Age of the directors who have won the Best Picture award

- The average age for the Oscar winners is 47 (considering the day of the ceremony and the birthdate of the director).
- There are only 3 women on the list: Sian Heder, Chloé Zhao and Kathryn Bigelow.
- Youngest Winner: William A. Wellman in 1927 (1st Edition). He was 32 years old.
- Oldest Winner: Clint Eastwood. He was 74 years old when he won with 'Million Dollar Baby'.

A tick means that a Best Picture Oscar Winner director also won the Best Director award.

Year	Film	Director	Age:
2026	One Battle After Another	Paul Thomas Anderson	55
2025	Anora	Sean Baker	54
2024	Oppenheimer	Christopher Nolan	53
2023	Everything Everywhere All at Once	Dan Kwan \| Daniel Scheinert	35 \| 35
2022	CODA	Sian Heder	44
2021	Nomadland	Chloé Zhao	39
2020	Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	50
2019	Green Book	Peter Farrelly	62
2018	The Shape of Water	Guillermo del Toro	53
2017	Moonlight	Barry Jenkins	37
2016	Spotlight	Thomas McCarthy	49
2015	Birdman	Alejandro González Iñárritu	51
2014	12 Years a Slave	Steve McQueen	44
2013	Argo	Ben Affleck	40
2012	The Artist	Michel Hazanavicius	44
2011	The King's Speech	Tom Hooper	38
2010	The Hurt Locker	Kathryn Bigelow	58
2009	Slumdog Millionaire	Danny Boyle	52
2008	No Country for Old Men	Ethan Coen	50
2008	No Country for Old Men	Joel Coen	53
2007	The Departed	Martin Scorsese	64
2006	Crash	Paul Haggis	52
2005	Million Dollar Baby	Clint Eastwood	74
2004	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Peter Jackson	42
2003	Chicago	Rob Marshall	42
2002	A Beautiful Mind	Ron Howard	48
2001	Gladiator	Ridley Scott	63
2000	American Beauty	Sam Mendes	34
1999	Shakespeare in Love	John Madden	49
1998	Titanic	James Cameron	43
1997	The English Patient	Anthony Minghella	43
1996	Braveheart	Mel Gibson	40
1995	Forrest Gump	Robert Zemeckis	42
1994	Schindler's List	Steven Spielberg	47
1993	Unforgiven	Clint Eastwood	62
1992	The Silence of the Lambs	Jonathan Demme	48
1991	Dances with Wolves	Kevin Costner	36
1990	Driving Miss Daisy	Bruce Beresford	49
1989	Rain Man	Barry Levinson	46
1988	The Last Emperor	Bernardo Bertolucci	47
1987	Platoon	Oliver Stone	40
1986	Out of Africa	Sydney Pollack	51
1985	Amadeus	Milos Forman	53
1984	Terms of Endearment	James L. Brooks	43
1983	Gandhi	Richard Attenborough	59
1982	Chariots of Fire	Hugh Hudson	45
1981	Ordinary People	Robert Redford	44
1980	Kramer vs. Kramer	Robert Benton	47
1979	The Deer Hunter	Michael Cimino	40
1978	Annie Hall	Woody Allen	42
1977	Rocky	John G. Avildsen	41
1976	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Milos Forman	44
1975	The Godfather: Part II	Francis Ford Coppola	36
1974	The Sting	George Roy Hill	52
1973	The Godfather	Francis Ford Coppola	33
1972	The French Connection	William Friedkin	36
1971	Patton	Franklin J. Schaffner	50
1970	Midnight Cowboy	John Schlesinger	44
1969	Oliver!	Carol Reed	62
1968	In the Heat of the Night	Norman Jewison	41
1967	A Man for All Seasons	Fred Zinnemann	59
1966	The Sound of Music	Robert Wise	51
1965	My Fair Lady	George Cukor	65
1964	Tom Jones	Tony Richardson	35
1963	Lawrence of Arabia	David Lean	55
1962	West Side Story	Robert Wise	47
1962	West Side Story	Jerome Robbins	43
1961	The Apartment	Billy Wilder	54
1960	Ben-Hur	William Wyler	57
1959	Gigi	Vincente Minnelli	56
1958	The Bridge on the River Kwai	David Lean	50
1957	Around the World in 80 Days	Michael Anderson	37
1956	Marty	Delbert Mann	36
1955	On the Waterfront	Elia Kazan	45
1954	From Here to Eternity	Fred Zinnemann	46
1953	The Greatest Show on Earth	Cecil B. DeMille	71
1952	An American in Paris	Vincente Minnelli	49
1951	All About Eve	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	42
1950	All the King's Men	Robert Rossen	42
1949	Hamlet	Laurence Olivier	41
1948	Gentleman's Agreement	Elia Kazan	38
1947	The Best Years of Our Lives	William Wyler	44
1946	The Lost Weekend	Billy Wilder	39
1945	Going My Way	Leo McCarey	46
1944	Casablanca	Michael Curtiz	57
1943	Mrs. Miniver	William Wyler	40
1942	How Green Was My Valley	John Ford	48
1941	Rebecca	Alfred Hitchcock	41
1940	Gone with the Wind	Victor Fleming	51
1939	You Can't Take It with You	Frank Capra	41
1938	The Life of Emile Zola	William Dieterle	44
1937	The Great Ziegfeld	Robert Z. Leonard	47
1936	Mutiny on the Bounty	Frank Lloyd	50
1935	It Happened One Night	Frank Capra	37
1934	Cavalcade	Frank Lloyd	48
1932	Grand Hotel	Edmund Goulding	41
1931	Cimarron	Wesley Ruggles	42
1930	All Quiet on the Western Front	Lewis Milestone	35
1929	The Broadway Melody	Harry Beaumont	41
1928	Wings	William A. Wellman	32
Average Age:

About this section:

A tick means that a Best Picture winner also won the Best Director award.

The 1st column: year awarded by the Academy. The 4th column: colors: blue: the oldest one. green: the youngest. Interesting facts:

- There are only 3 women on the list: Sian Heder, Chloé Zhao and Kathryn Bigelow.
- The youngest: with 32 years old William A. Wellman won in the 1st Academy Awards (1927). Followed by Coppola at 33.
- The oldest: Clint Eastwood was awarded at 74 years old.
- The most productive age is 44 years old (8 directors won Best Picture).
- Only twice has a Best Picture winner been directed by someone who was not nominated for Best Director: Ben Affleck (Argo, 2013) and Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, 1990).

Outside the list of winners, but including Best Picture/Best Director Oscar nominees, extremes stand out:
- John Huston was 79 years old when he was nominated for 'Prizzi's Honor'.
- John Singleton was 24 years old when he was nominated for Best Director (not Best Picture though) thanks to 'Boyz N the Hood'.
- The youngest Best Picture and Best Director nominee (without winning) was the great Orson Welles, who was nominated for 'Citizen Kane'.

If we consider the Best Director Oscar winners -who did not win Best Picture-, the average age is slightly reduced: 46 (meaning, the average age of the Best Director winners is 46, for Best Picture winners is 47: obviously, in several years it was the same person). Among these winners, the most relevant data are:
- The master, John Ford, won 3 Best Director awards, apart from the one he won in 1942 ('How Green Was my Valley') to collect a total of 4 statuettes (a record still unbeaten) from 5 nominations. He won them in the years 1936, 1941 and 1953 with 42, 47 and 59 years old, respectively.
- The youngest Best Director award winner is Norman Taurog (1931), at 32 years old, the same age (but several months older) as William A. Wellman (1927).
- Summarizing, among the most awarded with Best Director, John Ford has 4 Oscars, William Wyler and Frank Capra have 3, and 17 filmmakers have 2 statuettes, from which only Eastwood, Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, Cuarón and Iñárritu are active.
- Among the most nominated, William Wyler received 12 nominations, Martin Scorsese 10 and Billy Wilder received 8.
- George Stevens (1952, 1957) and Ang Lee (2006, 2013) have 2 Oscars as Best Director, although they never won Best Picture.