2004 Mike Nichols

2002 Martin Scorsese

2000 Steven Spielberg

1998 Francis Ford Coppola

1997 Stanley Kubrick

1996 Woody Allen

1995 James Ivory

1994 Robert Altman

1993 Sidney Lumet

1992 Akira Kurosawa

1990 Ingmar Bergman

1988 Robert E. Wise

1987 Elia Kazan

1986 Joseph L. Mankiewicz

1985 Billy Wilder

1984 Orson Welles

1983 John Huston

1982 Rouben Mamoulian

1981 George Cukor

1973 William A. Wellman, David Lean

1970 Fred Zinnemann

1968 Alfred Hitchcock

1966 William Wyler

1961 Frank Borzage

1960 George Stevens

1959 Frank Capra

1957 King Vidor

1956 Henry King

1954 John Ford

1953 Cecil B. De Mille