Mar 02 2009
Aye Aye Captain! (Directors with most Oscars)
”The director is in charge of keeping the wheels turning. Handling the moods and egos, the politics and personalities, the insecurities of everyone on set.” The director as the cliché goes is the captain of the ship; there are no two ways about it. He is the one who visualizes the whole project, and brings it alive on screen; it is through his eyes that we see a film, consequently if anything goes wrong it’s obviously his head.
If the director knows his job, he can make even the worst of the actors perform on screen. I personally feel when a particular movie is etched in our memory, the credit for it should mainly go to the director, from deciding the camera angles to calling the shots regarding the dialogues for a particular scene, the director takes a call on everything.
From handling the pressures of budgeting to handling star tantrums, to deciding on an apt location or landscape for a particular scene, all of this keeping the audience in mind, something even a US President might find difficult to do. A Director does all of the above and probably more, and after all of this the ones who manage to come out trumps more often than the others, surely deserve to run for the President for they already know the pulse of the people.
Listed below are some of the finest Directors in the history of Hollywood, ones who have won 2 Oscars or more, it makes you wonder, what keeps them ticking………………..
DIRECTORS WITH 4 AWARDS
John Ford [5 Nominations]
1935 (8th) - The Informer
1940 (13th) - The Grapes of Wrath
1941 (14th) - How Green Was My Valley
1952 (25th) - The Quiet Man
DIRECTORS WITH 3 AWARDS
Frank Capra [6 Nominations]
1934 (7th) - It Happened One Night
1936 (9th) - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1938 (11th) - You Can’t Take It with You
William Wyler [12 Nominations]
1942 (15th) - Mrs. Miniver
1946 (19th) - The Best Years of Our Lives
1959 (32nd) - Ben-Hur
DIRECTORS WITH 2 AWARDS
Lewis Milestone [3 Nominations]
1927/28 (1st) - Two Arabian Knights (Directing - Comedy Picture)
1929/30 (3rd) - All Quiet on the Western Front
Frank Borzage [2 Nominations]
1927/28 (1st) - 7th Heaven (Directing - Dramatic Picture)
1931/32 (5th) - Bad Girl
Frank Lloyd [3 Nominations]
1928/29 (2nd) - The Divine Lady
1932/33 (6th) - Cavalcade
Leo McCarey [3 Nominations]
1937 (10th) - The Awful Truth
1944 (17th) - Going My Way
Joseph L. Mankiewicz [4 Nominations]
1949 (22nd) - A Letter to Three Wives
1950 (23rd) - All about Eve
Elia Kazan [5 Nominations]
1947 (20th) - Gentleman’s Agreement
1954 (27th) - On the Waterfront
George Stevens [5 Nominations]
1951 (24th) - A Place in the Sun
1956 (29th) - Giant
Billy Wilder [8 Nominations]
1945 (18th) - The Lost Weekend
1960 (33rd) - The Apartment
David Lean [7 Nominations]
1957 (30th) - The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962 (35th) - Lawrence of Arabia
Robert Wise [3 Nominations]
1961 (34th) - West Side Story (co-directed with Jerome Robbins)
1965 (38th) - The Sound of Music
Fred Zinnemann [7 Nominations]
1953 (26th) - From Here to Eternity
1966 (39th) - A Man for All Seasons
Milos Forman [3 Nominations]
1975 (48th) - One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1984 (57th) - Amadeus
Oliver Stone [3 Nominations]
1986 (59th) - Platoon
1989 (62nd) - Born on the Fourth of July
Steven Spielberg [6 Nominations]
1993 (66th) - Schindler’s List
1998 (71st) - Saving Private Ryan
Clint Eastwood [4 Nominations]
1992 (65th) - Unforgiven
2004 (77th) - Million Dollar Baby
In the end I would like to add that there are lots of directors who aren’t on this list but are probably more talented than or at least as talented as the ones on the list, unfortunately the Academy failed to recognize their talents as often as it should probably have. In the future I shall compile a list of my Top 5 greatest Directors of all time, where a few of them who aren’t on the list will find a mention.
