Oscars - Best Director Trivia Quiz | Oscars - Multiple Wins

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. This director is perhaps best known as a director of Westerns and was the first to win four Best Director Oscars. Who is he?

Answer: John Ford

He won his Best Director Oscars for "The Informer" in 1936; "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1941; "How Green Was My Valley" in 1942 and "The Quiet Man" in 1953. He achieved the rank of Admiral in the US Navy Reserves and that is how he is described on his headstone, rather than "Director John Ford".

2. This director was responsible for one of the most popular films not to win an Oscar despite it having five nominations. It starred James Stewart and is a regular on TV during the Christmas period. Who was this three-time Best Director Oscar winner?

Answer: Frank Capra

Capra won three directing Oscars for "It Happened One Night" in 1935, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" in 1937 and "You Can't Take It with You" in 1939. The film which is arguably his most popular film and which did not win an Oscar is "It's a Wonderful Life".

3. The film for which this director won his final Directing Oscar ("Ben-Hur"), won a massive 11 Oscars in total. Who was this director, born in Alsace-Lorraine, then part of the Ggerman Empire?

Answer: William Wyler

He won his three Best Director Oscars for "The Best Years of Our Lives" in 1947; "Mrs. Miniver" in 1943 and "Ben-Hur" in 1960. Fourteen actors have actually won Oscars starring in his movies.

4. This American director won an Oscar for the third and final feature film starring James Dean. It must have caused a bit of a headache to him as Dean was killed in a car crash shortly before filming was completed. Who is he?

Answer: George Stevens

He achieved his directing Oscars for "A Place in the Sun" in 1952 and "Giant" in 1957. During WW2 he was part of a unit which filmed the D-Day landings, the liberation of Paris and scenes from the Duben labour camp and Dachau concentration camp. He helped prepare some of this footage for use in the Nuremberg Trials which followed the end of the war.

5. This director was the editor of a film often called one of the greatest movies of all time - "Citizen Kane". His two directing Oscars came from musicals. Who is this shrewd director?

Answer: Robert Wise

The Best Director Oscar awarded in 1962 was actually shared between Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins who had both directed "West Side Story". Wise had had no experience with musicals and Jerome Robbins was brought in to direct the musical and dance sequences while Wise concentrated on the dramatic aspects.

They therefore shared the Best Director Oscar that year. Wise won again for another musical, "The Sound of Music", four years later.

6. Who was the first Asian to win an Oscar for Best Director? He has won more than one.

Answer: Ang Lee

His won the Best Director Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain" in 2006 and "Life of Pi" in 2013. His first Oscar of any description was for his film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film in 2001.

7. This British born director was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the second Oscar ceremony, he won the Best Director Oscar for a silent film, "The Divine Lady". There were no official nominations that year, but he was also considered for "Drag" and "Weary River" which both had sound. Who was he?

Answer: Frank Lloyd

The second Academy Award is known as the 1928/29 Ceremony. In fact the first six Oscars covered two years. It wasn't until the seventh Academy Awards Ceremony (1934) that the awards covered a single year. Frank Lloyd won his second directing Oscar at the sixth (1932/33) Academy Awards for "Cavalcade".

His biggest success came when he was nominated for Best Director at the 1935 Academy Awards but lost out. His film of "Mutiny on the Bounty", starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton did however win the Best Picture Oscar, though it was awarded to the studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, rather than him.

8. This director not only won two Oscars as Best Director but also won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay for "Sunset Blvd." in 1951. Who was this director who was born in Sucha, now part of Poland, in 1906?

Answer: Billy Wilder

He was known as the Viennese Pixie. He started as a screenwriter for German films in his early career but emigrated initially to Paris and then to the United States when it became clear that his Jewish background would be a problem when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. His directing Oscars were for "The Lost Weekend" in 1946 and "The Apartment" in 1961.

9. This person was actually a film editor before becoming a director. Among his early films as a director are "Blithe Spirit" in 1945 and "Oliver Twist", in 1948. He won the first of his directing Oscars in the 1950s and the second in the 1960s. Who was this British director?

Answer: David Lean

Lean won his dDirecting Oscars for "The Bridge on the River Kwai" in 1958 and "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1963. Both films actually won seven Oscars in total. He was nominated for the Best Director Oscar on seven occasions.

10. This director is responsible for many of the highest grossing films ever made. His first global success was based around the small town of Amity. The film won three Oscars for Editing, Sound and Music. Who might this be?

Answer: Steven Spielberg

He is possibly the most successful director in the history of Tinseltown in terms of money earned from his films. His two directing Oscars are for "Schindler's List" in 1994 and "Saving Private Ryan" in 1999.

11. This director was born in Europe in 1907. His first Oscar success was for a film which won eight Oscars in 1954 and his second won six Oscars in 1967. My personal favourite of his films would be "High Noon" starring Gary Cooper. Who was this Viennese director?

Answer: Fred Zinnemann

His two Oscar wins were for "From Here to Eternity" in 1954 and "A Man for All Seasons" in 1967. He was due to make a massively expensive film about General Custer when his film "Behold a Pale Horse" proved to be a flop. The Custer film was postponed and he made "A Man for All Seasons" instead. The Custer film was cancelled when a cheaper film about him was made by another company.

12. This director had a background of directing Broadway plays as well as films. He had seven Tony Award nominations (three wins). His second directing Oscar was for "On the Waterfront" which also won Marlon Brando his first Oscar. Who was he?

Answer: Elia Kazan

His two directing Oscars were for "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1948 and "On the Waterfront" in 1955. Kazan was a "friendly witness" during the enquiry into Unamerican Activities in 1952. Many writers, actors, directors and musicians were blacklisted for their suspected beliefs and he was blamed by many of his friends and colleagues. Kazan himself explained that he was given two options at the time and he was boxed into a no-win situation, having to choose one option or the other.

13. Our next director had a very successful acting career both on TV and in movies before turning to directing. One of his acting roles was actually starring in a major Hollywood musical with another highly unlikely co-star who had a #1 hit in the UK with a song from this film. Who might this be?

Answer: Clint Eastwood

Eastwood's first directing Oscar came from the western "Unforgiven" in 1993, the genre that made him a household name. His second directing Oscar came for "Million Dollar Baby" in 2005, a film about a female boxer. He was elected Mayor of Carmel-by-the sea in California by a landslide vote in 1986.

The musical in question is of course "Paint Your Wagon" in which he starred with Lee Marvin. The song was "Wand'rin' Star".

14. This Czech director won his first directing Oscar when he made a film of a novel by Ken Kesey. His second was for a film about a musical genius. What is the name of this director?

Answer: Milos Forman

He won the Best Director Oscar for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1976 and "Amadeus" in 1985. He was orphaned during the second world war when both his parents were arrested for being in the Czechoslovak resistance. They died in Nazi concentration camps.

15. This director won his first Oscar in the Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium category for "Midnight Express" in 1979. His first two directing Oscars were for films concerning the military. What is his name?

Answer: Oliver Stone

Just eight years after winning his writing Oscar for "Midnight Express" he won the Best Director Oscar for "Platoon" in 1987 and then, three years later, for "Born on the Fourth of July" in 1990. Both films related to the Vietnam War. He had served in Vietnam himself, winning a Bronze Star for Gallantry and a Purple Heart.

Source: Author Spontini

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor jmorrow before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Oscars - Best Director Trivia Quiz

All the answers to this quiz are directors who have won more than one Oscar for Best Director. They may also have won the Best Picture Award in the same year but that isn't counted for the purpose of this quiz.

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