1988
Barry Levinson, Rain Man
Charles Crichton, A Fish Called Wanda
Mike Nichols, Working Girl
Alan Parker, Mississippi Burning
Robert Zemeckis, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1987
Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor
James L. Brooks, Broadcast News
Lasse Hallström, My Life as a Dog
Adrian Lyne, Fatal Attraction
Steven Spielberg, Empire of the Sun

1986
Oliver Stone, Platoon
Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters
Randa Haines, Children of a Lesser God
James Ivory, A Room With a View
Rob Reiner, Stand By Me

1985
Steven Spielberg, The Color Purple
Ron Howard, Cocoon
John Huston, Prizzi's Honor
Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa
Peter Weir, Witness

1984
Miloš Forman, Amadeus
Robert Benton, Places In the Heart
Norman Jewison, A Soldier's Story
Roland Joffé, The Killing Fields
David Lean, A Passage To India

1983
James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Bruce Beresford, Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander
Lawrence Kasdan, The Big Chill
Philip Kaufman, The Right Stuff

1982
Richard Attenborough, Gandhi
Taylor Hackford, An Officer and a Gentleman
Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot
Sydney Pollack, Tootsie
Steven Spielberg, E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

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

1980
Robert Redford, Ordinary People
Michael Apted, Coal Miner's Daughter
David Lynch, The Elephant Man
Richard Rush, The Stunt Man
Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull