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Do you want to find out which film director has won the most Oscars? We look at the most successful directors in Oscar wins and what movies they won them for.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, otherwise known as the Oscars, is a prestigious event to celebrate and award the most skilful, artistic and technically impressive pictures in the film industry. 

The awards can be won individually by the film director or from the 24 other awarded categories. Oscar wins are often amalgamated together to portray the winning film's high achievements and the total number of awards. 

Below we break down the fifteen directors whose movies received the highest number of Oscar Awards. 

Steven Spielberg - 32 Oscars

Considered the best and the highest awarded movie director of all time, Steven Spielberg has a reputation for producing an expansive catalogue of box-office hit movies, from Schindler's List (1994) to Jaws (1975) to E.T the Extra-Terrestrial (1983). Throughout his long career, Spielberg's films have won over thirty-two Academy Awards in a multitude of categories, including two personal Best Director Awards.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) was the first film that gained Spielberg a nomination for Best Director. Closely followed by the first Indiana Jones film in the trilogy- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982), and E.T the Extra Terrestrial (1983), gaining Speilberg two more Best Director nominations and various none major award wins. Spielberg won his first Best Director Award for the movie Schindler's List (1994) and was triumphant again for the box-office hit Saving Private Ryan (1999).

In 2021, at the 93rd Academy Awards, Spielberg set a new record, being the first individual to for Best Director in six different decades! Speilberg's movie West Side Story (2021) accomplished his most recent Best Director Nomination.

James Cameron - 21 Oscars

Best-known for his work on the iconic Terminator franchise, Canadian filmmaker James Cameron has personally been awarded three Oscars and five Golden Globes during his career. Cameron's record-breaking films have received a total of 21 Oscars overall, with the majority of Cameron's films having achieved more than one award.

One of Speilberg's most memorable films is the cult-classic Titanic, which won eleven Academy Awards, including the coveted Best Picture, tieing with two other films for most Oscars won for one film.

His film Terminator 2: Judgement Day won four Oscars, including; Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects. Cameron didn't direct the other Terminator films: a mistake the franchise is unlikely to recover from. Another office-hit directed by Cameron is Avatar; the sci-fi film broke a multitude of box office and award win records at the 82nd Academy Awards.

Martin Scorsese - 20 Oscars

Unlike many other famous directors, Martin Scorsese didn't gain his reputation from huge Hollywood blockbusters or franchises. Instead, Scorsese works on individual films to create singular masterpieces exhibiting outstanding craftsmanship in cinematography. Some of his most notable works include Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990) and The Irishman (2019).

Moreover, Scorsese is an award-winning record breaker, being the living director with the most nominations for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Scorsese's more recent films, The Aviator (2004) and Hugo (2011), have won five miscellaneous Oscars each, including Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing. Star-studded movie The Departed also acquired four Oscars, one being the desired Best Director Award. 

Peter Jackson - 20 Oscars

Best-known for his contributions to the Lord of The Rings cinematic world, Peter Jackson is a central figure in modern Hollywood, producing over 25 films so far in his career. Jackson is responsible for creating one of the highest-grossing movie franchises in history, bringing in over $6 Billion in total and seventeen Oscar wins!

Besides his Lord of the Ring achievements, Jackson's monster hit, King Kong (2005), remains an iconic film receiving a total of three Oscar wins.

Francis Ford Coppola - 18 Oscars

Francis Ford Coppola is considered one of the most prominent figures in the New Hollywood movement (the 1960s-1970s). His iconic directing and writing have produced acclaimed movies like The Godfather Trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Jeepers Creepers (2001).

Personally, Coppola has won six Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Out of the cinematic trilogy, the first two Godfather films received nine Oscars between them, including the sought-after Best Picture (1,2) and Best Director (2) Awards.

Moreover, the 1970 hit movie Patton gained Coppola an Oscar for Best Writing, along with six other Oscars. Whilst Apocalypse Now (1979) won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. 

Clint Eastwood - 13 Oscars

Clint Eastwood is a household name, recognised as one of the highest regarded actor-turned-directors of all time. Various acting roles in iconic Spaghetti Westerns movies like in the Dollars Trilogy (1964, 1965 & 1966) created his sterling reputation in cinema history. Gradually Eastwood began directing the films he starred in, including, Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), the latter winning four Oscars, including the coveted Best Picture and Best Director.

Eastwood's highest-grossing film, American Sniper (2014), received one Oscar for Best Sound Editing at the 87th Academy Awards. Whilst classic Spaghetti Western: Unforgiven (1992) earned four Oscars, including desired Best Picture and Best Director. 

Ang Lee - 12 Oscars

Taiwanese film producer, director and screenwriter Ang Lee is considered one of today's greatest filmmakers, with his movies receiving a total of twelve Academy Award wins. One of his most notable works is the enchanting and mythical survivor movie Life of Pi (2013), which received eleven Oscar nominations and four wins, including Best Director and Best Visual Effects.

Before 2013, Lee's movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) won the same number of Academy Awards as Life of Pi and is regarded as one of the most influential movies of its time. Lee also won three Oscars for his groundbreaking film Brokeback Mountain (2005), which followed a complicated homosexual love story.

Sam Mendes - 12 Oscars

Sam Mendes has only directed eight movies, five of which have won various Oscars. In 1999, Mendes's debut movie American Beauty won him the Best Director award from the Academy (Oscars) and the Golden Globes, plus four other Oscars. Mendes' more recent war drama film, 1917 (2019), was a box-office hit, and at the 92nd Academy Awards, it gained ten nominations and won three Oscar wins.

Mendes is known for his stretch in the James Bond cinematic world, directing two of the biggest and best-rated films, Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), collectively winning three miscellaneous Academy Awards.

Damien Chazelle - 10 Oscars

Record-breaking Damien Chazelle became the youngest person to win the Best Director Award (Oscars) since 1931 and Best Director Golden Globe in 1972, beating the celebrated Francis Ford Coppola's win for his movie the Godfather (1972).

Chazelle won the Best Director Academy Award for the musical drama La La Land (2016), with the movie acquiring five other awards. Moreover, Chazelle's previous works Whiplash (2014) won three Oscars, and First Man (2018) won an award for Best Visual Effects. 

Alfonso Cuarón - 10 Oscars

Recording breaking film director Alfonso Cuarón is one of only three people to receive Oscar nominations in six different categories, along with famed Walt Disney and George Clooney. Cuarón was also the first Mexican and Hispanic to win the coveted Best Director Award for his smash-hit Gravity (2013), receiving a second for Roma (2018). Cuarón also directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, although the franchised film only received two nominations.

His acclaimed movie Gravity won seven Oscars in various categories, including, Best Picture, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design and many more. 

Christopher Nolan - 10 Oscars

Regrettably, the only director on our list without a 'Best Picture' or 'Best Director' Award is British-American film producer, director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan. Even though Nolan has directed some box-office smashes like The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014), his movies have never received the coveted top awards.

Instead, Nolan's films, like Inception, have won awards in other categories; Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. Dunkirk (2017) won three similar awards, sadly missing out on the top awards.

Alejandro González Iñárritu - 8 Oscars

Mexican film producer, director and screenwriter Alejandro González Iñárritu is widely-recognised for his focus on the human condition, using this interest to produce various modern psychological drama films. For his directing and writing, Iñárritu has won five personal Academy Awards, with his movies receiving more.

Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015) are two of Alejandro's most awarded and highly regarded movies. At the 87th Academy Awards, Birdman won four Oscars, one of which being the admired Best Picture. And at the 88th Academy Awards, The Revenant won three Oscars; Best Oscar, Best Cinematography, and lastly, Best Actor for the patient Leonardo DiCaprio.

Kathryn Bigelow - 7 Oscars

Kathryn Bigelow is the first female director to win the Best Director Award at the Academy Awards since it began in 1927. Bigelow's direction of The Hurt Locker (2008) won her the most Oscars in her career, receiving the esteemed Best Picture and Best Director, along with four other Oscars, making it six Oscars in total.

Other acclaimed films Bigelow has directed include Point Break (1991) and Detroit (2017), both of which are popular with audiences and film critics. In 2012, her film Zero Dark Thirty won one Academy Award for the highly regarded Best Picture.

Guillermo Del Toro - 7 Oscars

Guillermo del Toro Gómez is a Mexican film producer, director, screenwriter and author renowned for directing several treasured and mystical films, from Hellboy (2004) to Pacific Rim (2013). Guillermo Del Toro's romantic fantasy film The Shape of Water won numerous Oscars at the 90th Academy Awards and was the most nominated film of the year. In 2018, the movie won Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Production Design and the highest regarded award, Best Picture.

Moreover, although Pan's Labyrinth didn't win any directing awards for Del Toro, the movie won three Oscars for production, cinematography, design and make-up. 

Bong Joon-Ho - 4 Oscars

South Korean film producer, director and screenwriter Bong Joon-ho is renowned for his skilful filmography, producing acclaimed works from The Host (2006) to Snowpiercer (2013). Recently Joon-Ho's box-office hit picture Parasite (2019) gained him recognition at the Academy Awards (Oscars).

'Parasite' was the first non-English language movie to top the Oscars, receiving the Best Picture Award at the 92nd Academy Awards. 

Bong Joon-Ho won Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for the record-breaking 2019 film. In 2020, Parasite won the Best Picture Award again and gained the Best International Feature Film Award. In total, the acclaimed movie won four Academy Awards (Oscars). 

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