1928 Frank Borzage "Seventh heaven" / Lewis Milestone "Two arabian knights"
1929 Frank Lloyd "The divine Lady"
1930 Lewis Milestone "All quiet on the western front"
1931 Norman Taurog "Skippy"
1932 Frank Borzage "Bad girl"
1933 Frank Lloyd "Cavalcade"
1934 Frank Capra "It happened one night"
1935 John Ford "The informer"
1936 Frank Capra "Mr. Deeds goes to town"
1937 Leo McCarey "The awful truth"
1938 Frank Capra "You can't take it with you"
1939 Victor Fleming "Gone with the wind"
1940 John Ford "The grapes of wrath"
1941 John Ford "How green was my valley"
1942 William Wyler "Mrs. Miniver"
1943 Michael Curtiz "Casablanca"
1944 Leo McCarey "Going my way"
1945 Billy Wilder "The lost weekend"
1946 William Wyler "The best years of our lives"
1947 Elia Kazan "Gentleman's agreement"
1948 John Huston "The treasure of the Sierra Madre"
1949 Joseph Mankiewicz "A letter to three wives"
1950 Joseph Mankiewicz "All about Eve"
1951 George Stevens "A place in the sun"
1952 John Ford "The quiet man"
1953 Fred Zinnemann "From here to eternity"
1954 Elia Kazan "On the waterfront"
1955 Delbert Mann "Marty"
1956 George Stevens "Giant"
1957 David Lean "The bridge on the River Kwai"
1958 Vincente Minnelli "Gigi"
1959 William Wyler "Ben Hur"
1960 Billy Wilder "The apartment"
1961 Jerome Robbins / Robert Wise "West Side story"
1962 David Lean "Lawrence of Arabia"
1963 Tony Richardson "Tom Jones"
1964 George Cukor "My fair lady"
1965 Robert Wise "The sound of music"
1966 Fred Zinnemann "A man for all seasons"
1967 Mike Nichols "The graduate"
1968 Carol Reed "Oliver"
1969 John Schlesinger "Midnight cowboy"
1970 Franklin Schaffner "Patton"
1971 William Friedkin "The french connection"
1972 Bob Fosse "Cabaret"
1973 George Roy Hill "The sting"
1974 Francis Ford Coppola "The Goodfather II"
1975 Milos Forman "One flew over the cuckoo's nest"
1976 John Avildsen "Rocky"
1977 Woody Allen "Annie Hall"
1978 Michael Cimino "The deer hunter"
1979 Robert Benton "Kramer vs. Kramer"
1980 Robert Redford "Ordinary people"
1981 Warren Beatty "Reds"
1982 Richard Attenborough "Gandhi"
1983 James L. Brooks "Terms of endearment"
1984 Milos Forman "Amadeus"
1985 Sydney Pollack "Out of Africa"
1986 Oliver Stone "Platoon"
1987 Bernardo Bertolucci "The last Emperor"
1988 Barry Levinson "Rain man"
1989 Oliver Stone "Born on the fourth of july"
1990 Kevin Costner "Dances with wolves"
1991 Jonathan Demme "The silence of the lambs"
1992 Clint Eastwood "Unforgiven"
1993 Steven Spielberg "Schindler's list"
1994 Robert Zemeckis "Forrest Gump"
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"
2000 Steven Soderbergh "Traffic"
2001 Ron Howard "A beautiful mind"
2002 Roman Polanski "The pianist"
2003 Peter Jackson "The Lord of the rings: The return of the King"
2004 Clint Eastwood "Million dollar baby"
2005 Ang Lee "Brokeback mountain"
2006 Martin Scorsese "The departed"
2007 Etan & Joel Coen "No country for old men"
2008 Danny Boyle "Slumdog millionaire"
2009 Kathryn Bigelow "The hurt locker"
2010 Tom Hooper "The king's speech"
2011 Michel Hazanavicius "The artist"
