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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The Academy’s published list of directors with at least two directing wins names 20 people, not 21. It was updated through the 88th Oscars in 2016, so it does not verify the current total. The list is led by John Ford with four wins, followed by Frank Capra and William Wyler with three each. Below are all 20 directors and the winning films recorded in that Academy list.
How many directors have won Best Director more than once?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Directing Facts — 2 or More Awards lists 20 directors and their winning films through the 88th Academy Awards in 2016. The title’s figure of 21 is not established by that document. The Academy’s current awards database says its record is complete through the 98th Awards, presented March 15, 2026, but its page does not enumerate a current list of repeat Best Director winners. Accordingly, the roster below is the Academy’s verified historical list, not a claim that 20 is the current total.
Directors with four or three wins
| Director | Wins | Winning films and ceremony years |
|---|---|---|
| John Ford | 4 | The Informer (1935, 8th Awards); The Grapes of Wrath (1940, 13th); How Green Was My Valley (1941, 14th); The Quiet Man (1952, 25th) |
| Frank Capra | 3 | It Happened One Night (1934, 7th Awards); Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936, 9th); You Can’t Take It with You (1938, 11th) |
| William Wyler | 3 | Mrs. Miniver (1942, 15th Awards); The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, 19th); Ben-Hur (1959, 32nd) |
Directors with two wins
| Director | Winning films and ceremony years |
|---|---|
| Lewis Milestone | Two Arabian Knights (1927/28, 1st Awards; Directing—Comedy Picture); All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30, 3rd) |
| Frank Borzage | 7th Heaven (1927/28, 1st Awards; Directing—Dramatic Picture); Bad Girl (1931/32, 5th) |
| Frank Lloyd | The Divine Lady (1928/29, 2nd Awards); Cavalcade (1932/33, 6th) |
| Leo McCarey | The Awful Truth (1937, 10th Awards); Going My Way (1944, 17th) |
| Joseph L. Mankiewicz | A Letter to Three Wives (1949, 22nd Awards); All About Eve (1950, 23rd) |
| Elia Kazan | Gentleman’s Agreement (1947, 20th Awards); On the Waterfront (1954, 27th) |
| George Stevens | A Place in the Sun (1951, 24th Awards); Giant (1956, 29th) |
| Billy Wilder | The Lost Weekend (1945, 18th Awards); The Apartment (1960, 33rd) |
| David Lean | The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, 30th Awards); Lawrence of Arabia (1962, 35th) |
| Robert Wise | West Side Story (1961, 34th Awards; co-directed with Jerome Robbins); The Sound of Music (1965, 38th) |
| Fred Zinnemann | From Here to Eternity (1953, 26th Awards); A Man for All Seasons (1966, 39th) |
| Miloš Forman | One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, 48th Awards); Amadeus (1984, 57th) |
| Oliver Stone | Platoon (1986, 59th Awards); Born on the Fourth of July (1989, 62nd) |
| Steven Spielberg | Schindler’s List (1993, 66th Awards); Saving Private Ryan (1998, 71st) |
| Clint Eastwood | Unforgiven (1992, 65th Awards); Million Dollar Baby (2004, 77th) |
| Ang Lee | Brokeback Mountain (2005, 78th Awards); Life of Pi (2012, 85th) |
| Alejandro González Iñárritu | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014, 87th Awards); The Revenant (2015, 88th) |
What the early award years mean
The Academy’s historical PDF groups the earliest wins under its modern Directing heading, while preserving distinctions used at the first ceremony. At the 1st Awards, Lewis Milestone’s win for Two Arabian Knights was listed as Directing—Comedy Picture, and Frank Borzage’s for 7th Heaven as Directing—Dramatic Picture. The PDF records award years as paired seasons for several early ceremonies, such as 1927/28; those are retained here rather than converted to a single calendar year.
Wins are not nominations
The Academy PDF also prints nomination totals, but a nomination is not a win and does not change the ranking above. This roster compares directors by the number of Best Director awards recorded, then names the associated winning films and ceremony years. To establish a present-day count beyond the PDF’s 2016 cutoff, the Academy database’s Best Directing records would need to be grouped by recipient through its latest covered ceremony.
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