Click through each award to see the full list of nominees and winners!
2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Uncut Gems
Benny Safdie
2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
If Beale Street Could Talk
Barry Jenkins
2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Get Out
Jordan Peele
2017 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Moonlight
Barry Jenkins
2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Spotlight
Tom McCarthy
2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Boyhood
Richard Linklater
2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen
2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Silver Linings Playbook
David O. Russell
2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
The Artist
Michel Hazanavicius
2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky
2010 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Precious
Lee Daniels
2009 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
The Visitor
Tom McCarthy
2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Julian Schnabel
2007 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Little Miss Sunshine
Jonathan Dayton
2006 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee
2005 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Sideways
Alexander Payne
2004 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola
2003 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Far from Heaven
Todd Haynes
2002 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Memento
Christopher Nolan
2001 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ang Lee
2000 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Election
Alexander Payne
1999 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Rushmore
Wes Anderson
1998 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
The Apostle
Robert Duvall
1997 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Fargo
Joel Coen
1996 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Leaving Las Vegas
Mike Figgis
1995 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino
1994 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Short Cuts
Robert Altman
1993 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
One False Move
Carl Franklin
1992 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Rambling Rose
Martha Coolidge
1991 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
To Sleep with Anger
Charles Burnett
1990 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Steven Soderbergh
1989 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Stand and Deliver
Ramón Menéndez
1988 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
The Dead
John Huston
1987 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
Platoon
Oliver Stone
1986 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
After Hours
Martin Scorsese
1986 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Best Director
