A Look at the Last 20 Best Director Oscar Winners

This week, Third Person arrives, the latest film from Paul Haggis, director of Oscar Best Picture winner Crash. So, why isn't this a big deal? In fact, how is it possible that no one remembers Haggis' last film, the action flick The Next Three Days? And how is it that Haggis'Crash could win the industry's highest honor and only seven years later, Haggis ends up writing the storyline for a videogame, specifically Call of Duty 3?

We decided to look back on the last 20 years of directors who have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Winning Best Director gives you tons of clout. But what does Best Picture do for you?

1994: Forrest Gump wins Best Picture

The Director: Robert Zemeckis won the Best Director Oscar for this $677 million grossing film. Naturally, he never reached those heights again, though it has to be respected how far he's gotten. His next film was the theological sci-fi hit Contact, and he followed that success with the one-two blockbuster punch of What Lies Beneath and a reunion with his Forrest Gump, the $429 million-grossing Castaway. Zemeckis lost some heat afterwards for pooling his money into motion-capture, directing The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. Zemeckis is arguably the one director who benefited the greatest from his film's plaudits.

1995: Braveheart wins Best Picture

The Director: Mel Gibson was only two films into his directorial career when Braveheart became an unexpected Oscar favorite. Gibson won Best Director as well in a moment that could probably be called the peak of his career. Gibson only directed two more films, though both were in dead languages. His The Passion of The Christ was a smash, grossing $611 million worldwide, though it was ignored by the Academy. By the time he made the compelling Mayan thriller Apocalypto, his leading actor career had petered out due to controversy and personal upheaval. Gibson's currently attempting a comeback in front of the camera, but it looks like directing will have to wait.

1996: The English Patient wins Best Picture

The Director: The late Anthony Minghella earned the highest honors of his career for this epic romance, also taking home Best Director. While he remained a capable craftsman, he never once returned to the Oscar stage. 1999's compellingly chilly The Talented Mr. Ripley earned five Academy Awards, but none for Best Director or Best Picture, and the same result greeted 2003's seven-time nominee Cold Mountain. Minghella's last film ended up being the very low-key Breaking and Entering, a low budget departure for him that was ultimately barely noticed.

1997: Titanic wins Best Picture

The Director: Yeah, this one sort of worked out for all parties….

1998: Shakespeare In Love wins Best Picture

The Director: In one of the most hotly-contested Oscar races of all-time, this lightweight concoction took home the top prize as Steven Spielberg won Best Director for Saving Private Ryan. The night seemed to overshadow Shakespeare’s director John Madden, who later landed two awards-fodder movies that he completely bungled in Captain Corelli's Mandolin and the Gwenyth Paltrow-starrer Proof. But the low-point was Elmore Leonard adaptation Killshot. The Weinstein Brothers, who earlier campaigned lustily for Shakespeare In Love, re-edited this film and buried it for a couple of years before it sneaked out onto DVD. Madden has since rebounded with the highbrow assassin drama The Debt and the surprise hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but the next John Madden movie is far from an event.

1999: American Beauty wins Best Picture

The Director: There was nowhere to go but down for Sam Mendes, who made his debut on this DreamWorks production and took home the Best Director Oscar in a highly competitive field. However, despite industry accolades, Mendes could not earn another Oscar nomination for directing Road To Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road or Away We Go. Unfazed, he's shifted his career in a commercial direction; he joined the James Bond series with Skyfall, helping that franchise achieve its first billion dollar success.

2000: Gladiator wins Best Picture

The Director: While he's one of the most respected directors in Hollywood history, Ridley Scott has yet to win a Best Director Oscar, as he lost this year to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. Gladiator was his second nomination in the category; a third followed one year later for Black Hawk Down. Since then, Scott has done prolific work, though he hasn't reached the heights of Gladiator. Not that he minds – few directors can match Scott's commercial successes, as he's gone on to make hits like Hannibal, American Gangster, and Prometheus. He's taking another shot at Oscar this year with Exodus: Gods And Kings.

2001: A Beautiful Mind wins Best Picture

The Director: It very much seems like a fluke that director Ron Howard earned plaudits for this movie, collecting both the Best Picture and Best Director trophy and beating out a murderer's row of nominees that included Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson, Robert Altman, and David Lynch. It took him seven years to receive further attention from the Oscars, helming Best Picture nominee Frost/Nixon. In between, he helmed such forgettable potboilers like The Missing, Cinderella Man, and the unwatchable The Da Vinci Code. Last year's Rush was considered one of Howard's best films, though it received no real awards attention.

2002: Chicago wins Best Picture

The Director: Rob Marshall is Hollywood's equivalent of wallpaper. It doesn't seem like it was hired as much as utilized—like the small part of a Swiss army knife. He lost Best Director to Roman Polanski for The Pianist, and his next film, Memoirs Of A Geisha, was a total lemon. Returning to musicals, he then got behind the camera for the derided Nine before going commercial with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which generated a billion dollars in worldwide gross. Marshall's next film is the musical Into The Woods, which is definitely being positioned for Oscar attention, though Marshall is more of a lucky rabbit's foot at this point.

2003: The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King wins Best Picture

The Director: When your movie wins all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated and makes a billion dollars, you tend to get a blank check in Hollywood. And Peter Jackson cashed that check with pleasure, getting behind the camera for the mega-expensive King Kong and The Lovely Bones. Both were objects of derision upon release for similar reasons, though one could argue King Kong is a pleasurable adventure film compared to the turgid Bones. Jackson attempted to seek solace in The Hobbit movies, but those films have received not nearly the same respect the Lord of the Rings earned.

2004: Million Dollar Baby wins Best Picture

The Director: This turned out to be Clint Eastwood's second Best Director Oscar trophy, just a year after getting nominated for Mystic River. Since then, Clint has experimented with various genres, earning yet another Best Director and Best Picture nomination for Letters From Iwo Jimawhile dabbling in films like The Changeling, J. Edgar, and Invictus. In fact, he's also releasing a movie this week, Jersey Boys. Somehow, it is the eighth movie the 84-year-old Eastwood has directed since the Paul Haggis-written Million Dollar Baby.

2005: Crash wins Best Picture

The Director: As mentioned before, Haggis has worked regularly, though his films get more and more forgettable, particularly if early word on Third Person is anything to go by. Best Director, meanwhile, ended up going to Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain.

2006: The Departed wins Best Picture

The Director: Well, noone's debating that Martin Scorsese was due for this crime remake. Oddly enough, the film might have permanently shifted Scorsese from a well-loved filmmaker into a genuine commercial attraction. Shutter Island, Hugo, and The Wolf Of Wall Street ended up rare blockbusters for the Taxi Driver filmmaker, the latter two earning Scorsese two further nominations. Scorsese currently has seven Oscar nominations for Best Director.

2007: No Country For Old Men wins Best Picture

The Directors: The Coen Brothers were known as always a bridesmaid, never a bride before they rightfully earned Best Director and Best Picture for this twisted Cormac McCarthy adaptation. Since then, each coming Coen Brothers film is acknowledged both as a cinematic event and a potential Oscar attraction; they later nabbed a Best Director nomination for True Grit and a Best Picture nod for A Serious Man.

2008: Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Picture

The Director: This was an interesting case, as Danny Boyle was not your average Oscar favorite, and Slumdog Millionairewas not your average Best Picture winner. Boyle's win for Best Director likely changed his career, in that it placed undue populist pressure on his following films. 127 Hoursearned a Best Picture nomination, though Boyle did not receive a Best Director nod, and most believe that the movie wouldn't have received any accolades if not for the strength of Slumdog Millionaire. Last year's Trance was a return to the Boyle of old, the playfully perverse architect of pretentious-less b-movies, and predictably it earned no attention from the Academy.

2009: The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture

The Director: It was a bit of a victory for the little guy (or gal) when The Hurt Locker became one of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winners of all time, netting Kathryn Bigelow a Best Director Oscar win. Just years earlier, Bigelow was considered un-hirable by most of the industry. Now recently, she repeated her Oscar feat again by earning a Best Picture and Best Director nomination for Zero Dark Thirty. Currently Bigelow has her choice of new material within the industry.

2010: The King's Speech wins Best Picture

The Director: People are still a bit vexed that director Tom Hooper took home the Best Director trophy this particular year, when many had critical things to say about his camerawork and staging. When those same complaints crept up during the press for Les Misérables, it resulted in a Best Picture, but not a Best Director nomination.

2011: The Artist wins Best Picture

The Director: Yep, everywhere you go, people can't stop talking about Michel Hazanavicius. The Best Director winner is just one of many who haven't capitalized on a Best Picture win. After a short segment in the omnibus film The Players, Hazanivicius went on to direct The Search, which recently played to a mixed reception at Cannes.

2012: Argo wins Best Picture

The Director: Because Argoapparently directed itself, Ben Affleck received no Best Director nomination for his work on the film. Like it matters! Affleck's movies as a director make bank, and Argo collected $232 million worldwide. And his response to all that was...try acting? Affleck's loaded up his schedule with a number of roles, including a part as Batman in coming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justiceand Justice League movies. While he still intends to direct the Dennis Lehane adaptation Live By Night, Batman obligations keep postponing the release date.

2013: 12 Years A Slave wins Best Picture

The Director: Ultimately, director Steve McQueen lost the Best Director Oscar to Alfonso Cuaron, but it was for Gravity, so who would fight that award? You want to believe McQueen is in demand, but currently he's got nothing in development, instead returning to the BBC for a drama about blacks in Britain. Sometimes you're hot, and sometimes it's just a mirage.

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