Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Documentaries
Directors Guild of America Awards · 177 nominations across 38 ceremonies · 36 wins
78th DGA Awards · 2026
- Winner Mstyslav Chernov · 2000 Meters to Andriivka
- Nominee Cutting Through Rocks
- Nominee Geeta Gandbhir · The Perfect Neighbor
- Nominee Laura Poitras · Cover-Up
- Nominee Elizabeth Lo · Mistress Dispeller
77th DGA Awards · 2025
- Winner Brendan Bellomo · Porcelain War
- Nominee Johan Grimonprez · Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
- Nominee Julian Brave NoiseCat · Sugarcane
- Nominee Angela Patton · Daughters
- Nominee Hollywoodgate
76th DGA Awards · 2024
- Winner Mstyslav Chernov · 20 Days in Mariupol
- Nominee D. Smith · Kokomo City
- Nominee Davis Guggenheim · Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
- Nominee Bobi Wine: The People's President
- Nominee Beyond Utopia
75th DGA Awards · 2023
- Winner Sara Dosa · Fire of Love
- Nominee Laura Poitras · All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
- Nominee Matthew Heineman · Retrograde
- Nominee Shaunak Sen · All That Breathes
- Nominee Daniel Roher · Navalny
74th DGA Awards · 2022
- Winner Stanley Nelson Jr. · Attica
- Nominee Jessica Kingdon · Ascension
- Nominee Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi · The Rescue
- Nominee Questlove · Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
- Nominee Raoul Peck · Exterminate All the Brutes
73rd DGA Awards · 2021
- Winner Michael Dweck · The Truffle Hunters
- Nominee Jesse Moss · Boys State
- Nominee Benjamin Ree · The Painter and the Thief
- Nominee David France · Welcome to Chechnya
- Nominee My Octopus Teacher
72nd DGA Awards · 2020
- Winner Steven Bognar · American Factory
- Nominee Feras Fayyad · The Cave
- Nominee Ljubomir Stefanov · Honeyland
- Nominee Nanfu Wang · One Child Nation
- Nominee Maiden
71st DGA Awards · 2019
- Winner Three Identical Strangers
- Nominee Hale County This Morning, This Evening
- Nominee Morgan Neville · Won't You Be My Neighbor?
- Nominee Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi · Free Solo
- Nominee Betsy West · RBG
70th DGA Awards · 2018
- Winner Matthew Heineman · City of Ghosts
- Nominee Ken Burns · The Vietnam War
- Nominee Bryan Fogel · Icarus
- Nominee Errol Morris · Wormwood
- Nominee Steve James · Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
69th DGA Awards · 2017
- Winner Ezra Edelman · O.J.: Made in America
- Nominee Weiner
- Nominee Roger Ross Williams · Life, Animated
- Nominee The Eagle Huntress
- Nominee Raoul Peck · I Am Not Your Negro
68th DGA Awards · 2016
- Winner Matthew Heineman · Cartel Land
- Nominee Liz Garbus · What Happened, Miss Simone?
- Nominee Jimmy Chin · Meru
- Nominee Asif Kapadia · Amy
- Nominee Alex Gibney · Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
67th DGA Awards · 2015
- Winner Laura Poitras · Citizenfour
- Nominee Dan Krauss · The Kill Team
- Nominee Finding Vivian Maier
- Nominee Orlando von Einsiedel · Virunga
- Nominee Jesse Moss · The Overnighters
66th DGA Awards · 2014
- Winner Jehane Noujaim · The Square
- Nominee Cutie and the Boxer
- Nominee Sarah Polley · Stories We Tell
- Nominee Joshua Oppenheimer · The Act of Killing
- Nominee Lucy Walker · The Crash Reel
65th DGA Awards · 2013
- Winner Malik Bendjelloul · Searching for Sugar Man
- Nominee David France · How to Survive a Plague
- Nominee Kirby Dick · The Invisible War
- Nominee Lauren Greenfield · The Queen of Versailles
- Nominee Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
64th DGA Awards · 2012
- Winner James Marsh · Project Nim
- Nominee Steve James · The Interrupters
- Nominee Bruce Sinofsky, Joe Berlinger · Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
- Nominee Bill Cunningham New York
- Nominee Martin Scorsese · George Harrison: Living in the Material World
63rd DGA Awards · 2011
- Winner Charles Ferguson · Inside Job
- Nominee Tim Hetherington · Restrepo
- Nominee Alex Gibney · Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
- Nominee Davis Guggenheim · Waiting for "Superman"
- Nominee Lixin Fan · Last Train Home
62nd DGA Awards · 2010
- Winner Louie Psihoyos · The Cove
- Nominee Garbage Dreams
- Nominee Robert Kenner · Food, Inc.
- Nominee The English Surgeon
- Nominee Agnès Varda · The Beaches of Agnès
- Nominee Sacha Gervasi · Anvil! The Story of Anvil
61st DGA Awards · 2009
- Winner Ari Folman · Waltz with Bashir
- Nominee Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed in the Mountains
- Nominee James Marsh · Man on Wire
- Nominee Elizabeth Farnsworth · The Judge and the General
- Nominee Steve James · At the Death House Door
60th DGA Awards · 2008
- Winner Ghosts of Cité Soleil
- Nominee Richard E. Robbins · Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
- Nominee Barbet Schroeder · Terror's Advocate
- Nominee Ken Burns · The War
- Nominee Alex Gibney · Taxi to the Dark Side
59th DGA Awards · 2007
- Winner Arūnas Matelis · Before Flying Back to Earth
- Nominee James Longley · Iraq in Fragments
- Nominee Ici Najac, A Vous La Terre
- Nominee Michael Glawogger · Workingman's Death
- Nominee Amy J. Berg · Deliver Us from Evil
58th DGA Awards · 2006
- Winner Werner Herzog · Grizzly Man
- Nominee Rupert Murray · Unknown White Male
- Nominee Brent Renaud · Off to War: Welcome to Baghdad
- Nominee Kief Davidson · The Devil's Miner
- Nominee Sean McAllister · The Liberace of Baghdad
57th DGA Awards · 2005
- Winner Byambasuren Davaa · The Story of the Weeping Camel
- Nominee Jehane Noujaim · Control Room
- Nominee Zana Briski · Born into Brothels
- Nominee Michael Moore · Fahrenheit 9/11
- Nominee Ross McElwee · Bright Leaves
56th DGA Awards · 2004
- Winner Nathaniel Kahn · My Architect
- Nominee Andrew Jarecki · Capturing the Friedmans
- Nominee Errol Morris · The Fog of War
- Nominee Sam Green · The Weather Underground
- Nominee José Padilha · Ônibus 174
55th DGA Awards · 2003
- Winner The Smith Family
- Nominee Charles Braverman · Bottom of the Ninth
- Nominee Sweet Old Song
- Nominee Malcolm Clarke · Prisoner of Paradise
- Nominee Rebecca Cammisa · Sister Helen
54th DGA Awards · 2002
- Winner Chris Hegedus · Startup.com
- Nominee Charles Braverman · Rocky and Rolanda
- Nominee Stephen Ives · Amato: A Love Affair with Opera
- Nominee Life on Jupiter: The Story of Jens Nygaard, Musician
- Nominee Frances Reid · Long Night's Journey into Day
53rd DGA Awards · 2001
- Winner Charles Braverman · High School Boot Camp
- Nominee Mark Lewis · The Natural History of the Chicken
- Nominee Laurie Collyer · Nuyorican Dream
- Nominee Broken Child
- Nominee David de Vries · The True Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai
52nd DGA Awards · 2000
- Winner Nanette Burstein · On the Ropes
- Nominee Marc Levin · Thug Life in D.C.
- Nominee Barry W. Blaustein · Beyond the Mat
- Nominee The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez-Gomez
- Nominee Errol Morris · Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
51st DGA Awards · 1999
- Winner Gordon Quinn · Vietnam, Long Time Coming
- Nominee Dying to Tell the Story
- Nominee Marc Levin
- Nominee Matthew Diamond · Dancemaker
- Nominee Nigel Noble · Great Performances
- Nominee American Masters
50th DGA Awards · 1998
- Winner Riding the Rails
- Nominee Wonderland
- Nominee First Person Singular: I.M. Pei
- Nominee Michèle Ohayon · Colors Straight Up
- Nominee Ellen Hovde · Liberty! The American Revolution
49th DGA Awards · 1997
- Winner Al Pacino · Looking for Richard
- Nominee Jeanne Jordan · Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
- Nominee Leon Gast · When We Were Kings
- Nominee Isaac Mizrahi · The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century
- Nominee Bruce Sinofsky, Joe Berlinger · Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
48th DGA Awards · 1996
- Winner Terry Zwigoff · Crumb
- Nominee Freida Lee Mock · Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
- Nominee Indianapolis: Ship of Doom
- Nominee Helen Whitney · American Masters
- Nominee Deborah Hoffmann · Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
47th DGA Awards · 1995
- Winner Steve James · Hoop Dreams
- Nominee Mama Awethu!
- Nominee Martha & Ethel
- Nominee Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm
- Nominee Lives in Hazard
46th DGA Awards · 1994
45th DGA Awards · 1993
- Winner Joe Berlinger · Brother's Keeper
- Nominee Braving Alaska
- Nominee Ric Burns · The Donner Party
44th DGA Awards · 1992
34th DGA Awards · 1982
- Nominee Marty Pasetta
30th DGA Awards · 1978
28th DGA Awards · 1976
- Nominee Marty Pasetta