By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
With the DGA Award in hand, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has become a frontrunner in the best director Oscar race for Birdman.
Only seven winners of the DGA Award have not won the best director Oscar in the 66 years that the Directors Guild of America has given the award. The most recent case was two years ago, when Ben Affleck wasn’t even nominated for the best director Oscar for Argo, which won best picture.
No American has won for best director since 2011 and if Inarritu, who is from Mexico, takes the Oscar this year, the trend will continue. Inarritu could become the second Latin American director to win for best director, following Alfonso Cuaron’s win last year.
In the 86 years since the Academy Awards’ inception, 89 Oscars have been given for best director. Twenty-six awards (29 percent) went to non-American born directors.
At the first annual Academy Awards held in 1929, two directing awards were given, one for a dramatic film and the other for a comedy. Lewis Milestone won the comedy directing award for Two Arabian Knights (1927). Born Lev Milstein in what is now Moldova, he was raised in Ukraine but became a United States citizen in 1919. Milestone won a second Oscar in 1930 for All Quiet on the Western Front.
Scottish director Frank Lloyd, one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and president of The Academy from 1934 to 1935, won two best director awards, for 1929’s The Divine Lady and 1933’s Cavalcade. He received another nomination two years later for 1935’s Mutiny on the Bounty.
Though one of the most recognized American directors, Frank Capra was actually born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was five. He became a U.S. citizen in 1920. Capra received six best director nominations and won three, for 1934’s It Happened One Night, 1936’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and 1938’s You Can’t Take It With You.
Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci won a best director Oscar for The Last Emperor, as well as an Oscar for adapted screenplay. The film won all nine Oscars it was nominated for. Bertolucci previously received a nomination for best director in 1974 for Last Tango in Paris.
Born in Austria-Hungary (in an area that is present day Poland) Billy Wilder received eight best director nominations, winning two of them. He first won in 1946 for The Lost Weekend and again in 1960 for The Apartment. He also won for original screenplay for both films, and The Apartment won best picture. Wilder, who became a U.S. citizen in 1934, also won an original screenplay Oscar for 1950’s Sunset Blvd.
Also born in Austria-Hungary (but in present day Austria), Fred Zinnemann moved to Hollywood in 1934 and earned his first best director Oscar nomination in 1949 for The Search. He received six other best director Oscar nominations and won in 1954 for From Here to Eternity and 1967 for A Man for All Seasons.
Michael Curtiz was another director born in Austria-Hungary (present day Hungary). He received five best director nominations (though one was an unofficial write-in) and won in 1944 for Casablanca.
Elia Kazan, born in Constantinople (present day Istanbul), immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was four. He received his first best director Oscar nomination and win in 1948 for Gentleman’s Agreement. He received four more best director nominations and won again in 1955 for On the Waterfront.
Hailing from Germany, Mike Nichols moved from Berlin to the states and became a U.S. citizen in 1944. He received four best director nominations, the first in 1967 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and won in 1968 for The Graduate.
Milos Forman spent much of his life in Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic). He won his first best director Oscar in 1976 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He became a U.S. citizen in 1977 and won another best director Oscar in 1985 for Amadeus.
William Wyler holds the record for most best director nominations with 12. Wyler was born in Germany (in an area that is present day France) and held Swiss citizenship due to his Swiss father. He became a U.S. citizen in 1928 and received his first best director nomination nine years later for Dodsworth. He won three times, for 1942’s Mrs. Miniver, 1946’s The Best Years of Our Lives and 1959’s Ben-Hur.
Born in France to Polish parents, Roman Polanski is currently a French citizen. He’s received three best director nominations and won in 2003 for The Pianist.
Canadian director James Cameron won a best director Oscar in 1998 for Titanic, which also garnered him awards for film editing and best picture. He was most recently nominated in 2010 for Avatar.
New Zealand director Peter Jackson won the best director Oscar in 2004 for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, including best picture.
Nine (35 percent) of the non-American directors to win at least one Oscar have been English, including: David Lean, who won for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962); Tony Richardson, who won for Tom Jones (1963); Carol Reed, who won for Oliver! (1968); John Schlesinger, who won for Midnight Cowboy (1969); Richard Attenborough, who won for Gandhi (1982); Anthony Minghella, who won for The English Patient (1996); Sam Mendes, who won for American Beauty (1999); and Danny Boyle, who won for Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
English director Tom Hooper won in 2011 for The King’s Speech, which was based on the friendship between King George VI and his speech therapist Lionel Logue.
The following year, French writer-director Michel Hazanavicius won for The Artist, which became the first (mostly) silent film to win since Wings in 1929 and the first completely black-and-white film since 1960’s The Apartment. Hazanavicius was also nominated for his original screenplay and editing.
Taiwan-born Ang Lee became the first person of Asian descent to win for best director in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain, which was also nominated for best picture. He won a second Oscar in 2013 for Life of Pi, another best picture nominee. Lee’s first directing nomination was in 2001 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won four Oscars, including best foreign-language film.
Last year, Alfonso Cuaron became the first Latin American director to win best director for his film Gravity.
Twitter: @thisisjelli
