Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director

Winners
Names and titles in bold indicate directors that won the Academy Award for Best Director. Names and titles with an asterisk (*) indicate films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, but did not win.
 * 1997 - James Cameron, Titanic
 * 1998 - Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan
 * 1999 - Sam Mendes, American Beauty
 * 2000 - Darren Aronofsky, Requiem for a Dream
 * 2001 - David Lynch*, Mulholland Drive
 * 2002 - Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
 * 2003 - Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
 * 2004 - Michel Gondry*, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
 * 2005 - David Cronenberg, A History of Violence
 * 2006 - Martin Scorsese, The Departed
 * 2007 - Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
 * 2008 - Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
 * 2009 - Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
 * 2010 - David Fincher*, The Social Network
 * 2011 - Terrence Malick*, The Tree of Life
 * 2012 - Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
 * 2013 - Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
 * 2014 - Richard Linklater*, Boyhood
 * 2015 - George Miller*, Mad Max: Fury Road
 * 2016 - Barry Jenkins*, Moonlight
 * 2017 - Christopher Nolan*, Dunkirk
 * 2018 - Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Most wins

 * 2 - Alfonso Cuarón, Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan