Independent Spirit Award for Best Director

The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Director is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.

Independent Spirit Award for Best Director
The 2024 recipient: Sean Baker
Awarded for	Best Director
Country	United States
Presented by	Film Independent
First award	1985
Currently held by	Sean Baker for Anora (2024)
Website	filmindependent.org

History

It was first presented in 1985 with Joel Coen and Martin Scorsese being the first winners of the category for Blood Simple and After Hours, respectively.

Directors Barry Jenkins, Tom McCarthy, Joel Coen and Alexander Payne are the only winners who have received this award more than once, with two wins each. Todd Haynes holds the record of most nominations with six (winning one for Far from Heaven), followed by Gus Van Sant with five. Martha Coolidge was the first female director to win the award, receiving it in 1991. Chloé Zhao was the first female of color to win the category in 2020.

Winners and nominees

Joel Coen, half of the established Coen Brothers, has won this award twice, for Blood Simple in 1985 and Fargo in 1996.

Martin Scorsese won in 1985 for After Hours.

Oliver Stone won for Platoon.

John Huston received the award posthumously for The Dead.

1980s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
1985 [1][2]	Joel Coen	Blood Simple
	Martin Scorsese	After Hours
	Joyce Chopra	Smooth Talk
	Peter Masterson	The Trip to Bountiful
1986	Oliver Stone	Platoon
	Jim Jarmusch	Down by Law
	David Lynch	Blue Velvet
	Rob Reiner	Stand by Me
	Oliver Stone	Salvador
1987	John Huston	The Dead
	Jonathan Demme	Swimming to Cambodia
	Tim Hunter	River's Edge
	Jim McBride	The Big Easy
	John Sayles	Matewan
1988	Ramon Menendez	Stand and Deliver
	David Burton Morris	Patti Rocks
	Errol Morris	The Thin Blue Line
	Oliver Stone	Talk Radio
	John Waters	Hairspray
1989	Steven Soderbergh	Sex, Lies, and Videotape
	Jim Jarmusch	Mystery Train
	Charles Lane	Sidewalk Stories
	Nancy Savoca	True Love
	Gus Van Sant	Drugstore Cowboy

Charles Burnett won for To Sleep with Anger.

Robert Altman won for Short Cuts.

Quentin Tarantino received the award for Pulp Fiction.

Wes Anderson won for Rushmore.

Alexander Payne has won the award twice, for Election (1999) and Sideways (2004).

1990s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
1990	Charles Burnett	To Sleep with Anger
	Reginald Hudlin	House Party
	John McNaughton	Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
	Allan Moyle	Pump Up the Volume
	Michael Roemer	The Plot Against Harry
1991	Martha Coolidge	Rambling Rose
	Todd Haynes	Poison
	Richard Linklater	Slacker
	Gus Van Sant	My Own Private Idaho
	Joseph Vásquez	Hangin' with the Homeboys
1992	Carl Franklin	One False Move
	Allison Anders	Gas Food Lodging
	Abel Ferrara	Bad Lieutenant
	Tom Kalin	Swoon
	Quentin Tarantino	Reservoir Dogs
1993	Robert Altman	Short Cuts
	Ang Lee	The Wedding Banquet
	Victor Nuñez	Ruby in Paradise
	Robert Rodriguez	El Mariachi
	John Turturro	Mac
1994	Quentin Tarantino	Pulp Fiction
	John Dahl	Red Rock West
	Ang Lee	Eat Drink Man Woman
	Roman Polanski	Death and the Maiden
	Alan Rudolph	Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
1995	Mike Figgis	Leaving Las Vegas
	Michael Almereyda	Nadja
	Ulu Grosbard	Georgia
	Todd Haynes	Safe
	John Sayles	The Secret of Roan Inish
1996	Joel Coen	Fargo
	Abel Ferrara	The Funeral
	David O. Russell	Flirting with Disaster
	Todd Solondz	Welcome to the Dollhouse
	Robert M. Young	Caught
1997	Robert Duvall	The Apostle
	Larry Fessenden	Habit
	Victor Nuñez	Ulee's Gold
	Paul Schrader	Touch
	Wim Wenders	The End of Violence
1998 [3]	Wes Anderson	Rushmore
	Todd Haynes	Velvet Goldmine
	Lodge Kerrigan	Claire Dolan
	Paul Schrader	Affliction
	Todd Solondz	Happiness
1999 [4][5]	Alexander Payne	Election
	Harmony Korine	Julien Donkey-Boy
	Doug Liman	Go
	David Lynch	The Straight Story
	Steven Soderbergh	The Limey

Ang Lee has won twice, for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Brokeback Mountain (2005).

Todd Haynes won for Far from Heaven.

Sofia Coppola won for Lost in Translation.

Julian Schnabel won for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Tom McCarthy has won for The Visitor (2008) and Spotlight (2015).

2000s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
2000 [6]	Ang Lee	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
	Darren Aronofsky	Requiem for a Dream
	Miguel Arteta	Chuck & Buck
	Christopher Guest	Best in Show
	Julian Schnabel	Before Night Falls
2001 [7]	Christopher Nolan	Memento
	Michael Cuesta	L.I.E.
	Cheryl Dunye	Stranger Inside
	Richard Linklater	Waking Life
	John Cameron Mitchell	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2002 [8]	Todd Haynes	Far from Heaven
	Joe Carnahan	Narc
	Nicole Holofcener	Lovely & Amazing
	Bernard Rose	Ivans Xtc
	Gus Van Sant	Gerry
2003 [9]	Sofia Coppola	Lost in Translation
	Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini	American Splendor
	Jim Sheridan	In America
	Peter Sollett	Raising Victor Vargas
	Gus Van Sant	Elephant
2004 [10]	Alexander Payne	Sideways
	Shane Carruth	Primer
	Joshua Marston	Maria Full of Grace
	Walter Salles	The Motorcycle Diaries
	Mario Van Peebles	Baadasssss!
2005 [11]	Ang Lee	Brokeback Mountain
	Gregg Araki	Mysterious Skin
	Noah Baumbach	The Squid and the Whale
	George Clooney	Good Night, and Good Luck
	Rodrigo García	Nine Lives
2006 [12]	Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris	Little Miss Sunshine
	Robert Altman	A Prairie Home Companion
	Ryan Fleck	Half Nelson
	Karen Moncrieff	The Dead Girl
	Steven Soderbergh	Bubble
2007 [13]	Julian Schnabel	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
	Todd Haynes	I'm Not There
	Tamara Jenkins	The Savages
	Jason Reitman	Juno
	Gus Van Sant	Paranoid Park
2008 [14]	Tom McCarthy	The Visitor
	Ramin Bahrani	Chop Shop
	Jonathan Demme	Rachel Getting Married
	Lance Hammer	Ballast
	Courtney Hunt	Frozen River
2009 [15]	Lee Daniels	Precious
	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	A Serious Man
	Cary Fukunaga	Sin Nombre
	James Gray	Two Lovers
	Michael Hoffman	The Last Station

Darren Aronofsky won for Black Swan.

Steve McQueen won for 12 Years a Slave.

Richard Linklater won for Boyhood.

Barry Jenkins has won for Moonlight (2006) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018).

Jordan Peele won for Get Out.

2010s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
2010 [16]	Darren Aronofsky	Black Swan
	Danny Boyle	127 Hours
	Lisa Cholodenko	The Kids Are All Right
	Debra Granik	Winter's Bone
	John Cameron Mitchell	Rabbit Hole
2011 [17]	Michel Hazanavicius	The Artist
	Mike Mills	Beginners
	Jeff Nichols	Take Shelter
	Alexander Payne	The Descendants
	Nicolas Winding Refn	Drive
2012 [18]	David O. Russell	Silver Linings Playbook
	Wes Anderson	Moonrise Kingdom
	Julia Loktev	The Loneliest Planet
	Ira Sachs	Keep the Lights On
	Benh Zeitlin	Beasts of the Southern Wild
2013 [19]	Steve McQueen	12 Years a Slave
	Shane Carruth	Upstream Color
	J. C. Chandor	All Is Lost
	Jeff Nichols	Mud
	Alexander Payne	Nebraska
2014 [20]	Richard Linklater	Boyhood
	Damien Chazelle	Whiplash
	Ava DuVernay	Selma
	Alejandro G. Iñárritu	Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
	David Zellner	Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
2015 [21]	Tom McCarthy	Spotlight
	Sean Baker	Tangerine
	Cary Joji Fukunaga	Beasts of No Nation
	Todd Haynes	Carol
	Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson	Anomalisa
	David Robert Mitchell	It Follows
2016 [22]	Barry Jenkins	Moonlight
	Andrea Arnold	American Honey
	Pablo Larraín	Jackie
	Jeff Nichols	Loving
	Kelly Reichardt	Certain Women
2017 [23]	Jordan Peele	Get Out
	Sean Baker	The Florida Project
	Jonas Carpignano	A Ciambra
	Luca Guadagnino	Call Me by Your Name
	Safdie Brothers	Good Time
	Chloé Zhao	The Rider
2018 [24]	Barry Jenkins	If Beale Street Could Talk
	Debra Granik	Leave No Trace
	Tamara Jenkins	Private Life
	Lynne Ramsay	You Were Never Really Here
	Paul Schrader	First Reformed
2019 [25]	Safdie Brothers	Uncut Gems
	Robert Eggers	The Lighthouse
	Alma Har'el	Honey Boy
	Julius Onah	Luce
	Lorene Scafaria	Hustlers

2020s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
2020 [26][27]	Chloé Zhao	Nomadland
	Lee Isaac Chung	Minari
	Emerald Fennell	Promising Young Woman
	Eliza Hittman	Never Rarely Sometimes Always
	Kelly Reichardt	First Cow
2021 [28]	Maggie Gyllenhaal	The Lost Daughter
	Janicza Bravo	Zola
	Lauren Hadaway	The Novice
	Mike Mills	C'mon C'mon
	Ninja Thyberg	Pleasure
2022 [29]	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert	Everything Everywhere All at Once
	Todd Field	Tár
	Kogonada	After Yang
	Sarah Polley	Women Talking
	Halina Reijn	Bodies Bodies Bodies
2023 [30]	Celine Song	Past Lives
	Andrew Haigh	All of Us Strangers
	Todd Haynes	May December
	William Oldroyd	Eileen
	Ira Sachs	Passages
2024 [31]	Sean Baker	Anora
	Ali Abbasi	The Apprentice
	Brady Corbet	The Brutalist
	Alonso Ruizpalacios	La cocina
	Jane Schoenbrun	I Saw the TV Glow

Multiple nominations (3 or more)

• Todd Haynes: 7
• Gus van Sant: 5
• Ang Lee: 4
• Alexander Payne: 4
• Joel Coen: 3 (one with Ethan Coen)
• Richard Linklater: 3
• Jeff Nichols: 3
• Paul Schrader: 3
• Steven Soderbergh: 3
• Oliver Stone: 3
• Sean Baker: 3

Multiple wins

• Barry Jenkins: 2
• Tom McCarthy: 2
• Joel Coen: 2 (one in a tie with Martin Scorsese)
• Ang Lee: 2
• Alexander Payne: 2