Oscar Nominees and Winner's Directors

I’ve just completed some extensive work on directors in relation to Oscar nominees. I already had the complete list of Oscar Winner’s directors, and I’ve spent the last week doing the nominees. Here are the findings and some interesting facts.

Note: Some films have uncredited directors and I have counted them. For example, George Cukor, Sam Wood and Victor Fleming all got credited for nominations.

-William Wyler has the most actor nominations with 35! His closest competitor is George Cukor with 25.

-Martin Scorcese has the most for an active director with 20. Both Mike Nichols and Sidney Lumet are second with 18, while Woody Allen has 16.

-198 separate directors only have one nominations for actors, while 79 only have two.

-John Cromwell and Mark Robson have the most actor nominations without a win with 10 each. Otto Premenger is third with nine.

-Steven Spielberg has the most actor nominations for an active director without a win with nine. The closest other active director is Ang Lee with only five.

-63 directors got their actors a win with their first try, while 26 got their actors a win with their only directed nomination.

-Jerome Robins and Robert Z. Leonard are the only directors with multiple nominations and have won all (both have two).

-Of the Top 50 in nominations, Jonathan Demme (4 for 8) and Clint Eastwood (5 of 10) have the best win percentage at 50%.

-Of the Top 50 in nominations with at least one win, George Stevens (1 of 18) has the worst winning percentage at 6%, Alfred Hitchcock (1 of 9) is second with 11%, Clarence Brown (2 of 12) is third with 17% and Frank Capra (2 of 11) is fourth with 18%.

-John Huston went the longest between his first actor nomination and his last at 44 years. George Cukor is tied for second at 41 years with Mike Nichols, who has the most for an active director. Martin Scorcese is the closest other active director with 32 years.

-The most prolific span of acting nominations for a director was Hal Ashby, whose actors earned 11 nominations in just nine years (1970-79). Second is James Ivory with eight in nine years (1984-93).

If anyone wants the comprehensive lists of both Oscar Winner’s Directors and Oscar Nominee’s Directors, I’ll be more than happy to oblidge. Just send me an email and I’ll send it over.