- Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans
- Damien Chazelle – Babylon
- Sam Mendes – Empire of Light (UP 4)
- Maria Schrader – She Said
- Sarah Polley – Women Talking
- Daniels – Everything Everywhere All At Once
- Park Chan-wook – Decision To Leave (UP 1)
- Baz Luhrmann – Elvis (UP 1)
- Todd Field – TAR (UP 16)
- Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu – Bardo (Or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths)
- Ruben Östlund – Triangle of Sadness (UP 7)
- James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water (DOWN 1)
- Noah Baumbach – White Noise (DOWN 1)
- Florian Zeller – The Son (UP 3)
- Chinonye Chukwu – Till (UP 10)
- Joseph Kosinski – Top Gun: Maverick
- Michael McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin (DOWN 3)
- Ron Howard – Thirteen Lives
- Hirokazu Kore-eda – Broker
- Gina Price-Blythewood – The Woman King (*NEW)
- George Miller – Three Thousand Years of Longing
- Lila Neugenbauer – Causeway (*NEW)
- Matt Reeves – The Batman
- Jordan Peele – Nope
- Cooper Raiff – Cha Cha Real Smooth
- Lukas Dhont – Close
- Robert Eggers – The Northman
- Peter Farrelly – The Greatest Beer Run Ever
- Kasi Lemmons – I Wanna Dance With Somebody
- Darren Aronofsky – The Whale
- Olivia Wilde – Don’t Worry Darling
- David O. Russell – Amersterdam
- Andrew Dominik – Blonde
- James Gray – Armageddon Time
