Which directors have helmed the most Best Picture Oscar nominees?

Matthew Stewart
·4 min read
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Although he has personally competed for the Best Picture Oscar as a qualifying producer of just four films, Martin Scorsese is responsible for directing 10 of the top Academy Award category’s nominees, including 2024 contender “Killers of the Flower Moon.” This recent improvement upon his total makes him only the third filmmaker in Oscars history to helm a double-digit amount of Best Picture nominees. Including him, six people who were already credited with directing at least one nominee rose higher in the ranks this year.

The previous Scorsese films that vied for Best Picture are 2007 winner “The Departed” (for which he earned his sole directing trophy) and nominees “Taxi Driver” (1977), “Raging Bull” (1981), “Goodfellas” (1991), “Gangs of New York” (2003), “The Aviator” (2005), “Hugo” (2012), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2014), and “The Irishman” (2020). Of the 10, he received producing notices for the most recent four and directing bids for all but “Taxi Driver.” The only ones who have him beat in terms of helming hopefuls for the highest academy honor are William Wyler and Steven Spielberg, who are tied at 13 films each.

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Wyler, who retired in 1970 (11 years before his death), singularly holds the record for directing the most Best Picture winners, with the three bearing his name being “Mrs. Miniver” (1943), “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1947), and “Ben-Hur” (1960). The remaining 10 nominees from his filmography are “Dodsworth” (1937), “Dead End” (1938), “Jezebel” (1939), “Wuthering Heights” (1940), “The Letter” (1941), “The Little Foxes” (1942), “The Heiress” (1950), “Roman Holiday” (1954), “Friendly Persuasion” (1957), and “Funny Girl” (1969). He was recognized as a producer in 1954 and 1957 and won Best Director for all three of said top prize recipients.

Spielberg, whose career began as Wyler’s was winding down, has so far made Best Picture winner “Schindler’s List” (1994) and nominees “Jaws” (1976), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1982), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “The Color Purple” (1986), “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), “Munich” (2006), “War Horse” (2012), “Lincoln” (2013), “Bridge of Spies” (2016), “The Post” (2018), “West Side Story” (2022), and “The Fabelmans” (2023). He was personally nominated for producing all but the earliest two and directing all except “Jaws,” “The Color Purple,” “War Horse,” “Bridge of Spies,” and “The Post,” winning in the latter category in 1994 and 1999.

Included among the other five directors who most recently moved higher on this list are two of Scorsese’s 2024 Best Director challengers – Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite,” 2019; “Poor Things”) and Christopher Nolan (“Inception,” 2011; “Dunkirk,” 2018; “Oppenheimer”) – as well as Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” 2005; “The Descendants,” 2012; “Nebraska,” 2014; “The Holdovers”), Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird,” 2018; “Little Women,” 2020; “Barbie”), and Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born,” 2019; “Maestro”). Gerwig is now the first woman to direct three Best Picture nominees, leaving Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker,” 2010; “Zero Dark Thirty,” 2013) and Jane Campion (“The Piano,” 1994; “The Power of the Dog,” 2022) as the only ones credited with two.

Scorsese’s latest advancement allowed him to break his four-year tie with John Ford, who now sits alone in fourth place as the one responsible for nine nominees, including 1942 winner “How Green Was My Valley” and three films that, like that one, also brought him directing honors: “The Informer” (1936), “The Grapes of Wrath” (1941), and “The Quiet Man” (1953). Tied for fifth place with eight nominees each are Mervyn LeRoy and George Cukor, only one of whose movies – Cukor’s “My Fair Lady” (1965) – actually took the gold. After Spielberg and Scorsese, the highest ranking living entrants on this list are Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood with five films apiece.

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