Directing is a crucial aspect of filmmaking, and the Oscar for Best Director is widely recognized as a pinnacle of achievement in the industry. A number of highly talented directors have taken home the award throughout the years, but only a select few have won it multiple times.
These directors are considered among the field elite and have left a lasting impact on cinema. However, it's worth noting that the Academy's choices for Best Director do not always align with the public's or critics' favorites, and some deserving directors may go unrecognized by the Oscars.
Nevertheless, the Academy's selections, for the most part, are well-regarded, and films and directors awarded often resonate with audiences. Here is a list of ten directors who have won the most Academy Awards.
10 Ang Lee - 3 Oscars
Ang Lee was born in October 1954 in Pingtung County, South Taiwan. He is a Taiwanese filmmaker well known for his iconic film Life of Pi (2012), which received eleven Oscar nominations and won four. Lee has also directed other Academy-winning films such as Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). His debut English-language film was Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which the film got critical praise and several awards.
During his filmmaking career, Lee has received several international nominations and awards, including nine academy nominations and three Oscar Awards. He won his first Oscar in 2000 for Best Language Foreign film for his movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In 2005, he won an Oscar for Best Director in the film Brokeback Mountain, making him the first non-white to win the Academy Award for Best Director. In 2012, Lee won the Best Director in Life of Pi Academy Award.
9 Peter Jackson - 3 Oscars
Peter Jackson was born in October 1961 and is a New Zealand screenwriter, director, and producer. Although Jackson started his filmmaking career producing ghastly and often witty horror comedies in his native New Zealand, such as Bad Taste (1987), he became one of his generation's most innovative and successful filmmakers.
Jackson has received several accolades, including three Oscar awards. He is best known as the writer, director, and producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) and the Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014). He created cinematic history by being the first to direct three major feature films simultaneously. His hard work paid off, as he was awarded three Oscar awards in 2004 for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
8 William Wyler - 3 Oscars
William Wyler was a Swiss-German-American film producer and director born in July 1902. He passed away on July 27, 1981, but is considered one of the most versatile and renowned film filmmakers for classical Hollywood films. Wyler was awarded multiple accolades, including three Oscars for Best Director. He directed movies in both technicolor and black-and-white and was active during the sound and silent era, making him a versatile filmmaker. He is known for producing notable films such as Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and the biblical epic Ben-Hur (1959), which all won the Oscar Award for Best Picture, and Wyler won Best Director Oscar in all three films.
7 Steven Spielberg - 3 Oscars
American screenwriter, director, and producer Steven Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began his filmmaking career in the New Hollywood era and has become one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has had many successful and critically acclaimed films since the release of the epic summer blockbuster Jaws (1975).
Today, Spielberg is one of the best Hollywood directors and the most influential personalities in the modern-day cinema industry. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including three Oscar awards. Spielberg received his first Oscar award in 1994 for producing Schindler's List (1993), winning two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. In 1999, he won the Oscar for Best Director in the film Saving Private Ryan (1998).
6 James Cameron - 3 Oscars
James Cameron is a Canadian film director, editor, screenwriter, and producer known for his innovative approach to filmmaking. He is renowned for breaking new ground in the industry by developing new technologies and is credited with revitalizing the science fiction genre through the enduring success of films such as Aliens (1986) and The Terminator (1984). He has received numerous awards throughout his filmmaking career, including three Oscar awards. Cameron wrote, directed, edited, and produced the timeless film Titanic (1997), which, in 1998, received fourteen Oscar nominations and won eleven Oscars awards. Cameron won three for Best Director, Best Film editing, and Best Picture.
5 Frank Capra - 3 Oscars
Frank Capra was born in May 1897 and passed away in September 1991. He was an Italian-born American screenwriter, producer, and director. Capra was one of America's most influential film directors of the 1930s, writing and producing major award-winning movies during the great depression.
His first break-out film was It Happened One Night (1934) which was the first motion picture to win an Oscar in five major categories, including Best Picture. Capra is well known for producing Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), You Can't Take It with You (1938), and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Capra has been nominated for Best Director six times in the Academy Awards, winning three Oscars. He received his first Oscar Award in 1935 for Best Director in You Can't Take It with You. He also received an Oscar award in 1937 and 1939 for Best Director in the movie Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can't Take It with You in that order.
4 Clint Eastwood - 4 Oscars
Clint Eastwood Jr, born in May 1930, is an American film director and actor whose film production and television career have spanned more than 60 years. Eastwood began his career as an actor in small uncredited television and film roles and has since become one of the greatest actor-turned-directors of all time. Clintwood rose to international fame through his role in the iconic film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Over the years, he has starred in and directed many Award-winning movies. Clintwood has also received several accolades, including four Oscar Awards. In 1993, he won two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for Unforgiven (1992). In 2005, he also won two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for the movie Million Dollar Baby (2004).
3 Francis Ford Coppola - 5 Oscars
Francis Ford Coppola, born in April 1939, is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer widely considered one of the most significant and influential figures of the New Hollywood era of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including five Oscar Awards. His film debut is Dementia 13 (1963), and he has since produced award-winning films, most notably the iconic Godfather trilogy (1972-1990) and Patton (1970). The first two Godfather films won nine Oscars for acting, writing, and directing, while Patton won seven Academy Awards. Coppola received his first Academy Award in 1971 for Best Original Screenplay for Patton. In 1973, he won the Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Godfather, and in 1975, he received three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Godfather Part II.
2 Billy Wilder - 6 Oscars
Billy Wilder, an Austrian-American film director, writer, and producer, was born in June 1906 and passed away in March 2002. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is considered one of the best and most versatile moviemakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He is popularly known for his work in the crime noir Double Indemnity (1944), for which he received his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. Wilder's filmmaking career was marked by numerous accolades and nominations, including 21 Academy Award nominations, of which he won six, with two for Best Director. In 1945, Wilder won an Oscar for Best Director and Best Screenplay in the film The Lost Weekend (1945). In 1951, he won an Oscar for Best Screenplay in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950), and in 1961, he won three Oscars for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay in the movie The Apartment (1960).
1 John Ford - 6 Oscars
John Martin Feeney, professionally known as John Ford, was an American film director widely considered one of his generation's best and most influential filmmakers. He was born in February 1894 and passed away in August 1973. Ford directed over 140 films, many of which were silent, and is best remembered for his Westerns. His films often featured wide shots and locations that framed actors against the vast, rocky, and harsh natural terrain. Ford received numerous accolades and nominations throughout his career, including six Oscar Awards. Four of these were for Best Director, which he won for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952). He also won an Oscar for Best Picture for The Quiet Man in 1953 and How Green Was My Valley in 1942.