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 is only one woman on the list: Katheryn Bigelow won the Oscar ('The Hurt Locker') at 58 years old. - 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. ![]() 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 is only one woman on the whole list: Kathryn Bigelow who won the Oscar at 58 years old. - 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 42 years old (7 directors won Best Picture, and another 2 won Best Director without winning Best Picture). 44 and 41 are the ages with more winners. 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 9 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. |