First person to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar in six different decades

Steven Spielberg (USA) collected Best Director Oscar nominations in the 1970s (Close Encounters of the Third Kind – 1977), ‘80s (Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981; E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – 1982), ‘90s (Schindler’s List – 1993; Saving Private Ryan – 1998), 2000s (Munich – 2005), ‘10s (Lincoln – 2012) and ‘20s (West Side Story – 2021). West Side Story also swelled Spielberg’s tally of Best Picture Oscar nominations to a record-extending 11, achieved across five decades (1980s-2020s).

Spielberg broke a tie with Martin Scorsese (USA), who has notched up five consecutive decades of Best Director nominations (1980s-2020s) with films such as Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Departed (2006), Hugo (2011) and The Irishman (2019; nomination announced on 13 January 2020).

Including his two 2022 nominations for West Side Story, Spielberg has a total of 19 Best Director (eight) and Best Picture (11) nods since Close Encounters of the Third Kind put him on the map at the 50th Academy Awards on 3 April 1978. He has turned three of those nominations into awards, winning in both categories for Schindler’s List at the 66th awards show in 1994, and taking Best Director for Saving Private Ryan at the 71st edition in 1999.