Click through each award to see the full list of nominees and winners!
2019 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Young Ahmed
Jean-Pierre Dardenne
2018 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Cold War
Pawel Pawlikowski
2017 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Beguiled
Sofia Coppola
2016 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Graduation
Cristian Mungiu
2016 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Personal Shopper
Olivier Assayas
2015 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Assassin
Hsiao-Hsien Hou
2014 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Foxcatcher
Bennett Miller
2013 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Heli
Amat Escalante
2012 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Post Tenebras Lux
Carlos Reygadas
2011 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Drive
Nicolas Winding Refn
2010 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
On Tour
Mathieu Amalric
2009 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Kinatay
Brillante Mendoza
2008 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Three Monkeys
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2007 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Julian Schnabel
2006 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Babel
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
2005 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Caché
Michael Haneke
2004 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Exiles
Tony Gatlif
2003 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Elephant
Gus Van Sant
2002 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Painted Fire
Kwon-taek Im
2002 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Punch-Drunk Love
Paul Thomas Anderson
2001 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Mulholland Drive
David Lynch
2001 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Joel Coen
2000 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Yi yi
Edward Yang
1999 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
All About My Mother
Pedro Almodóvar
1998 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The General
John Boorman
1997 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Happy Together
Kar-Wai Wong
1996 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Fargo
Joel Coen
1995 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
La haine
Mathieu Kassovitz
1994 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Dear Diary
Nanni Moretti
1993 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Naked
Mike Leigh
1992 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Player
Robert Altman
1991 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Barton Fink
Joel Coen
1990 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Taxi Blues
Pavel Lungin
1989 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Time of the Gypsies
Emir Kusturica
1988 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The South
Fernando E. Solanas
1987 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders
1986 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
After Hours
Martin Scorsese
1985 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Rendez-vous
André Téchiné
1984 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
A Sunday in the Country
Bertrand Tavernier
1983 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
L’argent
Robert Bresson
1983 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Nostalgia
Andrei Tarkovsky
1982 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog
1979 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick
1978 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Empire of Passion
Nagisa Ôshima
1976 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Ugly, Dirty and Bad
Ettore Scola
1975 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Orderers
Michel Brault
1975 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Special Section
Costa-Gavras
1972 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Red Psalm
Miklós Jancsó
1970 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Leo the Last
John Boorman
1969 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
All My Compatriots
Vojtech Jasný
1969 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Antonio das Mortes
Glauber Rocha
1967 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Tízezer nap
Ferenc Kósa
1966 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Lenin v Polshe
Sergei Yutkevich
1965 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Forest of the Hanged
Liviu Ciulei
1961 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Story of the Flaming Years
Yuliya Solntseva
1959 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The 400 Blows
François Truffaut
1958 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Brink of Life
Ingmar Bergman
1957 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
A Man Escaped
Robert Bresson
1956 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Othello
Sergei Yutkevich
1955 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Heroes of Shipka
Sergey Vasilev
1955 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Rififi
Jules Dassin
1952 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
Fanfan la Tulipe
Christian-Jaque
1951 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Young and the Damned
Luis Buñuel
1949 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
The Walls of Malapaga
René Clément
1946 Cannes Film Festival – Best Director
