(Credits: Far Out / Oscars)
Fri 16 January 2026 19:45, UK
You’re incredibly lucky if just one of your movies earns a ‘Best Picture’ nomination from the Academy Awards at any point in your career, but some filmmakers have been blessed with the achievement of multiple nominations – perhaps even wins.
If you’re a big name in Hollywood, it’s likely you’ll wind up with a nomination in the category at some point, although even the most acclaimed filmmakers aren’t guaranteed winners. I mean, a Stanley Kubrick film never won ‘Best Picture’, with only four of his movies actually getting a nomination. Yes, believe it or not, movies like The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut failed to make the cut, despite the fact that they are undisputable masterpieces.
It’s not the be-all-and-end-all to win an Oscar, of course, but it’s still an impressive feat to say you’ve been crowned one of the greatest in your field – even if the whole thing is pretty much one big popularity contest, with certain kinds of filmmakers (specifically those who make more palatable pieces of cinema) more likely to succeed.
If a filmmaker is really lucky, they might nab several consecutive ‘Best Picture’ nominations, with the record being seven films in a row. Now that’s impressive – even if only one of them actually won. That’s not to say that this filmmaker was largely unsuccessful in becoming an Oscar winner, however, because he actually scooped up ‘Best Director’ three times, while three of his movies won ‘Best Picture’ overall.
Who has the most consecutive Oscar noms for ‘Best Picture’?
I’m referring to a proper titan of Hollywood, William Wyler, who had hit after hit, setting this cinematic record in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. The filmmaker, a German-born American who got his start in the business as far back as the early 1920s, earned his first ‘Best Picture’ nomination with Dodsworth in 1936, although he lost out to The Great Ziegfeld by Hunt Stromberg.
Then he followed this up with nominations for Dead End, Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, The Letter, The Little Foxes, and finally Mrs Miniver, which won the coveted prize and was a hit, with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon starring as a married couple living in London during World War II, and the pair reprised their roles in a sequel, The Miniver Story, which sadly flopped at the box office.
Still, Mrs Miniver was a huge hit, also winning Wyler ‘Best Director’ at the Oscars. Meanwhile, Garson won ‘Best Actress’, with the film scooping up ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, too.
By the end of his fruitful career, Wyler would have 12 ‘Best Picture’ nominations to his name, with seven coming year after year – a true testament to his ability to make a popular movie. He might have been obsessive in the amount of takes he did, but clearly this worked to his advantage, with Wyler later going on to find further acclaim with Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, and The Best Years of Our Lives.
He remains one of the most decorated Academy Award winners in cinema history, and that seven-year ‘Best Picture’ streak sums up his brilliance pretty well.
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