| 31 | 1957 | David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai | Joshua Logan - Sayonara, Sidney Lumet - 12 Angry Men, Mark Robson - Peyton Place, Billy Wilder - Witness for the Prosecution |
| 32 | 1958 | Vincente Minnelli, Gigi | Richard Brooks - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Stanley Kramer - The Defiant Ones, Mark Robson - The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Robert Wise - I Want to Live! |
| 33 | 1959 | William Wyler, Ben-Hur | Jack Clayton - Room at the Top, George Stevens - The Diary of Anne Frank, Billy Wilder - Some Like It Hot, Fred Zinnemann - The Nun's Story |
| 34 | 1960 | Billy Wilder, The Apartment | Jack Cardiff - Sons and Lovers, Jules Dassin - Never on Sunday, Alfred Hitchcock - Psycho, Fred Zinnemann - The Sundowners |
| 35 | 1961 | Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, West Side Story | Federico Fellini - La dolce vita, Stanley Kramer - Judgment at Nuremberg, Robert Rossen - The Hustler, J. Lee Thompson - The Guns of Navarone |
| 36 | 1962 | David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia | Pietro Germi - Divorce, Italian Style, Robert Mulligan - To Kill a Mockingbird, Arthur Penn - The Miracle Worker, Frank Perry - David and Lisa |
| 37 | 1963 | Tony Richardson, Tom Jones | Federico Fellini - 8½, Elia Kazan - America, America, Otto Preminger - The Cardinal, Martin Ritt - Hud |
| 38 | 1964 | George Cukor, My Fair Lady | Michael Cacoyannis - Zorba the Greek, Peter Glenville - Becket, Stanley Kubrick - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Robert Stevenson - Mary Poppins |
| 39 | 1965 | Robert Wise, The Sound of Music | David Lean - Doctor Zhivago, John Schlesinger - Darling, Hiroshi Teshigahara - Woman in the Dunes, William Wyler - The Collector |
| 40 | 1966 | Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons | Michelangelo Antonioni - Blow-Up, Richard Brooks - The Professionals, Claude Lelouch - A Man and a Woman, Mike Nichols - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| 41 | 1967 | Mike Nichols, The Graduate | Richard Brooks - In Cold Blood, Norman Jewison - In the Heat of the Night, Stanley Kramer - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Arthur Penn - Bonnie and Clyde |
| 42 | 1968 | Carol Reed, Oliver! | Anthony Harvey - The Lion in Winter, Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gillo Pontecorvo - The Battle of Algiers, Franco Zeffirelli - Romeo and Juliet |
| 43 | 1969 | John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy | Costa-Gavras - Z, George Roy Hill - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Arthur Penn - Alice's Restaurant, Sydney Pollack - They Shoot Horses, Don't They? |
| 44 | 1970 | Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton | Robert Altman - MASH, Federico Fellini - Satyricon, Arthur Hiller - Love Story, Ken Russell - Women in Love |
| 45 | 1971 | William Friedkin, The French Connection | Peter Bogdanovich - The Last Picture Show, Norman Jewison - Fiddler on the Roof, Stanley Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange, John Schlesinger - Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| 46 | 1972 | Bob Fosse, Cabaret | John Boorman - Deliverance, Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather, Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Sleuth, Jan Troell - The Emigrants |
| 47 | 1973 | George Roy Hill, The Sting | Ingmar Bergman - Cries and Whispers, Bernardo Bertolucci - Last Tango in Paris, William Friedkin - The Exorcist, George Lucas - American Graffiti |
| 48 | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II | John Cassavetes - A Woman Under the Influence, Bob Fosse - Lenny, Roman Polanski - Chinatown, François Truffaut - La Nuit américaine |
| 49 | 1975 | Miloš Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Robert Altman - Nashville, Federico Fellini - Amarcord, Stanley Kubrick - Barry Lyndon, Sidney Lumet - Dog Day Afternoon |
| 50 | 1976 | John G. Avildsen, Rocky | Ingmar Bergman - Face to Face, Sidney Lumet - Network, Alan J. Pakula - All the President's Men, Lina Wertmüller - Seven Beauties |
| 51 | 1977 | Woody Allen, Annie Hall | George Lucas - Star Wars, Herbert Ross - The Turning Point, Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Fred Zinnemann - Julia |
| 52 | 1978 | Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter | Woody Allen - Interiors, Hal Ashby - Coming Home, Warren Beatty, Buck Henry - Heaven Can Wait, Alan Parker - Midnight Express |
| 53 | 1979 | Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer | Francis Ford Coppola - Apocalypse Now, Bob Fosse - All That Jazz, Edouard Molinaro - La Cage aux Folles, Peter Yates - Breaking Away |
| 54 | 1980 | Robert Redford, Ordinary People | David Lynch - The Elephant Man, Roman Polanski - Tess, Richard Rush - The Stunt Man, Martin Scorsese - Raging Bull |
| 55 | 1981 | Warren Beatty, Reds | Hugh Hudson - Chariots of Fire, Louis Malle - Atlantic City, Mark Rydell - On Golden Pond, Steven Spielberg - Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| 56 | 1982 | Richard Attenborough, Gandhi | Sidney Lumet - The Verdict, Wolfgang Petersen - Das Boot, Sydney Pollack - Tootsie, Steven Spielberg - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial |
| 57 | 1983 | James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment | Bruce Beresford - Tender Mercies, Ingmar Bergman - Fanny and Alexander, Mike Nichols - Silkwood, Peter Yates - The Dresser |
| 58 | 1984 | Miloš Forman, Amadeus | Woody Allen - Broadway Danny Rose, Robert Benton - Places in the Heart, Roland Joffé - The Killing Fields, David Lean - A Passage to India |
| 59 | 1985 | Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa | Hector Babenco - Kiss of the Spider Woman, John Huston - Prizzi's Honor, Akira Kurosawa - Ran, Peter Weir - Witness |
| 60 | 1986 | Oliver Stone, Platoon | Woody Allen - Hannah and Her Sisters, James Ivory - A Room with a View, Roland Joffé - The Mission, David Lynch - Blue Velvet |