Inspired by a friend. And woah, a lot of white men here. The only female directors are the Wachowski sisters, and there’s only a handful of POC. I anticipate this will get better as I age.
Will keep this updated.
| Year | Movie | Director |
| 1938 | The Lady Vanishes | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 1939 | The Wizard of Oz | Victor Fleming |
| 1941 | Citizen Kane | Orson Welles |
| 1946 | It’s A Wonderful Life | Frank Capra |
| 1948 | Rope | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 1949 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | Robert Hamer |
| 1950 | Rashomon | Akira Kurosawa |
| 1952 | Singin’ in the Rain | Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen |
| 1954 | The Seven Samurai | Akira Kurosawa |
| 1957 | 12 Angry Men | Sidney Lumet |
| 1961 | Judgment at Nuremburg | Stanley Kramer |
| 1962 | To Kill A Mockingbird | Robert Mulligan |
| 1963 | The Birds | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 1964 | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb | Stanley Kubrick |
| 1965 | The Sound of Music | Robert Wise |
| 1966 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | Chuck Jones, Ben Washam |
| 1967 | The Graduate | Mike Nichols |
| 1968 | Oliver! | Carol Reed |
| 1969 | Midnight Cowboy | John Schlesinger |
| 1971 | Brian’s Song | Buzz Kulik |
| 1972 | The Godfather | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 1973 | The Sting | George Roy Hill |
| 1974 | Young Frankenstein | Mel Brooks |
| 1975 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest | Milos Forman |
| 1976 | The Bad News Bears | Michael Ritchie |
| 1977 | Star Wars | George Lucas |
| 1979 | Alien | Ridley Scott |
| 1980 | The Empire Strikes Back | Irvin Kershner |
| 1981 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | Steven Spielberg |
| 1982 | Blade Runner | Ridley Scott |
| 1983 | Return of the Jedi | Richard Marquand |
| 1984 | This is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner |
| 1985 | Back to the Future | Robert Zemeckis |
| 1986 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Leonard Nimoy |
| 1987 | The Princess Bride | Rob Reiner |
| 1988 | Rain Man | Barry Levinson |
| 1989 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade | Steven Spielberg |
| 1990 | Misery | Rob Reiner |
| 1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | Jonathan Demme |
| 1992 | A Few Good Men | Rob Reiner |
| 1993 | Groundhog Day | Harold Ramis |
| 1994 | Pulp Fiction | Quentin Tarantino |
| 1995 | 12 Monkeys | Terry Gilliam |
| 1996 | Sling Blade | Billy Bob Thornton |
| 1997 | The Edge | Lee Tamahori |
| 1998 | Rushmore | Wes Anderson |
| 1999 | The Matrix | Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski |
| 2000 | Cast Away | Robert Zemeckis |
| 2001 | Mulholland Drive | David Lynch |
| 2002 | Insomnia | Christopher Nolan |
| 2003 | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Quentin Tarantino |
| 2004 | Shaun of the Dead | Edgar Wright |
| 2005 | Batman Begins | Christopher Nolan |
| 2006 | The Lives of Others | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck |
| 2007 | [Rec] | Jaume Balagueró |
| 2008 | WALL-E | Andrew Stanton |
| 2009 | (500) Days of Summer | Marc Webb |
| 2010 | Toy Story 3 | Lee Unkrich |
| 2011 | The Muppets | James Bobin |
| 2012 | Looper | Rian Johnson |
| 2013 | Her | Spike Jonze |
| 2014 | Edge of Tomorrow | Doug Liman |
| 2015 | Inside Out | Pete Doctor, Ronaldo Del Carmen |
| 2016 | Lion | Garth Davis |
| 2017 | Get Out | Jordan Peele |
| 2018 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Perischetti |
| 2019 | Parasite | Bong Joon-ho |
| 2020 | Palm Springs | Mak Barbakow |
| 2021 | The Mitchells vs. the Machines | Michael Rianda |
| 2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Daniel Scheinert, Dan Kwan |
Death By Troggles 