Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/the-films-that-won-best-picture-without-a-best-director-nomination/
Best Picture and Best Director usually travel as a pair. The Academy has handed out the top prize 98 times, and 71 of those winners also took Best Director. That leaves a smaller group where the two categories split.
Inside that group sits an even narrower one: films that won the top prize while their director never made the final five at all. There are only six, spread across nearly a century. Each got there by a different route.
Why a Missing Director Nomination Is So Unusual
Voting for the two awards works differently. Best Picture goes to the producers and is the only category where every Academy member can nominate and vote. Directors are nominated by the directors’ branch alone.
That split explains how a film can be loved broadly but overlooked by the people who make films for a living. It also explains why the gap is rare. In most years, a film strong enough to win the top prize also earns attention from the directors’ branch.
Wings (1927/28)
Wings, a silent First World War aviation drama, was honored at the very first ceremony. William A. Wellman directed it, but he wasn’t among the director winners. Frank Borzage won for 7th Heaven, and Lewis Milestone won for Two Arabian Knights, because the early Oscars split the directing prize into dramatic and comedy categories.
So Wings is a slightly special case. The directing rules of that…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-10-13 11:14:00
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