Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director

The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Winners

1980s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film
1988	Robert Zemeckis	Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1989	Spike Lee	Do the Right Thing
	Woody Allen	Crimes and Misdemeanors
	Kenneth Branagh	Henry V
	Tim Burton	Batman
	Steven Soderbergh	Sex, Lies, and Videotape

1990s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film
1990	Martin Scorsese	Goodfellas
1991	Jonathan Demme	The Silence of the Lambs
	Kenneth Branagh	Peter's Friends
	Joel Coen	Barton Fink
	Martha Coolidge	Rambling Rose
	Terry Gilliam	The Fisher King
	Spike Lee	Jungle Fever
	Barry Levinson	Bugsy
	John Sayles	City of Hope
	Martin Scorsese	Cape Fear
	Ridley Scott	Thelma & Louise
	John Singleton	Boyz n the Hood
1992	Robert Altman	The Player
	Clint Eastwood	Unforgiven
	Neil Jordan	The Crying Game
	Spike Lee	Malcolm X
	Quentin Tarantino	Reservoir Dogs
1993	Steven Spielberg	Schindler's List
	Robert Altman	Short Cuts
	Jane Campion	The Piano
	Andrew Davis	The Fugitive
	Jonathan Demme	Philadelphia
1994	Quentin Tarantino	Pulp Fiction
	Tim Burton	Ed Wood
	Steve James	Hoop Dreams
	Krzysztof Kieślowski	Three Colours: Red
	Robert Zemeckis	Forrest Gump
1995	Oliver Stone	Nixon
	Clint Eastwood	The Bridges of Madison County
	Mike Figgis	Leaving Las Vegas
	Ron Howard	Apollo 13
	Martin Scorsese	Casino
1996	Joel Coen	Fargo
	Miloš Forman	The People vs. Larry Flynt
	Mike Leigh	Secrets & Lies
	John Sayles	Lone Star
	Lars von Trier	Breaking the Waves
1997	Curtis Hanson	L.A. Confidential
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Boogie Nights
	James L. Brooks	As Good as It Gets
	James Cameron	Titanic
	Atom Egoyan	The Sweet Hereafter
	Ang Lee	The Ice Storm
1998	Terrence Malick	The Thin Red Line
	John Boorman	The General
	Neil Jordan	The Butcher Boy
	Steven Spielberg	Saving Private Ryan
	Peter Weir	The Truman Show
1999	Sam Mendes	American Beauty
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Magnolia
	Spike Jonze	Being John Malkovich
	Stanley Kubrick	Eyes Wide Shut
	David Lynch	The Straight Story

2000s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film
2000	Steven Soderbergh	Traffic
	Darren Aronofsky	Requiem for a Dream
	Cameron Crowe	Almost Famous
	Ang Lee	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
	Robert Zemeckis	Cast Away
2001	David Lynch	Mulholland Dr.
	Robert Altman	Gosford Park
	Ron Howard	A Beautiful Mind
	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
	Baz Luhrmann	Moulin Rouge!
2002	Todd Haynes	Far from Heaven
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Punch-Drunk Love
	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
	Alexander Payne	About Schmidt
	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
	Peter Weir	Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2004	Clint Eastwood	Million Dollar Baby
2005	David Cronenberg	A History of Violence
	George Clooney	Good Night, and Good Luck.
	Peter Jackson	King Kong
	Ang Lee	Brokeback Mountain
	Steven Spielberg	Munich
2006	Martin Scorsese	The Departed
	Clint Eastwood	Letters from Iwo Jima
	Stephen Frears	The Queen
	Paul Greengrass	United 93
	Alejandro González Iñárritu	Babel
2007	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	No Country for Old Men
	Paul Thomas Anderson	There Will Be Blood
	David Fincher	Zodiac
	Tony Gilroy	Michael Clayton
	Jason Reitman	Juno
2008	Danny Boyle	Slumdog Millionaire
	David Fincher	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
	Christopher Nolan	The Dark Knight
	Andrew Stanton	WALL-E
	Gus Van Sant	Milk
2009	Kathryn Bigelow	The Hurt Locker
	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	A Serious Man
	Spike Jonze	Where the Wild Things Are
	Jason Reitman	Up in the Air
	Quentin Tarantino	Inglourious Basterds

2010s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film
2010	David Fincher	The Social Network
	Darren Aronofsky	Black Swan
	Debra Granik	Winter's Bone
	Tom Hooper	The King's Speech
	Christopher Nolan	Inception
2011	Terrence Malick	The Tree of Life
	Michel Hazanavicius	The Artist
	Alexander Payne	The Descendants
	Nicolas Winding Refn	Drive
	Martin Scorsese	Hugo
2012	Kathryn Bigelow	Zero Dark Thirty
	Ben Affleck	Argo
	Paul Thomas Anderson	The Master
	Steven Spielberg	Lincoln
	Benh Zeitlin	Beasts of the Southern Wild
2013	Steve McQueen	12 Years a Slave
	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	Inside Llewyn Davis
	Alfonso Cuarón	Gravity
	Spike Jonze	Her
	David O. Russell	American Hustle
2014	Richard Linklater	Boyhood
	Wes Anderson	The Grand Budapest Hotel
	David Fincher	Gone Girl
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
	Christopher Nolan	Interstellar
2015	George Miller	Mad Max: Fury Road
	Todd Haynes	Carol
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	The Revenant
	Tom McCarthy	Spotlight
	Adam McKay	The Big Short
2016	Barry Jenkins	Moonlight
	Damien Chazelle	La La Land
	Pablo Larraín	Jackie
	Kenneth Lonergan	Manchester by the Sea
	Chan-wook Park	The Handmaiden
2017	Christopher Nolan	Dunkirk
	Guillermo del Toro	The Shape of Water
	Greta Gerwig	Lady Bird
	Luca Guadagnino	Call Me by Your Name
	Jordan Peele	Get Out
2018	Alfonso Cuarón	Roma [1]
	Bradley Cooper	A Star Is Born
	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Favourite
	Lynne Ramsay	You Were Never Really Here
	Paul Schrader	First Reformed
2019	Bong Joon-ho	Parasite
	Noah Baumbach	Marriage Story
	Greta Gerwig	Little Women
	Martin Scorsese	The Irishman
	Quentin Tarantino	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2020s

Year	Winner and nominees	Film
2020	Chloé Zhao	Nomadland [2] [3]
	Emerald Fennell	Promising Young Woman
	Spike Lee	Da 5 Bloods
	Steve McQueen	Lovers Rock
	Kelly Reichardt	First Cow
2021	Jane Campion	The Power of the Dog [4] [5]
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Licorice Pizza
	Ryusuke Hamaguchi	Drive My Car
	David Lowery	The Green Knight
	Steven Spielberg	West Side Story
2022	Daniel Kwan & Daniel Schinert	Everything Everywhere All at Once
	Park Chan-wook	Decision to Leave
	Todd Field	Tár
	Sarah Polley	Women Talking
	S. S. Rajamouli	RRR
2023	Christopher Nolan	Oppenheimer
	Greta Gerwig	Barbie
	Todd Haynes	May December
	Yorgos Lanthimos	Poor Things
	Martin Scorsese	Killers of the Flower Moon
2024	RaMell Ross	Nickel Boys
	Sean Baker	Anora
	Brady Corbet	The Brutalist
	Coralie Fargeat	The Substance
	Jane Schoenbrun	I Saw the TV Glow

Multiple winners

5 directors have won the award multiple times.

Wins	Director
2	Kathryn Bigelow
	Joel Coen
	Terrence Malick
	Martin Scorsese
	/ Christopher Nolan

References

1. ""Roma" The Big Winner Among Chicago Film Critics". Chicago Film Critics Association. December 8, 2018. Archived from the original on December 9, 2018. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
2. Pedersen, Erik (December 21, 2020). "Chicago Film Critics Awards: 'Nomadland' Scores Best Picture, Director, Actress & Two Others". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved December 22, 2020.
3. Jevens, Darel (December 21, 2020). "Chicago critics choose 'Nomadland' as 2020's best movie". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved December 22, 2020.
4. Anderson, Erik (December 15, 2021). "Chicago Film Critics winners: 'The Power of the Dog' tops with six". AwardsWatch. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
5. Jevens, Darel (December 15, 2021). "Chicago film critics choose 'The Power of the Dog' for top award". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved December 15, 2021.