Which director has the most Oscar nominations?
Art might well be the primary directive, but it’s every up-and-coming director’s dream to one day be on the Oscar stage.
Although there has been a fair share of phenomenal films that the Academy Awards don’t even touch, any movie will want to reach the broadest audience it can, telling a story that almost anyone can relate to. When a director hits on a formula that works, though, an Oscar nomination can feel like second nature.
Grabbing a coveted nomination, or even the win, might not feel perfectly aligned with artistic integrity, but a slow buildup of Academy acclaim can allow you greater freedoms, bigger budgets and better casting with every new movie.
For as long as the ceremony has been held, directors have notched up numerous films that The Academy has considered better than most. Among the highest nominated directors are modern cinematic visionaries like Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, earning ten and nine nominations, respectively, for their awe-inspiring works of visual art.
To be honoured in the ceremony is a dream for most filmmakers, but as every winner will likely tell you, as part of an unruly acceptance speech, “to be nominated is enough”, and a director gaining a ream of nods from their peers is perhaps one of the finest achievements a filmmaker can get. One director has received way more than anybody else.
Which director has the most Academy Award nominations?
When talking about the most decorated nominee in Oscar history, that distinction goes to William Wyler. Throughout his golden age of direction, Wyler collected 12 Oscar nominations for ‘Best Director’ for his various works of art. No one gets to that point without starting at the bottom, though, and Wyler’s story is that of relentless perseverance.
When he was first hired, Wyler became one of the youngest workers at Universal Studios. He was known for his intense work ethic and need for perfection. When sitting behind the director’s chair, Wyler would tell vast stories that had more to do with the grand scope of films than a linear narrative.
Despite being nominated 12 times, Wyler only earned the ‘Best Director’ nod three times during his career, winning for Mrs Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur. Although each film also took home ‘Best Picture’ for their respective years, they also point to different strengths that Wyler possessed at the best of times.
While Mrs Miniver serves as a war drama centred around the relationship, Wyler’s grasp on romantic cinema was engaging from start to finish. When working on Years of Our Lives, though, the same war backdrop was given a completely different outlook. As opposed to the tale of romantic devotion, Wyler paints a picture of men coming home from World War II and never being able to settle back into their usual surroundings.
Then again, all of the films Wyler made seemed to be building towards Ben-Hur, one of the most showered movies in Oscar history, earning 11 awards that night for everything from ‘Best Picture’ to ‘Best Actor/Actress’ to ‘Best Sound Editing’. While the scope of the film wowed audiences at the time, the strength behind the film has only endured as time has gone on.
Even over six decades years removed from its initial release, Ben-Hur has been a model for the most engaging sequences in film history, putting cinema on the same level as grand theatrical pieces and exploring what can be done when given free rein over what can be done behind the camera. While Scorsese might trail behind Wyler at nine nominations, even he has admitted to the power behind the directorial style, telling AFI, “When the chariot race is done, especially if it’s on a big screen, it’s one of the most thrilling, beautifully crafted and artfully made sequences in movie history”.
