Won Best Director, but not Best Picture (Academy Awards)

1928 - Frank Borzage
"Wings" won Best Picture, directed by William A. Wellman, who was not nominated for Best Director.

1928 - Lewis Milestone
"Wings" won Best Picture, directed by William A. Wellman, who was not nominated for Best Director.
"Two Arabian Knights" was not nominated for Best Picture.

1929 - Frank Lloyd
"The Broadway Melody" won Best Picture, directed by Harry Beaumont.
"The Divine Lady" was not nominated for Best Picture.

1931 - Norman Taurog
"Cimarron" won Best Picture, directed by Wesley Ruggles.

1932 - Frank Borzage
"Grand Hotel" won Best Picture, directed by Edmund Goulding, who was not nominated for Best Director.

1935 - John Ford
"Mutiny on the Bounty" won Best Picture, directed by Frank Lloyd.

1936 - Frank Capra
"The Great Ziegeld" won Best Picture, directed by Robert Z. Leonard.

1937 - Leo McCarey
"The Life of Emile Zola" won Best Picture, directed by William Dieterle.

1940 - John Ford
"Rebecca" won Best Picture, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

1948 - John Huston
"Hamlet" won Best Picture, directed by Laurence Olivier.

1949 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
"All the King's Men" won Best Picture, directed by Robert Rossen.

1951 - George Stevens
"An American in Paris" won Best Picture, directed by Vincente Minnelli.

1952 - John Ford
"The Greatest Show on Earth" won Best Picture, directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

1956 - George Stevens
"Around the World in Eighty Days" won Best Picture, directed by Michael Anderson.

1967 - Mike Nichols
"In the Heat of the Night" won Best Picture, directed by Norman Jewison.

1972 - Bob Fosse
"The Godfather" won Best Picture, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

1981 - Warren Beatty
"Chariots of Fire" won Best Picture, directed by Hugh Hudson.

1989 - Oliver Stone
"Driving Miss Daisy" won Best Picture, directed by Bruce Beresford, who was not nominated for Best Director.

1998 - Steven Spielberg
"Shakespeare in Love" won Best Picture, directed by John Madden.

2000 - Steven Soderbergh
"Gladiator" won Best Picture, directed by Ridley Scott.

2002 - Roman Polanski
"Chicago" won Best Picture, directed by Rob Marshall.

2005 - Ang Lee
"Crash" won Best Picture, directed by Paul Haggis.

2012 - Ang Lee
"Argo" won Best Picture, directed by Ben Affleck, who was not nominated for Best Director.

2013 - Alfonso Cuarón
"12 Years a Slave" won Best Picture, directed by Steve McQueen.

2015 - Alejandro González Iñárritu
"Spotlight" won Best Picture, directed by Tom McCarthy.

2016 - Damien Chazelle
"Moonlight" won Best Picture, directed by Barry Jenkins.

2018 - Alfonso Cuarón
"Green Book" won Best Picture, directed by Peter Farrelly, who was not nominated for Best Director.

2021 - Jane Campion
"CODA" won Best Picture, directed by Sian Heder, who was not nominated for Best Director.