Best movies that are oscar winners or nominees in directing category

Midnight Cowboy(1969)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 76

A naive hustler travels from Texas to New York to seek personal fortune but, in the process, finds himself a new friend.



The Exorcist(1973)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 73

When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.



Network(1976)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 74

A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit.



Close Encounters of the Third Kind(1977)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 74

Following an accidental encounter with otherworldly vessels, an ordinary man follows a series of psychic clues to the first scheduled meeting between representatives of Earth and visitors from the cosmos.



The Deer Hunter(1978)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 73

An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.



Thelma & Louise(1991)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 74

Two best friends set out on an adventure but it soon turns around to a terrifying escape from being hunted by the American police as these two girls escape for the crimes they committed!



The Sixth Sense(1999)

Combined Rating:
81
Combined Critics Rating: 72

A boy who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.



Billy Elliot(2000)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 74

A talented young boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of dance and the disintegration of his family.



Vera Drake(2004)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 82

Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain--a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.



The Reader(2008)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 72

Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.



A Clockwork Orange(1971)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 70

In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.



Kramer vs. Kramer(1979)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 73

Ted Kramer's wife leaves her husband, allowing for a lost bond to be rediscovered between Ted and his son, Billy. But a heated custody battle ensues over the divorced couple's son, deepening the wounds left by the separation.



Ordinary People(1980)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 78

The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.



The Last Emperor(1987)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 75

The story of the final Emperor of China.



Rain Man(1988)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 70

Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.



The Cider House Rules(1999)

Combined Rating:
80
Combined Critics Rating: 73

A compassionate young man, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor there, decides to leave to see the world.



Chariots of Fire(1981)

Combined Rating:
79
Combined Critics Rating: 75

Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.





The Last Temptation of Christ(1988)

Combined Rating:
79
Combined Critics Rating: 75

The life of Jesus Christ, his journey through life as he faces the struggles all humans do, and his final temptation on the cross.



The Piano(1993)

Combined Rating:
79
Combined Critics Rating: 74

A mute woman is sent to 1850s New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner, but is soon lusted after by a local worker on the plantation.




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