| Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Documentaries | |
| Awarded For: | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries |
| Presenter: | Directors Guild of America |
| Country: | United States |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Holder: | Mstyslav Chernov for 20 Days in Mariupol (2023) |
The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries is one of the annual Directors Guild of America Awards given by the Directors Guild of America. It was first awarded at the 44th Directors Guild of America Awards in 1992.
| Year | Winners and nominees | Film | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 (44th) | Barbara Kopple | American Dream | [1] |
| Soldiers of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia | |||
| Alan Raymond | |||
| 1992 (45th) | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | Brother's Keeper | [2] |
| The Donner Party | |||
| Mark Stouffer | Braving Alaska | ||
| 1993 (46th) | Barbara Kopple | [3] | |
| Shari Cookson | |||
| Bruce Kuerten and John DiJulio | From Fields of Promise | ||
| Susan Raymond | |||
| American Masters for "Paul Simon: Born at the Right Time" | |||
| 1994 (47th) | Steve James | Hoop Dreams | [4] |
| Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine | Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm | ||
| Jyll Johnstone | Martha & Ethel | ||
| Susan Todd and Andrew Young | Lives in Hazard | ||
| Bethany Yarrow | Mama Awethu! | ||
| 1995 (48th) | Terry Zwigoff | Crumb | [5] |
| Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter | |||
| Bill Van Daalen | Indianapolis: Ship of Doom | ||
| American Masters for "Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light" | |||
| 1996 (49th) | Al Pacino | Looking for Richard | [6] |
| When We Were Kings | |||
| The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century for "Slaughter" | |||
| 1997 (50th) | Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell | Riding the Rails | [7] |
| Liberty! The American Revolution for "Blows Must Decide" | |||
| John O'Hagan | Wonderland | ||
| Colors Straight Up | |||
| Peter Rosen | First Person Singular: I.M. Pei | ||
| 1998 (51st) | Jerry Blumenthal, Peter Gilbert and Gordon Quinn | Vietnam, Long Time Coming | [8] |
| Dancemaker | |||
| Susan Lacy | American Masters for "Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note" | ||
| Great Performances for "Porgy and Bess: An American Voice" | |||
| Kyra Thompson | Dying to Tell the Story | ||
| 1999 (52nd) | Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen | On the Ropes | [9] |
| Beyond the Mat | |||
| Thug Life in D.C. | |||
| Gary Weimberg | The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez-Gomez |
| Year | Winners and nominees | Film | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 (73rd) | Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw | The Truffle Hunters | [36] [37] |
| Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed | My Octopus Teacher | ||
| Welcome to Chechnya | |||
| Boys State | |||
| Benjamin Ree | The Painter and the Thief | ||
| 2021 (74th) | Stanley Nelson Jr. | Attica | [38] [39] |
| Jessica Kingdon | Ascension | ||
| Exterminate All the Brutes | |||
| Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | |||
| The Rescue | |||
| 2022 (75th) | Sara Dosa | Fire of Love | [40] [41] |
| Retrograde | |||
| All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | |||
| Navalny | |||
| All That Breathes | |||
| 2023 (76th) | Mstyslav Chernov | 20 Days in Mariupol | [42] [43] |
| Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp | |||
| Madeleine Gavin | Beyond Utopia | ||
| Kokomo City |
| Wins | Nominations | Name (Year) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | Matthew Heineman (2015, 2017, 2022) |
| 3 | Jehane Noujaim (2001, 2004, 2013) | |
| 2 | Barbara Kopple (1991, 1993) | |
| 1 | 4 | Steve James (1994, 2008, 2011, 2017) |
| 3 | Joe Berlinger (1992, 2006, 2011) | |
| 3 | Bruce Sinofsky (1992, 2006, 2011) | |
| 3 | Charles Braverman (2000, 2001, 2002) | |
| 2 | Peter Gilbert (1998, 2008) | |
| 2 | James Marsh (2008, 2011) | |
| 2 | Laura Poitras (2014, 2022) | |
| 0 | 3 | Errol Morris (1999, 2003, 2017) |
| 3 | Alex Gibney (2007, 2010, 2015) | |
| 3 | Jimmy Chin (2015, 2018, 2021) | |
| 3 | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (2015, 2018, 2021) | |
| 2 | Deborah Hoffmann (1995, 2001) | |
| 2 | Ken Burns (2007, 2017) | |
| 2 | Lynn Novick (2007, 2017) | |
| 2 | Davis Guggenheim (2010, 2023) | |
| 2 | David France (2012, 2020) | |
| 2 | Jesse Moss (2014, 2020) | |
| 2 | Raoul Peck (2016, 2021) |