National Board of Review Award for Best Director

Winners
Names and titles in bold indicate directors that won the Academy Award for Best Director. Names with an asterisk (*) indicate directors that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, but did not win.
 * 1945 - Jean Renoir*, The Southerner
 * 1946 - William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives
 * 1947 - Elia Kazan, Gentleman's Agreement / Boomerang
 * 1948 - Roberto Rossellini, Paisan
 * 1949 - Vittorio De Sica, Bicycle Thieves
 * 1950 - John Huston*, The Asphalt Jungle
 * 1951 - Akira Kurosawa, Rashomon
 * 1952 - David Lean, The Sound Barrier
 * 1953 - George Stevens*, Shane
 * 1954 - Renato Castellani, Romeo and Juliet
 * 1955 - William Wyler, The Desperate Hours
 * 1956 - John Huston, Moby Dick
 * 1957 - David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai
 * 1958 - John Ford, The Last Hurrah
 * 1959 - Fred Zinnemann*, The Nun's Story
 * 1960 - Jack Cardiff*, Sons and Lovers
 * 1961 - Jack Clayton, The Innocents
 * 1962 - David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia
 * 1963 - Tony Richardson, Tom Jones
 * 1964 - Desmond Davis, Girl with Green Eyes
 * 1965 - John Schlesinger*, Darling
 * 1966 - Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons
 * 1967 - Richard Brooks*, In Cold Blood
 * 1968 - Franco Zeffirelli*, Romeo and Juliet
 * 1969 - Alfred Hitchcock, Topaz
 * 1970 - François Truffaut, The Wild Child
 * 1971 - Ken Russell, The Boy Friend / The Devils
 * 1972 - Bob Fosse, Cabaret
 * 1973 - Ingmar Bergman*, Cries and Whispers
 * 1974 - Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation
 * 1975 - Stanley Kubrick*, Barry Lyndon / Robert Altman*, Nashville
 * 1976 - Alan J. Pakula*, All the President's Men
 * 1977 - Luis Buñuel, That Obscure Object of Desire
 * 1978 - Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata
 * 1979 - John Schlesinger, Yanks
 * 1980 - Robert Redford, Ordinary People
 * 1981 - Warren Beatty, Reds
 * 1982 - Sidney Lumet*, The Verdict
 * 1983 - James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
 * 1984 - David Lean*, A Passage to India
 * 1985 - Akira Kurosawa*, Ran
 * 1986 - Woody Allen*, Hannah and Her Sisters
 * 1987 - Steven Spielberg, Empire of the Sun
 * 1988 - Alan Parker, Mississippi Burning*
 * 1989 - Kenneth Branagh*, Henry V
 * 1990 - Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves
 * 1991 - Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
 * 1992 - James Ivory*, Howards End
 * 1993 - Martin Scorsese, The Age of Innocence
 * 1994 - Quentin Tarantino*, Pulp Fiction
 * 1995 - Ang Lee, Sense and Sensibility
 * 1996 - Joel Coen*, Fargo
 * 1997 - Curtis Hanson*, L.A. Confidential
 * 1998 - Shekhar Kapur, Elizabeth
 * 1999 - Anthony Minghella, The Talented Mr. Ripley
 * 2000 - Steven Soderbergh, Traffic / Erin Brockovich
 * 2001 - Todd Field, In the Bedroom
 * 2002 - Phillip Noyce, The Quiet American / Rabbit-Proof Fence
 * 2003 - Edward Zwick, The Last Samurai
 * 2004 - Michael Mann, Collateral
 * 2005 - Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
 * 2006 - Martin Scorsese, The Departed
 * 2007 - Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
 * 2008 - David Fincher*, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
 * 2009 - Clint Eastwood, Invictus
 * 2010 - David Fincher*, The Social Network
 * 2011 - Martin Scorsese*, Hugo
 * 2012 - Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
 * 2013 - Spike Jonze, Her
 * 2014 - Clint Eastwood, American Sniper
 * 2015 - Ridley Scott, The Martian
 * 2016 - Barry Jenkins*, Moonlight
 * 2017 - Greta Gerwig*, Lady Bird
 * 2018 - Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born

Most wins

 * 4 - David Lean
 * 3 - Martin Scorsese
 * 2 - Ingmar Bergman, Clint Eastwood, David Fincher, John Huston, Akira Kurosawa, Ang Lee, John Schlesinger, Fred Zinnemann, William Wyler