In light ofthe recent 2024 Oscar nominations, the history of the Academy Awards, particularly their wins and nominations throughout the years, has regained relevance. There’s one award in particular which is among the most coveted in the film industry: Best Director, for the filmmaker who shows the most artistic prowess in a particular year. Most often, this award goes hand in hand with multiple others (typically Best Picture,though definitely not always). On certain rare occasions, however, a director has been the sole Oscar winner for their movie.
A film winning the Best Director award and nothing more is certainly not common, but it’s fascinating when it does happen. From iconic classics likeGeorge Stevens’sGiant, to the most recent case of this instance,Jane Campion’sThe Power of the Dog,these are movies that prove that pretty much anything can happen at Hollywood’s most prestigious night of the year.
8’Two Arabian Knights' (1927)
Directed by Lewis Milestone
On the very first Academy Awards, held in July of 1928, the movie that won the Best Directing (Comedy Picture) category was not only not nominated for Best Picture, but actually not nominated for any other award. It wasLewis Milestonethat won this Oscar forTwo Arabian Knights, a silent comedy about two American soldiers fighting to escape the Germans during World War I, while quarreling over a beautiful young woman.
For the second Academy Awards, the Best Directing categories were merged, making Milestone the sole winner of this award. It couldn’t have been a more deserving film, either:Two Arabian Knightsis one ofthe most underrated silent comedies of all time,with a sense of suspense and adventure that’s refreshing for films of the era. This is, quite appropriately, a milestone in the history of the Academy Awards.
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7’The Divine Lady' (1929)
Directed by Frank Lloyd
The second Academy Awards were held in 1930, and there were just as many interesting surprises as there were during its predecessor. It was the only time when not a single film won more than one Oscar (the Best Picture recipient,The Broadway Melody, being amongthe least-liked winners of the award), includingThe Divine Lady’s lonely Best Director win forFrank Lloyd, one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that gives out the Oscars.
The Divine Lady, the tale of a romance between two women and a British war hero, has faded into relative obscurity, and those who have seen it tend to think that it’s not such a tragedy. It’s a pretty serviceable silent romance with a great performance byCorine Griffith(who was nominated for Best Actress, one of the two nominations that the movie got aside from Best Director), and Lloyd’s direction is certainly very impressive for the period. However,there’s a reason why this is the only movie in Oscars history that won Best Director without a Best Picture nomination. Its melodrama is stilted, its tone is rather dull, and its main redeeming qualities are only its striking battle sequences and Griffith’s performance.
6’Skippy' (1931)
Directed by Norman Taurog
To this day,Jackie Cooperisthe youngest Best Actor Oscar nomineeof all time at 9 years of age. However, that’s not the only notable Oscar nomination thatSkippy, a comedy about the mischievous son of a wealthy doctor trying to save a friend’s pet from a cruel dogcatcher, can brag about having. Of the four categories it received a nod in at the 4th Academy Awards, it only won one: Best Director forNorman Taurog, who for a long time was the youngest-ever recipient of the award at 32 years and 260 days old, beforeDamien Chazelletook the record in 2017 (at 32 years and 39 days old) with his win forLa La Land.
Skippyis a charming, sweet, and amusing classic family movie based on the highly popular comic strip of the same title.Taurog’s grasp on the childlike feeling of wonder and innocence is admirable, resulting in one of the most enjoyable and sadly underrated comedies of the time. Cooper is the one who really sells the film, but the director laid some really strong foundations for him to do that.
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5’Mr. Deed Goes to Town' (1936)
Directed by Frank Capra
Not to be confused with theAdam Sandlerremake whose inexplicable existence is better left ignored,Mr. Deed Goes to Townwas one of the first comedies made afterthe enforcement of the Hays Code. This, however, in no way diminished this delightful screwball comedy about an unassuming greeting card poet from small-town Vermont, who goes to New York upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who want to take advantage of him. The movie received five Oscar nominations at the 9th Academy Awards, but its only win was forFrank Capraas Best Director.
Capra is an icon, one of thefilmmakers who defined Hollywood’s Golden Age. His hilarious yet elegant style is in full force inMr. Deed Goes to Town,a hilarious satire with some genuinely interesting things to say about wealth and corruption.Gary Cooperdelivers a terrific performance, but it’s mainly Capra’s masterful way of conveying his vision and making it thoroughly entertaining that makes this a must-watch, proving it worthy of its only Oscar win.
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4’The Awful Truth' (1937)
Directed by Leo McCarey
In the screwball rom-comThe Awful Truth, a married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it much harder to let go of each other than they initially thought. It’s a simple enough premise, but with the charm ofIrene Dunne(who got an Oscar nomination for her performance) and the legendaryCary Grant, as well as with the naturally humorous direction ofLeo McCarey, you get one of the best in its genre from this period. Only one year after the phenomenon had last occurred, it was once again the case at the 10th Academy Awards that the Best Director recipient won nothing else. Even yet, McCarey certainly had it well deserved, giving his movie the only Oscar of the five it was nominated for.
This is one ofCary Grant’s best movies, but he’s not the main attraction here. Dunne’s performance elevatesThe Awful Truthto iconic status.Dunne simply steals the show as she is simultaneously hilarious and entirely believable.That’s also largely thanks to McCarey, who achieves the perfect balance between hilarious farce and emotional romance, having loads of fun examining marriage and human connections while also providing some nuanced, surprisingly complex discussions on the matter.
3’Giant' (1956)
Directed by George Stevens
It would take a long time before a movie won only the Best Director Oscar again. Whereas before it had usually happened with comedies, at the 29th Academy Awards it happened with the grand, sprawling Western epic that isGiant. The story unfolds across two generations, following the family of a Texas cattle rancher and their rivalry with cowboy and oil tycoon Jett Rink. Though it was nominated for a whopping ten Oscars,George Stevens’s Best Director win was its only victory, and a well-deserved one, at that.
Giantis a massive film, visually striking and with a slow pace that really lets all its plot elements and characters simmer, resulting in a riveting narrative about generational conflicts, social change, and progress. It was the last ofJames Dean’s three feature films, as he was tragically killed in a car crash before the movie’s release.Its legacy lives on as not only the swan song of a cinema legend, but as a magnificently made and beautifully directed picture in its own right, certainly one ofthe best of the 1950s.
2’The Graduate' (1967)
Directed by Mike Nichols
A seminal romantic dramedy that helped define the American New Wave, one ofthe most important film movementsin cinema’s history,The Graduateis about a disillusioned college student who finds himself in the limbo between adulthood and teenagehood, which manifests as him being torn between his older lover and her daughter. The result is one of the most quotable, engaging, profoundly human comedies ever put to film, which won only the Best Director award forMike Nicholsof the seven it was nominated for at the 40th Academy Awards.
The Graduatefinds humor in growing up, in twisting and subverting the typical rom-com and coming-of-age genre tropes, in exploring the anxious and aimless personality of its protagonist as he moves through a situation he definitely can’t handle.And yet, Nichols prevents the film from just feeling like a caricature. It’s a movie full of emotion and deep philosophical themes, with three outstanding lead performances byDustin Hoffman,Anne Bancroft, andKatherine Rossall at the top of their game.
The Graduate
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1’The Power of the Dog' (2021)
Directed by Jane Campion
It took over half a century for this rare Oscars' phenomenon to occur again. In 2021, the sameThe Power of the Dogthat spent the entire awards race being the frontrunner for Hollywood’s biggest award ended up only winning Best Director. The tremendously acclaimedJane Campiondirects this subversive Western about a charismatic rancher who inspires fear in those around him, but when his brother brings home a new wife and her son, he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love as he endlessly torments them.
Campion’s latest film is a profoundly nuanced meditation on masculinity as it relates to notions of power and aggression, as well as a complex depiction of themes of sexuality and insecurity. It’s an enthralling psychological drama with an incredible ensemble, directed by a Campion in full dominance of her craft. Even if her Oscar win was the picture’s only victory, it will nevertheless live on as one ofthe best character studiesof the 21st century.
