OSCAR WINNING DIRECTORS WHO PRODUCED BEST PICTURE NOMINEES THEY DIDN'T DIRECT... An Insane Paul Sullivan Post

I can write crazy movie lists too!!!

Folks you have to bear with me… I obsess about the Academy Awards almost as much as I talk about baseball… I’ll get back to breaking down teams in the build up for Spring Training soon enough… but let me get some of my Oscar needs out.

I am sure Peter Jackson thought he was going to get an Academy Award nomination this year when he made The Lovely Bones and had it released in time for the Oscar push.

Well The Lovely Bones may have had a disappointing show in the nominations, but Peter Jackson did indeed get a nomination.

He produced the wonderful Best Picture nominee District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp.

And that got me thinking… how many times has a filmmaker who won the Oscar for Best Director later get nominated for producing a Best Picture nominee.

And why have an idle thought like that when you can actually try to figure it out.

I have found six other instances…

Warren Beatty

Won the Best Director Oscar for Reds.

Nominated for Best Picture for Bugsy, Directed by Barry Levinson.




James L. Brooks

Won the Best Director Oscar for Terms of Endearment.

Nominated for Best Picture for Jerry Maguire, Directed by Cameron Crowe.






Mike Nichols

Won the Best Director Oscar for The Graduate.

Nominated for Best Picture for Remains of the Day, Directed by James Ivory






Anthony Minghella

Won the Best Director Oscar for The English Patient.

Nominated for Best Picture for The Reader, Directed by Stephen Daldry









Sydney Pollack

Won the Best Director Oscar for Out of Africa.

Nominated for Best Picture for Michael Clayton, Directed by Tony Gilroy
and The Reader, Directed by Stephen Daldry







Steven Spielberg

Won the Best Director Oscar for Schindler’s List
and Saving Private Ryan.

Nominated for Best Picture for Letters From Iwo Jima, Directed by Clint Eastwood




Now I hesitated about putting Francis Ford Coppola on the list and decided I would be a hard ass about it…Coppola produced the Best Picture nominee American Graffiti for George Lucas after he had made The Godfather.

But while Coppola had won the Oscar for The Godfather and the film won Best Picture, Coppola did not win the Best Director Oscar… he won that AFTER American Graffiti for The Godfather Part II.

Hey, I am a stickler for rules in my baseball lists. (Roberto Clemente is NOT in the Home Grown Pirates team because I stick to the rules.)

So why did I write this?
Well I am sure there must be a lunatic out there who wants to know this strange fact.

YOU ARE WELCOME