The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honour the finest achievements in filmmaking.
In the last three decades (1970s, 1980s, and 1990s), the New York Film Critics have rarely made the same choice as the Academy Awards. Both associations have agreed on the same winner, over the period 1970–1999, on the following: Woody Allen for Annie Hall (1977) and Jonathan Demme for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). It’s notable that from 2000 to 2009, the critics’ group have agreed with the Academy on six occasions: Steven Soderbergh for Traffic (2000), Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (2004), Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005), Martin Scorsese for The Departed (2006), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007), and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009).
Oscar winner denoted by *