Who is the youngest person to win the Best Director Oscar?
Since the first Academy Award ceremony took place in 1929 at a private dinner in Hollywood, over 3,140 recipients have recieved a coveted gold statuette. The ceremony was first broadcast on the radio in 1930 before making its television debut in 1953. As the oldest worldwide entertainment award ceremony, it is now recognised as the most prestigious in cinema, raking in over 15.36 million viewers in America alone earlier this year.
As of writing, 74 filmmakers have been awarded the Best Director prize since the ceremony’s inception, with the most recent recipient being Jane Campion for her 2021 drama The Power of the Dog. However, when the ceremony began, the Best Director category was divided into two categories, ‘Dramatic’ and ‘Comedy’, with Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone taking home the first prizes, respectively.
The category has faced much scrutiny over the years for its lack of diversity. In the history of the Academy Awards, only seven women have been nominated for Best Director, with only three taking home the prize. The first female recipient, Kathryn Bigelow, didn’t win the award until as late as 2010. Only three Asian and three Latin American directors have won the prize, with Chloe Zhao becoming the only Asian woman to win in 2021.
Even more disappointing is the fact there have been no black winners of the prize, highlighting the Academy’s overwhelming whiteness. There have been six black nominees in the category, including Spike Lee, Steve McQueen and Barry Jenkins. However, Boyz in the Hood director John Singleton made history when he became the first black filmmaker nominated for the award in 1991. He also holds the record for the youngest person to be nominated in the category, at just 24 years old.
Singleton would still be the youngest Best Director winner if he had won the prize. Instead, that title belongs to Damien Chazelle, who won the respected award for his work on La La Land when he was 32. The Academy first recognised Chazelle in 2015 for his film Whiplash, which earned five nominations, including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. However, in 2017, La La Land was up for a whopping 14 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
La La Land won six awards, with Chazelle taking home the Best Director prize. The film was also part of the infamous mix-up wherein Faye Dunaway mistakenly announced it as the winner of Best Picture instead of Moonlight. Chazelle’s romantic musical was one of the year’s biggest films, cementing the director as one of contemporary cinema’s most exciting talents.
The director’s next release is Babylon, an epic period comedy-drama starring an ensemble cast including Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. The highly-anticipated film will be released on December 23rd, 2022, just in time for Christmas.
