Martin Scorsese received five Best Director Oscar nominations before winning for The Departed. His earlier nominations were for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York and The Aviator.
The sequence stretched from 1980 through 2004. Scorsese was first nominated for Raging Bull, his intense portrait of boxer Jake LaMotta, and later received recognition for The Last Temptation of Christ and Goodfellas. He then returned to the category for Gangs of New York and The Aviator.
Scorsese won on his sixth nomination, for The Departed at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. The victory was widely viewed as a long-awaited recognition of a filmmaker whose earlier work had already become central to American cinema. The count does not include films such as Taxi Driver, which earned Scorsese no Best Director nomination, despite its major Oscar recognition.
After winning, he received further directing nominations for Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon.