Peter Jackson
(Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)

Peter Jackson's job of bringing the Middle-Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien's books to life was the overwhelming choice of our voters for the best direction of the year; he received more points and more first place votes (eight) than any other recipient in any other category. I think voters were impressed by the pure achievement of vision and how he used his large cast. A close four-way race occurred for the rest of the top five; three of them being the same as Best Picture finalists, with Amélie's director Jean-Pierre Jeunet finishing sixth and switching out for Baz Luhrmann. Ridley Scott's technical achievement in Black Hawk Down captured the second spot overall, sharing with The Royal Tenenbaums and Moulin Rouge! a large cast. I'm pleasantly surprised to see Christopher Nolan's direction noted here. Most of the hype surrounding the film has been in regards to its script; however, I feel that his execution of the concept was at least as important to the film's success.

Top Five
Director	Film	Total Points
Peter Jackson	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	274
Ridley Scott	Black Hawk Down	172
Wes Anderson	The Royal Tenenbaums	168
Baz Luhrmann	Moulin Rouge!	165
Christopher Nolan	Memento	164

Candidates receiving first place votes
Director	Film	Number of First Place Votes
Peter Jackson	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	8
Baz Luhrman	Moulin Rouge!	3
Ridley Scott	Black Hawk Down	2
Wes Anderson	The Royal Tenenbaums	2
Christopher Nolan	Memento	1
David Lynch	Mulholland Drive	1
Alejandro Amenábar	The Others	1
Steven Spielberg	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	1
Zhang Yimou	The Road Home	1
Wong Kar-Wai	In the Mood for Love	1

Other directors receiving votes
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie); Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind); Robert Altman (Gosford Park); Joel Coen (The Man Who Wasn't There); Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's 11); John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch); Peter Doctor, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich (Monsters, Inc.); Cameron Crowe (Vanilla Sky); Ridley Scott (Hannibal); Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone); Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone); Richard Linklater (Waking Life); Anh Hung Tran (The Vertical Ray of the Sun); Kasi Lemmons (The Caveman's Valentine); Todd Field (In the Bedroom); Jacques Rivette (Va Savoir); Brian Helgeland (A Knight's Tale); Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End); Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World); Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones's Diary); Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back); Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim (startup.com); Ted Demme (Blow); Peter and Bobby Farrelly (Shallow Hal); Scott Hicks (Hearts in Atlantis); Tsui Hark (Time and Tide); Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids); Catherine Breillat (Fat Girl); The Hughes Brothers (From Hell)