| Goya Award for Best Director | |
| Awarded For: | Best Director of the Year |
| Presenter: | Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España |
| Country: | Spain |
| Holder: | J. A. Bayona for Society of the Snow (2023) |
| Website: | http://www.premiosgoya.com/ |
The Goya Award for Best Director (Spanish: Premio Goya a la mejor dirección) is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's principal national film awards. The category has been presented ever since the first edition of the Goya Awards. Fernando Fernán Gómez was the first winner of this award for his film Voyage to Nowhere.
Pedro Almodóvar holds the record of most wins and nominations for this category, with three wins out of eleven nominations, winning for All About My Mother (1999), Volver (2006) and Pain and Glory (2019). Fernando León de Aranoa, who won for Barrio (1998), Mondays in the Sun (2002) and The Good Boss (2021), and J. A. Bayona, who won for The Impossible (2012), A Monster Calls (2015), and Society of the Snow (2023), share the record of most wins. Directors Fernando Trueba, Alejandro Amenábar, Isabel Coixet, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen have received this award twice.
In the list below the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees.
| Year | Director | English title | Original title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 (1st) [1] [2] | Fernando Fernán Gómez | Voyage to Nowhere | El viaje a ninguna parte |
| Emilio Martínez Lázaro | Lulu by Night | Lulú de noche | |
| Pilar Miró | Werther | ||
| 1987 (2nd) | José Luis Garci | Course Completed | Asignatura aprobada |
| Bigas Luna | Anguish | Angustia | |
| Vicente Aranda | El Lute: Run for Your Life | El Lute: camina o revienta | |
| 1988 (3rd) | Gonzalo Suárez | Rowing with the Wind | Remando al viento |
| Pedro Almodóvar | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios | |
| Ricardo Franco | Berlin Blues | Berlín Blues | |
| Antonio Mercero | Wait for Me in Heaven | Espérame en el cielo | |
| Francisco Regueiro | Winter Diary | Diario de invierno | |
| 1989 (4th) | Fernando Trueba | Twisted Obsession | El sueño del mono loco |
| Vicente Aranda | If They Tell You I Fell | Si te dicen que caí | |
| Fernando Fernán Gómez | The Sea and the Weather | El mar y el tiempo | |
| Josefina Molina | Esquilache | ||
| Agustí Villaronga | Moon Child | El niño de la luna | |
| Year | Director | English title | Original title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 (35th) [9] | Salvador Calvo | Adú | |
| Juanma Bajo Ulloa | Baby | ||
| Icíar Bollaín | Rosa's Wedding | La boda de Rosa | |
| Isabel Coixet | It Snows in Benidorm | Nieva en Benidorm | |
| 2021 (36th) [10] [11] | Fernando León de Aranoa | The Good Boss | El buen patrón |
| The Daughter | La hija | ||
| Maixabel | |||
| Parallel Mothers | Madres paralelas | ||
| 2022 (37th) [12] | Rodrigo Sorogoyen | The Beasts | As bestas |
| Alcarràs | |||
| Motherhood | La maternal | ||
| Manticore | Mantícora | ||
| Prison 77 | Modelo 77 | ||
| 2023 (38th) [13] | J.A. Bayona | Society of the Snow | La sociedad de la nieve |
| Close Your Eyes | Cerrar los ojos | ||
| Un amor | |||
| Jokes & Cigarettes | Saben aquell | ||
| Creatura | |||
The following 35 directors have received multiple Best Director nominations.