More Directors Never Winning Oscar

Five Men Who Never Received a Statuette for Their Directing

Jul 21, 2008

Throughout Oscar history, many good directors have never received an Academy Award for their directions. A few received other awards.

This list covers the period from the silent days to the present. It is by no means definitive and includes only one who is presently active in the film industry.

Charles Chaplin (1889-1977)

The versatile Chaplin was never nominated in the directing category by the Academy, although an honorary award given him in 1929 for The Circus was for writing, acting, and directing. It’s also true that some of his best work, such as The Kid (1921) and The Gold Rush (1925), was done in the pre-Oscar era.

Nevertheless, his silent, bittersweet comedy-dramas, City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936), plus his satire on Nazism, The Great Dictator (1940) are considered classics today. Chaplin did win a belated Oscar for creating the musical score for Limelight (1952, given in 1973) and a second honorary award in 1972.

Fritz Lang (1890-1976)

Lang, a demanding taskmaster, was anything but an actor’s director. In fact, most performers, both male and female, hated working for him. Regardless, this native-born German director, who was never nominated for an Oscar in any category, left an impressive body of work in both his native land and the United States.

Notable among his German films, were the Dr. Mabuse quartet (1920, 1933, 1960); the futuristic story of class struggle, Metropolis (1927); and the crime thriller M (1931), starring Peter Lorre. His American accomplishments of note include: Fury (1936); Ministry of Fear (1944); the film noirs, The Woman in the Window (1944) and The House by the River (1950); and While the City Sleeps (1956).

Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947)

Like Lang, Lubitsch was a native of Germany where he had directed nearly 40 films before coming to America in 1922. After arriving, he made a series of highly successful silent films that featured an unique style and sophisticated wit that came to be known throughout his career as "The Lubitsch Touch." Among these were Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925) and The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927).

Lubitsch made a smooth transition to talkies and was nominated three times for directing Oscars: The Patriot (1928/29); Love Parade (1929/30); and the original version of Heaven Can Wait (1943). Ironically, he was never nominated for three of his best remembered films: Ninotchka (1939), a spoof of the Cold War before there was a Cold War; The Shop Around the Corner (1940); and the biting satire on Nazism, To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Orson Welles (1915-1985)

Given the nickname “Boy Genius” early in his career, Welles was already a veteran of stage and radio when, at the age of 25, he wrote, directed, and starred in his first feature-length movie, Citizen Kane (1941), the film considered by many to be the greatest American movie ever made. It would be the only film for which he would be Oscar-nominated as best director.

Welles, in an inconsistent career, directed, and often starred, in several highly artistic and critically acclaimed movies. Among these were The Magnificent Ambersons (1942); Journey into Fear (1943); Macbeth (1948); Mr. Arkadin (1955); and Touch of Evil (1958). Welles did win an original screenplay Oscar for Citizen Kane and was given an honorary award by the Academy in 1971.

Sidney Lumet (1924- )

An early stage actor and television director, Lumet’s first full length movie, 12 Angry Men (1957) earned him an Oscar nomination for best director. Other directing nominations were for Dog Day Afternoon (1975); Network (1976); and The Verdict (1982), and he was nominated for best screenplay based on another medium for Prince in the City (1981). He was also given an honorary award in 2005.

In addition to the above, Lumet is known for many other quality films. Included among these are: The Pawnbroker and Fail-Safe (both 1964); The Hill (1965); Serpico (1973); and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007).

Lumet is highly skilled at getting first-rate performances from his actors. Seventeen different ones have been nominated for performances in his films, an Oscar record for a director. Of those nominated, three won: Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch for Network.

The copyright of the article More Directors Never Winning Oscar in Classic Films is owned by John K. Davis. Permission to republish More Directors Never Winning Oscar in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.