The Silver Lion (, also known as Silver Lion for Best Direction) is an annual award presented for best directing achievements in a feature film in the official competition section of the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

since 1998. The prize has been awarded irregularly and has gone through several changes of purpose. Between 1953 and 1994, the award was given infrequently to a number of films as second prize for those nominated for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

. At various times, the Silver Lion has also been awarded for debut films, short films, direction, and writing. Since

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, the Silver Lion has been presented to the director of a feature film in the official competition;

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

was the first official winner of the award for '' Goodfellas'', while

Brady Corbet Brady James Monson Corbet ( ; born August 17, 1988) is an American filmmaker and former actor. He had roles in films such as ''Thirteen (2003 film), Thirteen'' (2003), ''Mysterious Skin'' (2004), ''Funny Games (2007 film), Funny Games'' (2007), ...

is the most recent winner for ''The Brutalist'' in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...