006)

Ang Lee won for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Joel and Ethan Coen won for No Country for Old Men (2007)

Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker, becoming the first female to win this award

David Fincher won for The Social Network (2010)

Ben Affleck won for Argo (2012)

Alfonso Cuarón won for his films Gravity (2013) and Roma (2018)

George Miller won for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Damien Chazelle won for his film La La Land (2016)

Guillermo del Toro won for his film The Shape of Water (2017)

Bong Joon-ho won for his film Parasite (2019)

Chloe Zhao won for her film Nomadland (2020)

Jane Campion won for The Power of the Dog (2021)

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan won for their film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Christopher Nolan won for Oppenheimer (2023)

1990s

Year	Director	Film (s)
1995	Mel Gibson	Braveheart
1996	Anthony Minghella	The English Patient
1997	James Cameron	Titanic
1998	Steven Spielberg	Saving Private Ryan
1999	Sam Mendes	American Beauty

2000s

Year	Director	Film (s)
2000	Steven Soderbergh	Erin Brockovich / Traffic
	Ridley Scott	Gladiator
2001	Ron Howard (TIE)	A Beautiful Mind
	Baz Luhrmann (TIE)	Moulin Rouge!
	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002	Steven Spielberg	Catch Me If You Can / Minority Report
	Roman Polanski	The Pianist
	Martin Scorsese	Gangs of New York
2003	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
	Tim Burton	Big Fish
	Sofia Coppola	Lost in Translation
	Clint Eastwood	Mystic River
	Jim Sheridan	In America
2004	Martin Scorsese	The Aviator
	Clint Eastwood	Million Dollar Baby
	Marc Forster	Finding Neverland
	Taylor Hackford	Ray
	Alexander Payne	Sideways
2005	Ang Lee	Brokeback Mountain
	George Clooney	Good Night, and Good Luck
	Paul Haggis	Crash
	Ron Howard	Cinderella Man
	Steven Spielberg	Munich
2006	Martin Scorsese	The Departed
	Bill Condon	Dreamgirls
	Clint Eastwood	Letters from Iwo Jima
	Stephen Frears	The Queen
	Paul Greengrass	United 93
2007	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	No Country for Old Men
	Tim Burton	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
	Sean Penn	Into the Wild
	Julian Schnabel	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
	Joe Wright	Atonement
2008	Danny Boyle	Slumdog Millionaire
	David Fincher	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
	Ron Howard	Frost/Nixon
	Christopher Nolan	The Dark Knight
	Gus Van Sant	Milk
2009	Kathryn Bigelow	The Hurt Locker
	James Cameron	Avatar
	Lee Daniels	Precious
	Clint Eastwood	Invictus
	Jason Reitman	Up in the Air
	Quentin Tarantino	Inglourious Basterds

2010s

Year	Director	Film (s)
2010 [1]	David Fincher	The Social Network
	Darren Aronofsky	Black Swan
	Danny Boyle	127 Hours
	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	True Grit
	Tom Hooper	The King's Speech
	Christopher Nolan	Inception
2011 [2]	Michel Hazanavicius	The Artist
	Stephen Daldry	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
	Alexander Payne	The Descendants
	Nicolas Winding Refn	Drive
	Martin Scorsese	Hugo
	Steven Spielberg	War Horse
2012 [3]	Ben Affleck	Argo
	Kathryn Bigelow	Zero Dark Thirty
	Tom Hooper	Les Misérables
	Ang Lee	Life of Pi
	David O. Russell	Silver Linings Playbook
	Steven Spielberg	Lincoln
2013 [4]	Alfonso Cuarón	Gravity
	Paul Greengrass	Captain Phillips
	Spike Jonze	Her
	Steve McQueen	12 Years a Slave
	David O. Russell	American Hustle
	Martin Scorsese	The Wolf of Wall Street
2014 [5]	Richard Linklater	Boyhood
	Wes Anderson	The Grand Budapest Hotel
	Ava DuVernay	Selma
	David Fincher	Gone Girl
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	Birdman
	Angelina Jolie	Unbroken
2015 [6]	George Miller	Mad Max: Fury Road
	Todd Haynes	Carol
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	The Revenant
	Tom McCarthy	Spotlight
	Ridley Scott	The Martian
	Steven Spielberg	Bridge of Spies
2016 [7]	Damien Chazelle	La La Land
	Mel Gibson	Hacksaw Ridge
	Barry Jenkins	Moonlight
	Kenneth Lonergan	Manchester by the Sea
	David Mackenzie	Hell or High Water
	Denis Villeneuve	Arrival
	Denzel Washington	Fences
2017 [8]	Guillermo del Toro	The Shape of Water
	Greta Gerwig	Lady Bird
	Luca Guadagnino	Call Me by Your Name
	Martin McDonagh	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
	Christopher Nolan	Dunkirk
	Jordan Peele	Get Out
	Steven Spielberg	The Post
2018 [9]	Alfonso Cuarón	Roma
	Damien Chazelle	First Man
	Bradley Cooper	A Star Is Born
	Peter Farrelly	Green Book
	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Favourite
	Spike Lee	BlacKkKlansman
	Adam McKay	Vice
2019 [10]	Sam Mendes (TIE)	1917
	Bong Joon-ho (TIE)	Parasite
	Noah Baumbach	Marriage Story
	Greta Gerwig	Little Women
	Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie	Uncut Gems
	Martin Scorsese	The Irishman
	Quentin Tarantino	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2020s

Year	Director	Film (s)
2020 [11]	Chloé Zhao	Nomadland
	Lee Isaac Chung	Minari
	Emerald Fennell	Promising Young Woman
	David Fincher	Mank
	Regina King	One Night in Miami...
	Spike Lee	Da 5 Bloods
	Aaron Sorkin	The Trial of the Chicago 7
2021 [12]	Jane Campion	The Power of the Dog
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Licorice Pizza
	Kenneth Branagh	Belfast
	Guillermo del Toro	Nightmare Alley
	Steven Spielberg	West Side Story
	Denis Villeneuve	Dune
2022 [13]	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert	Everything Everywhere All at Once
	James Cameron	Avatar: The Way of Water
	Damien Chazelle	Babylon
	Todd Field	Tár
	Baz Luhrmann	Elvis
	Martin McDonagh	The Banshees of Inisherin
	Sarah Polley	Women Talking
	Gina Prince-Bythewood	The Woman King
	S. S. Rajamouli	RRR
	Steven Spielberg	The Fabelmans
2023 [14]	Christopher Nolan	Oppenheimer
	Bradley Cooper	Maestro
	Greta Gerwig	Barbie
	Yorgos Lanthimos	Poor Things
	Alexander Payne	The Holdovers
	Martin Scorsese	Killers of the Flower Moon
2024 [15]	Jon M. Chu	Wicked
	Jacques Audiard	Emilia Pérez
	Sean Baker	Anora
	Edward Berger	Conclave
	Brady Corbet	The Brutalist
	Coralie Fargeat	The Substance
	RaMell Ross	Nickel Boys
	Denis Villeneuve	Dune: Part Two

Awards breakdown

Multiple winners

2 wins

• Alfonso Cuarón
• Sam Mendes
• Martin Scorsese
• Steven Spielberg

Multiple nominees

2 nominations Kathryn Bigelow Danny Boyle Tim Burton Ethan Coen Joel Coen Bradley Cooper Alfonso Cuarón Guillermo del Toro Paul Greengrass Tom Hooper Alejandro González Iñárritu Peter Jackson Yorgos Lanthimos Ang Lee Spike Lee Baz Luhrmann Martin McDonagh Sam Mendes David O. Russell Ridley Scott Quentin Tarantino Denis Villeneuve

3 nominations James Cameron Damien Chazelle Greta Gerwig Ron Howard Alexander Payne 4 nominations Clint Eastwood David Fincher Christopher Nolan 7 nominations Martin Scorsese 9 nominations Steven Spielberg

See also

• BAFTA Award for Best Direction
• Academy Award for Best Director
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Director
• Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film