Independent Spirit Award / Best Director
Award-winning and nominated filmmakers for the Independent Spirit Award in the category Best Director (Best Director) .
In 1987, 2006 and 2012 the award-winning director matched the Oscar winner in the Best Director category .
| statistics | Surname | number | year |
| Most frequent awards | Joel Coen | 2 | 1986, 1997 |
| Alexander Payne | 2 | 2000, 2005 | |
| Ang Lee | 2 | 2001, 2006 | |
| Barry Jenkins | 2 | 2017, 2019 | |
| Most frequent nominations (* = victory) |
Todd Haynes | 6th | 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003 *, 2008, 2016 |
| Most frequent nominations without a win | Gus Van Sant | 5 | 1990, 1992, 2003, 2004, 2008 |
1980s
1986
Joel Coen - Blood Simple - A Murderous Night (Blood Simple)
Martin Scorsese - The Time After Midnight (After Hours)
- Joyce Chopra - Menacing Whisper (Smooth Talk)
- Peter Masterson - A Trip to Bountiful - Reise ins Glück (A Trip to Bountiful)
1987
- Jim Jarmusch - Down by Law
- David Lynch - Blue Velvet
- Rob Reiner - Stand by Me - The secret of a summer (Stand by Me)
- Oliver Stone - Salvador
1988
John Huston - The Dead (The Dead)
- Jonathan Demme - After Cambodia swimming (Swimming to Cambodia)
- Tim Hunter - The Knife on the Bank (River's Edge)
- Jim McBride - The Big Easy - The Big Easy (The Big Easy)
- John Sayles - Matewan
1989
Ramón Menéndez - Stand and Deliver
- David Burton Morris - Patti Rocks - Sex Is Fun (Patti Rocks)
- Errol Morris - The Case of Randall Adams (The Thin Blue Line)
- Oliver Stone - Talk Radio
- John Waters - Hairspray
1990s
1990
Steven Soderbergh - Sex, Lies, and Video (Sex, Lies, and Videotape)
- Jim Jarmusch - Mystery Train
- Charles Lane - Sidewalk Stories
- Nancy Savoca - True Love (True Love)
- Gus Van Sant - Drugstore Cowboy
1991
Charles Burnett - Angry sleep (To Sleep with Anger)
- Reginald Hudlin - House Party
- John McNaughton - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
- Allan Moyle - Hart auf Sendung - Pump up the Volume (Pump Up the Volume)
- Michael Roemer - The plot against Harry (The plot against Harry)
1992
Martha Coolidge - The Lust of the Beautiful Rose (Rambling Rose)
- Todd Haynes - Poison
- Richard Linklater - Marauder (Slacker)
- Gus Van Sant - My Private Idaho (My Own Private Idaho)
- Joseph B. Vasquez - Hangin 'Out - 4 Homeboys on the way (Hangin' with the Homeboys)
1993
Carl Franklin - One False Move
- Allison Anders - Gas Food Lodging
- Abel Ferrara - Bad Lieutenant
- Tom Kalin - Swoon
- Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs - Wild Dogs (Reservoir Dogs)
1994
- Ang Lee - The Wedding Banquet (喜宴, Hsi yen )
- Victor Nuñez - Ruby in Paradise
- Robert Rodriguez - El Mariachi
- John Turturro - Mac
1995
Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
- John Dahl - Red Rock West
- Ang Lee - Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食 男女, Yǐn Shí Nán Nǚ )
- Roman Polanski - The Death and the Maiden (Death and the Maiden)
- Alan Rudolph - Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
1996
Mike Figgis - Leaving Las Vegas
- Michael Almereyda - Nadja
- Ulu Grosbard - Georgia
- Todd Haynes - Safe
- John Sayles - The Secret of Roan Babies (The Secret of Roan Inish)
1997
- Abel Ferrara - The Funeral (The Funeral)
- David O. Russell - Flirting with Disaster - A disaster of Hazzard (Flirting with Disaster)
- Todd Solondz - Welcome to the Dollhouse (Welcome to the Dollhouse)
- Robert M. Young - Caught - In the Network of passion (Caught)
1998
Robert Duvall - Apostle! (The Apostle)
- Larry Fessenden - Habit
- Victor Nuñez - Ulee's Gold
- Paul Schrader - Touch
- Wim Wenders - The End of Violence (The End of Violence)
1999
- Todd Haynes - Velvet Gold Mine
- Lodge Kerrigan - Claire Dolan
- Paul Schrader - The Hunted (Affliction)
- Todd Solondz - Happiness
2000s
2000
- Harmony Korine - Julien Donkey Boy
- Doug Liman - Go - Life doesn't start until 3:00 a.m. (Go)
- David Lynch - A True Story - The Straight Story (The Straight Story)
- Steven Soderbergh - The Limey
2001
Ang Lee - Tiger & Dragon (臥虎藏龍; Wòhǔ Cánglóng )
- Darren Aronofsky - Requiem for a Dream
- Miguel Arteta - Chuck & Buck
- Christopher Guest - Best in Show
- Julian Schnabel - Before Night Falls
2002
- Michael Cuesta - LIE - Long Island Expressway (LIE)
- Cheryl Dunye - The Stranger
- Richard Linklater - Waking Life
- John Cameron Mitchell - Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2003
Todd Haynes - Far from Heaven (Far from Heaven)
- Joe Carnahan - Narc
- Nicole Holofcener - Lovely & Amazing
- Bernard Rose - Ivansxtc
- Gus Van Sant - Gerry
2004
Sofia Coppola - Lost in Translation
- Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini - American Splendor
- Jim Sheridan - In America
- Peter Sollett - Summer in New York (Raising Victor Vargas)
- Gus Van Sant - Elephant
2005
- Shane Carruth - Primer
- Joshua Marston - Maria Full of Grace (Maria Full of Grace)
- Walter Salles - The Journey of Young Che (The Motorcycle Diaries)
- Mario Van Peebles - Baadasssss!
2006
- Gregg Araki - Mysterious Skin - Under the Skin (Mysterious Skin)
- Noah Baumbach - The Squid and the Whale (The Squid and the Whale)
- George Clooney - Good Night, and Good Luck.
- Rodrigo García - Nine Lives
2007
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris - Little Miss Sunshine
- Robert Altman - Robert Altman's Last Radio Show (A Prairie Home Companion)
- Ryan Fleck - Half Nelson
- Karen Moncrieff - Dead Girl (The Dead Girl)
- Steven Soderbergh - Bubble
2008
Julian Schnabel - Butterfly and Diving Bell (Le scaphandre et le papillon)
- Todd Haynes - I'm Not There
- Tamara Jenkins - The Savage siblings (The Savages)
- Jason Reitman - Juno
- Gus Van Sant - Paranoid Park
2009
Tom McCarthy - A Summer in New York - The Visitor (The Visitor)
- Ramin Bahrani - Chop Shop
- Jonathan Demme - Rachel Getting Married (Rachel Getting Married)
- Lance Hammer - Ballast
- Courtney Hunt - Frozen River
2010s
2010
Lee Daniels - Precious - Life is Precious (Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire)
- Ethan and Joel Coen - A Serious Man
- Cary Fukunaga - Sin nombre
- James Gray - Two Lovers
- Michael Hoffman - A Russian Summer (The Last Station)
2011
- Danny Boyle - 127 Hours
- Lisa Cholodenko - The Kids Are All Right
- Debra Granik - Winter's Bone
- John Cameron Mitchell - Rabbit Hole
2012
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
- Mike Mills - Beginners
- Jeff Nichols - Take Shelter - A Storm Is Coming (Take Shelter)
- Alexander Payne - The Descendants - Family and Other Affairs (The Descendants)
- Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive
2013
David O. Russell - Silver Linings (Silver Linings Playbook)
- Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom
- Julia Loktev - The Loneliest Planet
- Ira Sachs - Keep the Lights On
- Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
2014
Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave
- Shane Carruth - Upstream Color
- JC Chandor - All Is Lost
- Jeff Nichols - Mud
- Alexander Payne - Nebraska
2015
- Damien Chazelle - Whiplash
- Ava DuVernay - Selma
- Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman or ( The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
- David Zellner - Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
2016
- Sean S. Baker - Tangerine
- Cary Fukunaga - Beasts of No Nation
- Todd Haynes - Carol
- Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson - Anomalisa
- David Robert Mitchell - It Follows
2017
- Andrea Arnold - American Honey
- Pablo Larraín - Jackie: The First Lady (Jackie)
- Jeff Nichols - Loving
- Kelly Reichardt - Certain Women
- Sean Baker - The Florida Project
- Jonas Carpignano - Pio (A Ciambra)
- Luca Guadagnino - Call Me by Your Name
- Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie - Good Time
- Chloé Zhao - The Rider
Barry Jenkins - If Beale Street Could Talk
- Paul Schrader - First Reformed
- Debra Granik - Leave No Trace
- Tamara Jenkins - Private Life
- Lynne Ramsay - A Beautiful Day ( You Were Never Really Here )
2020s
Benny and Josh Safdie - The Black Diamond (Uncut Gems)
- Robert Eggers - The Lighthouse (The Lighthouse)
- Alma Har'el - Honey Boy
- Julius Onah - Luce
- Lorene Scafaria - Hustlers