Saturn Award for Best Director
Saturn Award for Best Director | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Best directing of the year for a genre film |
Country | United States |
Presented by | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films |
First awarded | 1974/1975 |
Currently held by | James Cameron for Avatar: The Way of Water (2022/2023) |
Website | www |
The Saturn Award for Best Director (or Saturn Award for Best Direction) is one of the annual awards given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The Saturn Awards, which are the oldest film-specialized awards to reward genre fiction achievements, in particular for science fiction, fantasy, and horror (the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is the oldest award for science fiction and fantasy films), included the Best Director category for the first time at the 3rd Saturn Awards, for the 1974/1975 film years.[1]
History
The award is also the oldest to honor film directors in science fiction, fantasy and horror. It has been given 36 times, including a tie for the 1977 film year.
James Cameron holds the record of the most wins with six (for seven nominations), while Steven Spielberg is the most nominated director with fourteen nominations (for four wins). Only three other directors have won the award more than once: Peter Jackson (three times), Bryan Singer and Ridley Scott (two times). As of 2024, Cameron is the only director to have won the award two years in a row (having won at both the 17th and 18th ceremonies for The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, respectively). At the 22nd Saturn Awards, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the award, and is one of three female directors to win the award (the others being Lana and Lily Wachowski). Roland Emmerich became the first of four LGBTQ person to win the award at the 23rd ceremony (the others being the Wachowskis and Singer), while John Woo became the first person of Asian descent to win the award at the 24th ceremony and Ryan Coogler became the first African-American to win the award at the 44th ceremony.
Winners and nominees
1970s
Year | Director | Film |
---|---|---|
1974/1975 (3rd) | Mel Brooks | Young Frankenstein |
1976 (4th) | Dan Curtis | Burnt Offerings |
1977 (5th) | George Lucas | Star Wars |
Steven Spielberg | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | |
Nicolas Gessner | The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane | |
Carl Reiner | Oh, God! | |
Don Taylor | The Island of Dr. Moreau | |
1978 (6th) | Philip Kaufman | Invasion of the Body Snatchers |
Warren Beatty and Buck Henry | Heaven Can Wait | |
Richard Donner | Superman | |
Robin Hardy | The Wicker Man | |
Franklin J. Schaffner | The Boys from Brazil | |
1979 (7th) | Ridley Scott | Alien |
John Badham | Dracula | |
Nicholas Meyer | Time After Time | |
Peter Weir | The Last Wave | |
Robert Wise | Star Trek: The Motion Picture |
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Year | Director | Film |
---|---|---|
2021/2022 (50th) | Matt Reeves | The Batman |
Guillermo del Toro | Nightmare Alley | |
Joseph Kosinski | Top Gun: Maverick | |
Jordan Peele | Nope | |
S. S. Rajamouli | RRR | |
Steven Spielberg | West Side Story | |
Jon Watts | Spider-Man: No Way Home | |
2022/2023 (51st) | James Cameron | Avatar: The Way of Water |
Greta Gerwig | Barbie | |
James Gunn | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | |
James Mangold | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | |
Mark Mylod | The Menu | |
Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer | |
Danny and Michael Philippou | Talk to Me |
Multiple nominations
- 14 nominations
- Steven Spielberg
- 8 nominations
- Bryan Singer
- 7 nominations
- James Cameron
- Peter Jackson
- Christopher Nolan
- Robert Zemeckis
- 6 nominations
- J. J. Abrams
- 5 nominations
- Tim Burton
- Guillermo del Toro
- 4 nominations
- George Lucas
- Sam Raimi
- Matt Reeves
- Ridley Scott
- Quentin Tarantino
- Paul Verhoeven
- 3 nominations
- John Badham
- Kathryn Bigelow
- Alfonso Cuarón
- Joe Dante
- William Dear
- Clint Eastwood
- David Fincher
- Terry Gilliam
- Ron Howard
- George Miller
- Jordan Peele
- Anthony and Joe Russo
- David Yates
- 2 nominations
- Woody Allen
- Chris Columbus
- David Cronenberg
- Frank Darabont
- Roland Emmerich
- Jon Favreau
- William Friedkin
- James Gunn
- Rian Johnson
- Randal Kleiser
- Ang Lee
- Frank Marshall
- Nicholas Meyer
- Leonard Nimoy
- Alex Proyas
- Guy Ritchie
- Martin Scorsese
- Zack Snyder
- Denis Villeneuve
- Peter Weir
- John Woo
- Zhang Yimou
Multiple wins
- 6 wins
- James Cameron
- 4 wins
- Steven Spielberg
- 3 wins
- Peter Jackson
- 2 wins
- J. J. Abrams
- Ridley Scott
- Bryan Singer
References
- ^ "1975 Saturn Awards". The Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on 2017-03-02. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
- ^ Black, John. "And The Saturn Award Goes to ..." www.bostoneventguide.com. Archived from the original on 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
- ^ Hammond, Pete (June 28, 2018). "'Black Panther' Tops 44th Saturn Awards With Five; 'Blade Runner 2049' , 'Shape Of Water', 'Get Out' Also Score". Archived from the original on June 28, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- ^ Long, Christian (September 13, 2019). "Marvel, Disney win big at the 45th annual Saturn Awards". SYFY WIRE. Archived from the original on September 22, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- v
- t
- e
- Mel Brooks - Young Frankenstein (1974/75)
- Dan Curtis - Burnt Offerings (1976)
- George Lucas - Star Wars / Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- Philip Kaufman - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
- Ridley Scott - Alien (1979)
- Irvin Kershner - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Steven Spielberg - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Nicholas Meyer - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- John Badham - WarGames (1983)
- Joe Dante - Gremlins (1984)
- Ron Howard - Cocoon (1985)
- James Cameron - Aliens (1986)
- Paul Verhoeven - RoboCop (1987)
- Robert Zemeckis - Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
- James Cameron - The Abyss (1989/90)
- James Cameron - Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Francis Ford Coppola - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
- Steven Spielberg - Jurassic Park (1993)
- James Cameron - True Lies (1994)
- Kathryn Bigelow - Strange Days (1995)
- Roland Emmerich - Independence Day (1996)
- John Woo - Face/Off (1997)
- Michael Bay - Armageddon (1998)
- The Wachowskis - The Matrix (1999)
- Bryan Singer - X-Men (2000)
- Peter Jackson - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- Steven Spielberg - Minority Report (2002)
- Peter Jackson - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- Sam Raimi - Spider-Man 2 (2004)
- Peter Jackson - King Kong (2005)
- Bryan Singer - Superman Returns (2006)
- Zack Snyder - 300 (2007)
- Jon Favreau - Iron Man (2008)
- James Cameron - Avatar (2009)
- Christopher Nolan - Inception (2010)
- J. J. Abrams - Super 8 (2011)
- Joss Whedon - Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
- Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity (2013)
- James Gunn - Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Ridley Scott - The Martian (2015)
- Gareth Edwards - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
- Ryan Coogler - Black Panther (2017)
- Jordan Peele - Us (2018/19)
- J. J. Abrams - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019/20)
- Matt Reeves - The Batman (2021/22)
- James Cameron - Avatar: The Way of Water (2022/23)