The Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Director is an annual award the Austin Film Critics Association has given out since 2005.
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Crash | Paul Haggis |
| 2006 | Children of Men | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 2007 | There Will Be Blood | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| 2008 | The Dark Knight | Christopher Nolan |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | Kathryn Bigelow |
| 2010 | Black Swan | Darren Aronofsky |
| 2011 | Drive | Nicolas Winding Refn |
| 2012 | The Master | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| 2013 | Gravity | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 2014 | Boyhood [1] | Richard Linklater |
| 2015 | Mad Max: Fury Road [2] | George Miller |
| 2016 | Moonlight [3] [4] | Barry Jenkins |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water [5] | Guillermo del Toro |
| 2018 | If Beale Street Could Talk [6] | Barry Jenkins |
| 2019 | Parasite | Bong Joon-ho |
| 2020 | Minari | Lee Isaac Chung |
| 2021 | The Power of the Dog [7] [8] | Jane Campion |
| 2022 | Everything Everywhere All At Once [9] [10] | Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert |
| 2023 | Oppenheimer [11] | Christopher Nolan |