Best movies that are oscar winners or nominees in directing category

The Hustler(1961)

Combined Rating:
46
Combined Critics Rating: 24

An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.



Doctor Zhivago(1965)

Combined Rating:
46
Combined Critics Rating: 25

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during the First World War and then the October Revolution.



The Last Picture Show(1971)

Combined Rating:
46
Combined Critics Rating: 28

In 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied West Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.



Tár(2022)

Combined Rating:
46
Combined Critics Rating: 46

Set in the international world of Western classical music, the film centers on Lydia Tár, widely considered one of the greatest living composer-conductors and first-ever female music director of a major German orchestra.





Nashville(1975)

Combined Rating:
45
Combined Critics Rating: 30

Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated people prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.



Bullets Over Broadway(1994)

Combined Rating:
45
Combined Critics Rating: 27

In New York in 1928, a struggling playwright is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced.





Fiddler on the Roof(1971)

Combined Rating:
42
Combined Critics Rating: 22

In prerevolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant contends with marrying off three of his daughters while growing anti-Semitic sentiment threatens his village.



Z(1969)

Combined Rating:
41
Combined Critics Rating: 24

Following the murder of a prominent leftist, an investigator tries to uncover the truth while government officials attempt to cover up their roles.



Midnight Express(1978)

Combined Rating:
41
Combined Critics Rating: 17

Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.



All That Jazz(1979)

Combined Rating:
41
Combined Critics Rating: 23

Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.



On Golden Pond(1981)

Combined Rating:
41
Combined Critics Rating: 23

Norman is a curmudgeon with an estranged relationship with his daughter Chelsea. At Golden Pond, he and his wife nevertheless agree to care for Billy, the son of Chelsea's new boyfriend, and a most unexpected relationship blooms.







The Verdict(1982)

Combined Rating:
40
Combined Critics Rating: 20

A lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.



The Mission(1986)

Combined Rating:
40
Combined Critics Rating: 17

18th century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American Indian tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.



Heaven Can Wait(1978)

Combined Rating:
39
Combined Critics Rating: 24

A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.





Triangle of Sadness(2022)

Combined Rating:
39
Combined Critics Rating: 55

A cruise for the super-rich sinks thus leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, trapped on an island.




11
12
13