Sam Mendes – 1917

• Bong Joon-ho – Parasite
• Martin Scorsese – The Irishman
• Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• Taika Waititi – Jojo Rabbit

Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert – American Factory

• Feras Fayyad – The Cave
• Alex Holmes – Maiden
• Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska – Honeyland
• Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang – One Child Nation

Alma Har'el – Honey Boy

• Mati Diop – Atlantics
• Melina Matsoukas – Queen & Slim
• Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz – The Peanut Butter Falcon
• Joe Talbot – The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Nicole Kassell – Watchmen for "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice"

• Mark Mylod – Succession for "This Is Not for Tears"
• David Nutter – Game of Thrones for "The Last of the Starks"
• Miguel Sapochnik – Game of Thrones for "The Long Night"
• Stephen Williams – Watchmen for "This Extraordinary Being"

Bill Hader – Barry for "ronny/lily"

• Dan Attias – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for "It's the Sixties, Man!"
• David Mandel – Veep for "Veep"
• Daniel Palladino – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for "Marvelous Radio"
• Amy Sherman-Palladino – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for "It's Comedy or Cabbage"

Johan Renck – Chernobyl

• Ava DuVernay – When They See Us
• Vince Gilligan – El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
• Thomas Kail – Fosse/Verdon for "Nowadays"
• Minkie Spiro – Fosse/Verdon for "All I Care About Is Love"
• Jessica Yu – Fosse/Verdon for "Glory"

Don Roy King – Saturday Night Live for "Eddie Murphy/Lizzo"

• Paul G. Casey – Real Time with Bill Maher for "#1730"
• Nora S. Gerard – CBS Sunday Morning for "40th Anniversary"
• Jim Hoskinson – The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/Incubus"
• Paul Pennolino and Christopher Werner – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for "SLAPP Suits"

James Burrows and Andy Fisher – Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons

• Spike Jonze – Aziz Ansari: Right Now
• Stan Lathan – Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones
• Linda Mendoza – Wanda Sykes: Not Normal
• Glenn Weiss – The 91st Annual Academy Awards

Jason Cohen – Encore! for "Annie"

• Hisham Abed – Queer Eye for "Black Girl Magic"
• Jon Favreau – The Chef Show for "Hog Island"
• Ashley S. Gorman – First Responders Live for "#103"
• Patrick McManus – American Ninja Warrior for "#1116: Las Vegas National Finals Night 4"

Amy Schatz – Song of Parkland

• Dean Israelite – Are You Afraid of the Dark? for "Part One: Submitted for Your Approval"
• Jack Jameson – Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary Special
• Luke Matheny – Ghostwriter for "Ghost in Wonderland: Part 1"
• Barry Sonnenfeld – A Series of Unfortunate Events for "Penultimate Peril: Part 1"

Spike Jonze – Squarespace's "Dream It" and MedMen's "The New Normal"

• Fredrik Bond – Hewlett-Packard's "Lighter Than Air,", Coca-Cola's "Take it Lightly", and Apple's "Nap"
• Mark Molloy – Apple's "Underdogs"
• Ridley Scott – Hennessy's "The Seven Worlds"
• Dougal Wilson – AT&T's "Train"