Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director

The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director is one of the awards presented by the Broadcast Film Critics Association at their annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed in bold type.

1990s

• 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

2000s

• 2000: Steven Soderbergh – Erin Brockovich and Traffic
• 2001: Ron Howard – A Beautiful Mind / Baz Luhrmann – Moulin Rouge! (TIE)
  • Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• 2002: Steven Spielberg – Catch Me If You Can and Minority Report
  • Roman Polanski – The Pianist
  • Martin Scorsese – Gangs of New York
• 2003: Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • Tim Burton – Big Fish
  • Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation
  • Clint Eastwood – Mystic River
  • Jim Sheridan – In America
• 2004: Martin Scorsese – The Aviator
  • Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby
  • Marc Forster – Finding Neverland
  • Taylor Hackford – Ray
  • Alexander Payne – Sideways
• 2005: Ang Lee – Brokeback Mountain
  • George Clooney – Good Night, and Good Luck
  • Paul Haggis – Crash
  • Ron Howard – Cinderella Man
  • Steven Spielberg – Munich
• 2006: Martin Scorsese – The Departed
  • Bill Condon – Dreamgirls
  • Clint Eastwood – Letters from Iwo Jima
  • Stephen Frears – The Queen
  • Paul Greengrass – United 93
• 2007: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
  • Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • Sean Penn – Into the Wild
  • Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  • Joe Wright – Atonement
• 2008: Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
  • David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
  • Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
  • Gus Van Sant – Milk
• 2009: Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
  • James Cameron – Avatar
  • Lee Daniels – Precious
  • Clint Eastwood – Invictus
  • Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
  • Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

2010s

• 2010: David Fincher – The Social Network
  • Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
  • Danny Boyle – 127 Hours
  • Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit
  • Tom Hooper – The King's Speech
  • Christopher Nolan – Inception
• 2011: Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
  • Stephen Daldry – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
  • Alexander Payne – The Descendants
  • Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
  • Martin Scorsese – Hugo
  • Steven Spielberg – War Horse
• 2012: Ben Affleck – Argo
  • Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty
  • Tom Hooper – Les Misérables
  • Ang Lee – Life of Pi
  • David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
  • Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
• 2013: Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity
  • Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
  • Spike Jonze – Her
  • Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
  • David O. Russell – American Hustle
  • Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street
• 2014: Richard Linklater – Boyhood
  • Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Ava DuVernay – Selma
  • David Fincher – Gone Girl
  • Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Birdman
  • Angelina Jolie – Unbroken
• 2015: George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road
  • Todd Haynes – Carol
  • Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
  • Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
  • Ridley Scott – The Martian
  • Steven Spielberg – Bridge of Spies
• 2016:
  • Damien Chazelle – La La Land
  • Mel Gibson – Hacksaw Ridge
  • Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
  • Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea
  • David Mackenzie – Hell or High Water
  • Denis Villeneuve – Arrival
  • Denzel Washington – Fences