Rarest Winner of the Academy Award for Best Director — All 77 Answers Ranked by Rarity
77 answers are accepted for “Name a winner of the Academy Award for Best Director”. Daniel Scheinert is the rarest winner of the Academy Award for Best Director in this ranking, with 2,490 monthly Wikipedia views (rarity 1.000, Legendary). Daniel Kwan is the second-rarest with 2,713 monthly Wikipedia views, 1.09× the figure for Daniel Scheinert. Christopher Nolan is the most common winner of the Academy Award for Best Director in this ranking, with 6,502,705 monthly Wikipedia views, 2,612× the figure for the rarest. Combined monthly Wikipedia views across the 77 answers: 69,455,558. Daniel Scheinert is under 0.1% of that total. 16 answers are Epic or Legendary: Daniel Scheinert (Legendary), Daniel Kwan (Legendary), Frank Lloyd (Legendary), and 13 more.
Quick answer
Monthly English Wikipedia pageviews. Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia pageviews (2026-10).
Ranked answers
| Rank | Answer | Tier | Rarity | Monthly Wikipedia views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Scheinert on Wikipedia | Legendary | 1.000 | 2,490 |
| 2 | Daniel Kwan on Wikipedia | Legendary | 0.987 | 2,713 |
| 3 | Frank Lloyd on Wikipedia | Legendary | 0.974 | 17,241 |
| 4 | Delbert Mann on Wikipedia | Legendary | 0.961 | 20,288 |
| 5 | Norman Taurog on Wikipedia | Legendary | 0.947 | 20,573 |
| 6 | Frank Borzage on Wikipedia | Legendary | 0.934 | 28,963 |
| 7 | Leo McCarey on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.921 | 34,804 |
| 8 | Lewis Milestone on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.908 | 39,092 |
| 9 | Franklin J. Schaffner on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.895 | 45,716 |
| 10 | Michel Hazanavicius on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.882 | 50,808 |
| 11 | Robert Benton on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.868 | 56,896 |
| 12 | George Stevens on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.855 | 74,017 |
| 13 | Fred Zinnemann on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.842 | 82,905 |
| 14 | Jerome Robbins on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.829 | 106,907 |
| 15 | George Cukor on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.816 | 122,023 |
| 16 | Victor Fleming on Wikipedia | Epic | 0.803 | 126,311 |
| 17 | Michael Curtiz on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.789 | 127,074 |
| 18 | John G. Avildsen on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.776 | 131,483 |
| 19 | John Schlesinger on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.763 | 133,768 |
| 20 | Robert Wise on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.750 | 136,411 |
| 21 | Carol Reed on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.737 | 137,495 |
| 22 | Tom Hooper on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.724 | 144,817 |
| 23 | George Roy Hill on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.711 | 163,710 |
| 24 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.697 | 164,799 |
| 25 | Jane Campion on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.684 | 191,925 |
| 26 | Bernardo Bertolucci on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.671 | 197,867 |
| 27 | William Wyler on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.658 | 213,605 |
| 28 | Michael Cimino on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.645 | 266,978 |
| 29 | Ethan Coen on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.632 | 284,392 |
| 30 | David Lean on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.618 | 288,272 |
| 31 | Miloš Forman on Wikipedia | Rare | 0.605 | 290,413 |
| 32 | Frank Capra on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.592 | 300,419 |
| 33 | Jonathan Demme on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.579 | 304,701 |
| 34 | Anthony Minghella on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.566 | 305,199 |
| 35 | Tony Richardson on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.553 | 309,685 |
| 36 | John Ford on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.539 | 425,753 |
| 37 | Joel Coen on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.526 | 442,174 |
| 38 | William Friedkin on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.513 | 453,855 |
| 39 | Sean Baker on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.500 | 473,862 |
| 40 | Billy Wilder on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.487 | 476,072 |
| 41 | Mike Nichols on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.474 | 495,917 |
| 42 | Sydney Pollack on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.461 | 516,309 |
| 43 | James L. Brooks on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.447 | 518,564 |
| 44 | Damien Chazelle on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.434 | 519,316 |
| 45 | Alfonso Cuarón on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.421 | 555,411 |
| 46 | Ang Lee on Wikipedia | Uncommon | 0.408 | 557,247 |
| 47 | Vincente Minnelli on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.395 | 563,413 |
| 48 | Barry Levinson on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.382 | 572,469 |
| 49 | Bong Joon Ho on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.368 | 626,855 |
| 50 | Alejandro González Iñárritu on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.355 | 631,301 |
| 51 | John Huston on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.342 | 635,375 |
| 52 | Oliver Stone on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.329 | 691,639 |
| 53 | Steven Soderbergh on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.316 | 702,270 |
| 54 | Danny Boyle on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.303 | 709,560 |
| 55 | Elia Kazan on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.289 | 725,749 |
| 56 | Bob Fosse on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.276 | 739,606 |
| 57 | Robert Zemeckis on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.263 | 803,034 |
| 58 | Kathryn Bigelow on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.250 | 869,361 |
| 59 | Peter Jackson on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.237 | 1,052,000 |
| 60 | Sam Mendes on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.224 | 1,130,418 |
| 61 | Chloé Zhao on Wikipedia | Familiar | 0.211 | 1,440,656 |
| 62 | Francis Ford Coppola on Wikipedia | Common | 0.197 | 1,726,967 |
| 63 | Ron Howard on Wikipedia | Common | 0.184 | 1,788,840 |
| 64 | Richard Attenborough on Wikipedia | Common | 0.171 | 1,971,698 |
| 65 | Guillermo del Toro on Wikipedia | Common | 0.158 | 1,978,167 |
| 66 | Kevin Costner on Wikipedia | Common | 0.145 | 2,223,080 |
| 67 | Roman Polanski on Wikipedia | Common | 0.132 | 2,260,052 |
| 68 | Warren Beatty on Wikipedia | Common | 0.118 | 2,298,110 |
| 69 | Woody Allen on Wikipedia | Common | 0.105 | 2,528,950 |
| 70 | Martin Scorsese on Wikipedia | Common | 0.092 | 2,667,869 |
| 71 | Robert Redford on Wikipedia | Common | 0.079 | 2,716,843 |
| 72 | James Cameron on Wikipedia | Common | 0.066 | 2,866,988 |
| 73 | Mel Gibson on Wikipedia | Common | 0.053 | 2,920,696 |
| 74 | Steven Spielberg on Wikipedia | Common | 0.039 | 4,066,653 |
| 75 | Paul Thomas Anderson on Wikipedia | Common | 0.026 | 4,100,318 |
| 76 | Clint Eastwood on Wikipedia | Common | 0.013 | 4,584,676 |
| 77 | Christopher Nolan on Wikipedia | Common | 0.000 | 6,502,705 |
FAQ
What is the rarest winner of the Academy Award for Best Director?
Daniel Scheinert is the rarest winner of the Academy Award for Best Director in this ranking, with 2,490 monthly Wikipedia views (rarity 1.000, Legendary).
How many winner of the Academy Award for Best Directors are there?
There are 77 winner of the Academy Award for Best Directors in this ranking, from Daniel Scheinert (rarest) to Christopher Nolan (most common).
What is the most common winner of the Academy Award for Best Director?
Christopher Nolan is the most common winner of the Academy Award for Best Director in this ranking, with 6,502,705 monthly Wikipedia views (Common).
Play
Unlimited mode uses this prompt. A rarer correct answer scores more.
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Sources
Recorded source: Wikidata + Wikipedia pageviews (2026-10). The answer list is compiled from Wikidata (CC0), and the view counts are monthly English Wikipedia pageviews. Rarity is the percentile of the popularity figure inside this prompt: 1 is the rarest and 0 is the most common. Linked names open the English Wikipedia article stored on that answer.