Empire Award for Best Director

Empire Award for Best Director
Awarded for	Best film direction
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	Empire magazine
First awarded	1996
Currently held by	J. J. Abrams - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016)

The Empire Award for Best Director is an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine Empire to honor directors working within the film industry. The Empire Award for Best Director is one of five ongoing awards which were first introduced at the 1st Empire Awards ceremony in 1996 (the others being Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film and Best British Film) with Danny Boyle receiving the award for his direction of Shallow Grave. Winners are voted by the readers of Empire magazine.

Since its inception, the award has been given to 16 directors. Christopher Nolan has received the most awards in this category with three awards. Christopher Nolan and Peter Jackson were nominated on seven occasions, more than any other director. Kathryn Bigelow was the only female director to be nominated for the award. Christopher Nolan is the most recent winner in this category for his direction of Interstellar.

Winners and nominees

In the list below, winners are listed first in boldface, followed by the other nominees. The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article (if any) on that ceremony.

1990s

Year	Director	Film	Ref.
1996 (1st)	Danny Boyle	Shallow Grave	[1]
1997 (2nd)	Terry Gilliam	12 Monkeys	[2]
1998 (3rd)	Cameron Crowe	Jerry Maguire	[3]
1999 (4th)	Steven Spielberg	Saving Private Ryan	[4][5]
	Ang Lee	The Ice Storm
	James Cameron	Titanic
	Peter Weir	The Truman Show
	Steven Soderbergh	Out of Sight

2000s

Year	Director	Film	Ref.
2000 (5th)	M. Night Shyamalan	The Sixth Sense	[6][7]
	Ang Lee	Ride with the Devil
	Andy and Lana Wachowski	The Matrix
	David Fincher	Fight Club
	George Lucas	Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
2001 (6th)	Bryan Singer	X-Men	[8][9]
	Ang Lee	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
	Christopher Nolan	Memento
	Michael Mann	The Insider
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Magnolia
2002 (7th)	Baz Luhrmann	Moulin Rouge!	[10][11] [12]
	Cameron Crowe	Almost Famous
	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
	Steven Soderbergh	Traffic
	Steven Spielberg	A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2003 (8th)	Steven Spielberg	Minority Report	[13]
	M. Night Shyamalan	Signs
	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
	Sam Raimi	Spider-Man
	Steven Soderbergh	Ocean's Eleven
2004 (9th)	Quentin Tarantino	Kill Bill: Volume 1	[14]
	Anthony Minghella	Cold Mountain
	Joel and Ethan Coen	Intolerable Cruelty
	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
	Peter Weir	Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2005 (10th)	Sam Raimi	Spider-Man 2	[15]
	M. Night Shyamalan	The Village
	Michael Mann	Collateral
	Michel Gondry	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
	Quentin Tarantino	Kill Bill: Volume 2
2006 (11th)	Nick Park and Steve Box	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	[lower-alpha 1][16] [17][18]
	Christopher Nolan	Batman Begins
	Joe Wright	Pride & Prejudice
	Peter Jackson	King Kong
	Ron Howard	Cinderella Man
	Steven Spielberg	War of the Worlds
2007 (12th)	Christopher Nolan	The Prestige	[19]
	Bryan Singer	Superman Returns
	George Clooney	Good Night, and Good Luck
	Guillermo del Toro	Pan's Labyrinth
	Martin Scorsese	The Departed
2008 (13th)	David Yates	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	[20]
	David Fincher	Zodiac
	Edgar Wright	Hot Fuzz
	Joe Wright	Atonement
	Paul Greengrass	The Bourne Ultimatum
2009 (14th)	Christopher Nolan	The Dark Knight	[21]
	Andrew Stanton	WALL-E
	Joel and Ethan Coen	No Country for Old Men
	Paul Thomas Anderson	There Will Be Blood
	Tim Burton	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2010s

Year	Director	Film	Ref.
2010 (15th)	James Cameron	Avatar	[22][23]
	J. J. Abrams	Star Trek
	Kathryn Bigelow	The Hurt Locker
	Neill Blomkamp	District 9
	Quentin Tarantino	Inglourious Basterds
2011 (16th)	Edgar Wright	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	[24][25]
	Christopher Nolan	Inception
	David Fincher	The Social Network
	Matthew Vaughn	Kick-Ass
	Tom Hooper	The King's Speech
2012 (17th)	David Yates	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	[26]
	Nicolas Winding Refn	Drive
	Rupert Wyatt	Rise of the Planet of the Apes
	Steven Spielberg	War Horse
	Tomas Alfredson	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2013 (18th)	Sam Mendes	Skyfall	[27]
	Christopher Nolan	The Dark Knight Rises
	Joss Whedon	The Avengers
	Peter Jackson	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
	Quentin Tarantino	Django Unchained
2014 (19th)	Alfonso Cuarón	Gravity	[28]
	Edgar Wright	The World's End
	Paul Greengrass	Captain Phillips
	Peter Jackson	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
	Steve McQueen	12 Years a Slave
2015 (20th)	Christopher Nolan	Interstellar	[29][30]
	Matt Reeves	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
	Morten Tyldum	The Imitation Game
	Peter Jackson	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
	Richard Linklater	Boyhood
2016 (21st)	J. J. Abrams	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	[31]
	Ryan Coogler	Creed
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	The Revenant
	George Miller	Mad Max: Fury Road
	Ridley Scott	The Martian

Notes

1. The 11th Empire Awards in 2006 had six nominees (instead of the usual five) for Best Director.

Multiple awards and nominations

Multiple awards

The following individuals received two or more Best Director awards:

Awards	Film
3	Christopher Nolan
2	David Yates
	Steven Spielberg

Multiple nominations

The following individuals received two or more Best Director nominations:

Nominations	Film
7	Christopher Nolan
	Peter Jackson
5	Steven Spielberg
4	Quentin Tarantino
3	Ang Lee
	David Fincher
	Edgar Wright
	M. Night Shyamalan
	Steven Soderbergh
2	Bryan Singer
	Cameron Crowe
	David Yates
	J. J. Abrams
	James Cameron
	Joel and Ethan Coen
	Joe Wright
	Michael Mann
	Paul Greengrass
	Paul Thomas Anderson
	Peter Weir
	Sam Raimi

References

1. "Past Winners - 1996". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
2. "Past Winners - 1997". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
3. "Past Winners - 1998". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
4. "Best Director". Empireonline.co.uk. 1999. Archived from the original on August 19, 2000.
5. "Past Winners - 1999". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
6. "Past Winners - 2000". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
7. "Empire 2000 Awards: Nominations Announced. Sixth Sense is an early leader". Empireonline.com (Bauer Consumer Media). February 2, 2000. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
8. "Past Winners - 2001". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
9. "Best Director". Empireonline.co.uk. 2001. Archived from the original on June 20, 2002.
10. "2002 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
11. "Best Director". Empireonline.co.uk. 2001. Archived from the original on August 17, 2002.
12. "Empire Awards 2002: Best Director Award". Empire (Bauer Consumer Media) (#154): 56. April 2002. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
13. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
14. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2004. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
15. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2005. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
16. "2006 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
17. "2006 Awards Winners Announced! The Sony Ericsson Empire Awards in full". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. March 13, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
18. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2006. Archived from the original on June 16, 2013.
19. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
20. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2008. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
21. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
22. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2010. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
23. Reynolds, Simon (February 25, 2010). "In Full: Empire Awards 2010 nominees". digitalspy.co.uk. Digital Spy. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
24. "2011 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
25. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2011. Archived from the original on June 14, 2013.
26. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2012. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
27. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
28. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
29. "Best Director". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
30. Barraclough, Leo (March 30, 2015). "‘Interstellar’ wins Film, Director at Empire Awards". Variety.com (Penske Business Media). Retrieved March 30, 2015.
31. Jameson Empire Awards 2016: Star Wars and Mad Max lead the nominations

External links