Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning film La La Land Broke one of the longest-standing records in Oscars history. La La Land is undoubtedly one of the best movies of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s career. The film infamously lost Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards to Moon light Yet it was mistakenly announced that La La Land took home the prize. It went on to win six Oscars, including Stone’s first Best Actress award as Best Director, Best Cinematographer and Best Original Score. The film also earned a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, making it one of Chazelle’s best movies.
La La Land Helped to legitimize both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s acting careers and established them as two of the most sought after talents in Hollywood. The same can be said about Chazelle, whose groundbreaking film in 2013 Whiplash Along with Miles Teller and JK Simmons cemented him as one of the greatest young directors in the film industry. While Chazelle did not win any Oscars for Whiplashwhich won three awards including Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing and Best Supporting Actor for JK Simmons, Chazelle won Best Director for La La LandShane is the youngest winner In Oscars history.
Norman Taurog was the youngest Oscar winner for Best Director for 86 years
Taurog won Best Director when he was 32 years and 260 days old
Before Chazelle made Oscar history at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017, director Norman Taurog held the honor of being the youngest Best Director winner for 86 years. Taurog won for 1931s Skippy When he was 32 years and 260 days old. Taurog’s Oscar win for Skippy was his only Academy Award although he was nominated for Best Director once again for 1938’s. Boys Town. Taurog won the best director’s Oscar for Skippy At the Fourth Academy Awards, which took place on November 10, 1931. Skippy It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor For Jackie Cooper.
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Although he lost the Oscar to Lionel Barrymore for A free soulCooper remains the youngest Best Actor nominee of all time. He was only 9 years and 20 days old at the time. Although Cooper would continue his career as an actor and director throughout the 20th century, it was the only time he was nominated for an Academy Award. Norman Taurog would go on to show other classics during Hollywood’s Golden Age such as The Adventures of Tom Swire (1938) and Room for one more (1952) and has more than 180 directorial credits. He directed several Elvis Presley movies, such as GI Blues (1960), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Speedway (1968).
Damien Chazelle beats Norman Taurog’s Oscars record with La La Land
Chazelle was 32 years and 38 days old when he won Best Director
Damien Chazelle broke Norman Taurog’s 86-year-old Oscars record in 2017 by winning Best Director when he was 32 years and 38 days old. To this day, Chazelle remains the youngest Best Director winner in Oscar history for his exceptional work on La La Landwhich was widely celebrated at the 89th Academy Awards. Chazelle’s directorial efforts yet La La Land Did not lead him to any other Oscar wins. His 2018 space biopic First person Won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and earned three additional nominations in technical categories. His last film, 2022 BabelWas nominated for three Oscars.
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All four of Chazelle’s recent feature films have won or been nominated For at least three Academy Awards, which is an incredible feat for the now 39-year-old director. Chazelle is currently working on an untitled feature film at Paramount Pictures that is expected to be released sometime in 2025, potentially just in time for next year’s Oscars season. Although Chazelle clearly cannot surpass his own record as the youngest Best Director winner, he still has a chance to enter the rare category of 2-time Best Director winners alongside Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Eliza Kazan and Clint Eastwood .
Why Norman Taurog’s youngest director winning record lasted for so long
Very few directors under 32 have been nominated
Norman Taurog’s record became increasingly difficult to break over the decades of the Academy Awards until Chazelle finally snapped it up in 2017. John Singleton remains the youngest Best Director nominee in Oscars history at 24 years old for his groundbreaking 1991 film Boyz n the Hood. He was also the first black man in Oscars history to be nominated for the award.
Francis Ford Coppola came closest to Taurog’s record after he was nominated (and lost) for The God at age 33. Delbert Mann won in 1955 at 35. William Friedkin won at 36 for The French Connection. Kevin Costner won for Dances with wolves When he was 35. Sam Mendes won for American beauty At 34. Greta Gerwig was nominated for Lady Bird when she was 34. Quentin Tarantino was only 31 years old when he was nominated for Pulp fiction in 1994 but lost to Robert Zemeckis’ Forest Gump. Jason Reitman was 32 when he was nominated for Up in the air. Chazelle’s La La Land Record will be hard to beat.