The Saturn Award for Best Director (or Saturn Award for Best Direction) is one of the annual awards given by the American
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. The
Saturn Awards
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
, which are the oldest film-specialized awards to reward
genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
A nu ...
achievements, in particular for
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
,
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
, and
horror (the
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
for
Best Dramatic Presentation is the oldest award for science fiction and fantasy films), included the Best Director category for the first time at the 3rd Saturn Awards, for the 1974/1975 film years.
History
The award is also the oldest to honor
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...
s in science fiction, fantasy and horror. It has been given 36 times, including a tie for the 1977 film year.
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post- New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability ...
holds the record of the most wins with five (for six nominations), while
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...
is the most nominated director with fourteen nominations (for four wins). Only three other directors have won the award more than once:
Peter Jackson (three times),
Bryan Singer and
Ridley Scott (two times). At the 22nd Saturn Awards (for the 1995 film year),
Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the award, 15 years before becoming the first woman to win the
Academy Award for Best Director
The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for Directing) is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibi ...
.
Spielberg was also the first to win Best Director from both the Saturn Awards and the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
at the same year, but for different movies (Saturn Award for ''
Jurassic Park
''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'', and Academy Award for ''
Schindler's List'', both in 1993); Peter Jackson was the first to win both for the same film (''
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'', in 2003) while
Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco ( , ; born 28 November 1961) is a Mexican filmmaker. He is known for directing films in a variety of genres including the family drama ''A Little Princess'' (1995), the romantic drama ''Great Expectations'' (1998), the c ...
was the second (for ''
Gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
'' in 2013).
Winners and nominees
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Multiple nominations
;14 nominations
* Steven Spielberg
;8 nominations
* Bryan Singer
;7 nominations
* Peter Jackson
* Robert Zemeckis
;6 nominations
* J. J. Abrams
* James Cameron
* Christopher Nolan
;5 nominations
* Tim Burton
* Guillermo del Toro
;4 nominations
* George Lucas
* Sam Raimi
* Matt Reeves
* Ridley Scott
* Quentin Tarantino
* Paul Verhoeven
;3 nominations
* John Badham
* Kathryn Bigelow
* Alfonso Cuarón
* Joe Dante
* William Dear
* Clint Eastwood
* David Fincher
* Terry Gilliam
* Ron Howard
* George Miller
* Jordan Peele
* Anthony and Joe Russo
* David Yates
;2 nominations
* Woody Allen
* Chris Columbus
* David Cronenberg
* Frank Darabont
* Roland Emmerich
* Jon Favreau
* William Friedkin
* Rian Johnson
* Randal Kleiser
* Ang Lee
* Frank Marshall
* Nicholas Meyer
* Leonard Nimoy
* Alex Proyas
* Guy Ritchie
* Martin Scorsese
* Zack Snyder
* Denis Villeneuve
* Peter Weir
* John Woo
* Zhang Yimou
Multiple wins
;5 wins
* James Cameron
;4 wins
* Steven Spielberg
;3 wins
* Peter Jackson
;2 wins
* J. J. Abrams
* Ridley Scott
* Bryan Singer
References
{{Saturn Awards
Director
Awards established in 1974
Awards established in 1975