John Ford has the most wins for best director at the Academy Awards, winning a record four times. Next on the list are Frank Capra and William Wyler, with three each. Here’s the complete list of directors with the most Oscar wins:
Four wins:
- John Ford (The Informer [1935], The Grapes of Wrath [1940], How Green Was My Valley [1941], The Quiet Man [1952])
Three wins:
- Frank Capra (It Happened One Night [1934], Mr. Deeds Goes to Town [1936], You Can’t Take It with You [1938])
- William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver [1942], The Best Years of Our Lives [1946], Ben-Hur [1959])
Two wins:
- Frank Borzage (best drama: 7th Heaven [1927], Bad Girl [1931])
- Frank Lloyd (The Divine Lady [1928], Cavalcade [1933])
- Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth [1937], Going My Way [1944])
- Lewis Milestone (best comedy: Two Arabian Knights [1927], All Quiet on the Western Front [1930])
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives [1949], All About Eve [1950])
- Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend [1945], The Apartment [1960])
- Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity [1953], A Man for All Seasons [1966])
- Elia Kazan (Gentleman’s Agreement [1947], On the Waterfront [1954])
- Oliver Stone (Platoon [1986], Born on the Fourth of July [1989])
- Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman [2014], The Revenant [2015])
- Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity [2013], Roma [2018])