Best Director

1943 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerBataanTay GarnettIn 1942, in the Bataan peninsula of the Philippines, a ragtag American unit commanded by Sergeant Bill Dane attempts to blow-up a bridge in order to slow the Japanese advance.AmazonCasablancaMichael CurtizA cynical American expatriate struggles to decide whether or not he should help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape French Morocco.AmazonThe Ox-Bow IncidentWilliam A. WellmanWhen a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.Amazon

1945 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerThe SouthernerJean RenoirThe life of the poor Tucker family, that worked as cotton pluggers and decided to get their own ground, but nature is against them.Amazon

1946 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerThe Best Years of Our LivesWilliam WylerThree World War II veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.Amazon

1947 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerBoomerang!Elia KazanThe true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.Amazon

1948 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerPaisanRoberto RosselliniThe language barrier has tragic consequences in a series of unrelated stories set during the Italian Campaign of WWII.Amazon

1949 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerBicycle ThievesVittorio De SicaIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.Amazon

1950 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerThe Asphalt JungleJohn HustonA major heist goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.Amazon

1951 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerRashomonAkira KurosawaThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.Amazon

1952 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerThe Sound BarrierDavid LeanFictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.Amazon

1982 National Board of Review - Best Director WinnerThe VerdictSidney LumetA lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.Amazon