What was Best Direction called at the VMAs from 1984 to 2006?

From 1984 through 2006, the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction was officially called Best Direction in a Video.

The category honored direction in a music video and was part of the VMAs’ original professional craft awards. Unlike fan-voted performance categories, it focused on the creative work of directors and the artists associated with the videos. Early winners included Tim Newman for ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” in 1984 and Jean-Baptiste Mondino for Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” in 1985.

The title changed after 2006. In 2007, MTV briefly used Best Director, then adopted the shorter name Best Direction in 2008. That naming history explains why older VMA records use wording that differs from modern references.

A frequent mistake is to call the category Best Music Video Direction or Best Video Director. Those phrases describe the field informally, but Best Direction in a Video is the canonical historical title for the 1984–2006 period.