 | 2007 | Joel Coen & Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men | 
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| 2006 | Martin Scorsese The Departed | 
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| 2005 | Ang Lee Brokeback Mountain | 
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| 2004 | Clint Eastwood Million Dollar Baby | 
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| 2003 | Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 
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| 2002 | Roman Polanski The Pianist | 
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| 2001 | Ron Howard A Beautiful Mind | 
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| 2000 | Steven Soderbergh Traffic | 
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| 1999 | Sam Mendes American Beauty | 
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| 1998 | Steven Spielberg Saving Private Ryan | 
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| 1997 | James Cameron Titanic | 
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| 1996 | Anthony Minghella The English Patient | 
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| 1995 | Mel Gibson Braveheart | 
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| 1994 | Robert Zemeckis Forrest Gump | 
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| 1993 | Steven Spielberg Schindler's List | 
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| 1992 | Clint Eastwood Unforgiven | 
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| 1991 | Jonathan Demme The Silence of the Lambs | 
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| 1990 | Kevin Costner Dances With Wolves | 
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| 1989 | Oliver Stone Born on the Fourth of July | 
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| 1988 | Barry Levinson Rain Man | 
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| 1987 | Bernardo Bertolucci The Last Emperor | 
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| 1986 | Oliver Stone Platoon | 
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| 1985 | Sydney Pollack Out of Africa | 
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| 1984 | Milos Forman Amadeus | 
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| 1983 | James L. Brooks Terms of Endearment | 
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| 1982 | Sir Richard Attenborough Gandhi | 
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| 1981 | Warren Beatty Reds | 
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| 1980 | Robert Redford Ordinary People | 
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| 1979 | Robert Benton Kramer vs. Kramer | 
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| 1978 | Michael Cimino The Deer Hunter | 
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| 1977 | Woody Allen Annie Hall | 
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| 1976 | John G. Avildsen Rocky | 
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| 1975 | Milos Forman One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 
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| 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather, Part II | 
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| 1973 | George Roy Hill The Sting | 
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| 1972 | Bob Fosse Cabaret | 
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| 1971 | William Friedkin The French Connection | 
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| 1970 | Franklin J. Schaffner Patton | 
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| 1969 | John Schlesinger Midnight Cowboy | 
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| 1968 | Sir Carol Reed Oliver! | 
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| 1967 | Mike Nichols The Graduate | 
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| 1966 | Fred Zinnemann A Man for All Seasons | 
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| 1965 | Robert Wise The Sound of Music | 
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| 1964 | George Cukor My Fair Lady | 
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| 1963 | Tony Richardson Tom Jones | 
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| 1962 | Sir David Lean Lawrence of Arabia | 
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| 1961 | Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins West Side Story | 
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| 1960 | Billy Wilder The Apartment | 
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| 1959 | William Wyler Ben-Hur | 
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| 1958 | Vincente Minnelli Gigi | 
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| 1957 | Sir David Lean The Bridge on the River Kwai | 
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| 1956 | George Stevens Giant | 
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| 1955 | Delbert Mann Marty | 
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| 1954 | Elia Kazan On the Waterfront | 
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| 1953 | Fred Zinnemann From Here to Eternity | 
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| 1952 | John Ford The Quiet Man | 
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| 1951 | George Stevens A Place in the Sun | 
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| 1950 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz All About Eve | 
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| 1949 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz A Letter to Three Wives | 
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| 1948 | John Huston The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | 
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| 1947 | Elia Kazan Gentleman's Agreement | 
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| 1946 | William Wyler The Best Years of Our Lives | 
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| 1945 | Billy Wilder The Lost Weekend | 
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| 1944 | Leo McCarey Going My Way | 
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| 1943 | Michael Curtiz Casablanca | 
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| 1942 | William Wyler Mrs. Miniver | 
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| 1941 | John Ford How Green Was My Valley | 
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| 1940 | John Ford The Grapes of Wrath | 
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| 1939 | Victor Fleming Gone With the Wind | 
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| 1938 | Frank Capra You Can't Take It With You | 
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| 1937 | Leo McCarey The Awful Truth | 
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| 1936 | Frank Capra Mr. Deeds Goes to Town | 
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| 1935 | John Ford The Informer | 
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| 1934 | Frank Capra It Happened One Night |  I
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| 1932 - 1933 | Frank Lloyd Cavalcade | 
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| 1931 - 1932 | Frank Borzage Bad Girl | 
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| 1930 - 1931 | Norman Taurog Skippy | 
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| 1929 - 1930 | Lewis Milestone All Quiet on the Western Front | 
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| 1928 - 1929 | Frank Lloyd The Divine Lady | 
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| 1927 - 1928 | Comedy Picture Lewis Milestone Two Arabian Knights | 
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| Dramatic Picture Frank Borzage Seventh Heaven | 
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