Great Directors Who Never Won the Best Director Oscar

For many filmmakers, an Academy Award for Best Director is the highest honor, but some of cinema's most influential artists never won that prize. The ten directors highlighted here include names whose films reshaped genres and inspired later generations, even when the Academy did not award them the top directing prize.

Hal Ashby made quietly humane films such as Harold and Maude, Being There, Shampoo and Coming Home, yet received only one Best Director nomination. Howard Hawks, director of His Girl Friday, Rio Bravo and Bringing Up Baby, received an honorary Academy Award in 1974 after losing a Best Director nod for Sergeant York.

David Lynch, whose work coined the term "Lynchian," earned four Academy Award nominations—three for Best Director—but never won the competitive prize. Sidney Lumet directed classics like 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon and Network yet was never awarded Best Director, while Robert Altman, known for ensemble casts and overlapping dialogue, was nominated five times for films including M*A*S*H and Nashville.

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