Oliver Stone – Born on the Fourth of July

• Woody Allen – Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Rob Reiner – When Harry Met Sally...
• Phil Alden Robinson – Field of Dreams
• Peter Weir – Dead Poets Society

Eric Laneuville – L.A. Law for "I'm in the Nude for Love"

• Gabrielle Beaumont – L.A. Law for "Lie Down and Deliver"
• Marshall Herskovitz – thirtysomething for "Love & Sex"
• John Pasquin – L.A. Law for "To Live and Diet in L.A."

Barnet Kellman – Murphy Brown for "Brown Like Me"

• James Burrows – Cheers for "Sisterly Love"
• Harry Thomason – Designing Women for "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?"

Dan Curtis – War and Remembrance

• Daniel Petrie – My Name Is Bill W.
• Simon Wincer – Lonesome Dove

Don Mischer – Great Performances for "Gregory Hines: Tap Dance in America"

• Hal Gurnee – Late Night with David Letterman in Chicago
• Paul Flaherty – Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow

Victoria Hochberg – WonderWorks for "Jacob Have I Loved"

• Joanna Lee – ABC Afterschool Special for "My Dad Can't Be Crazy...Can He?"
• Richard Masur – ABC Afterschool Special for "Torn Between Two Fathers"

Peter Rosen – The Eighth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: Here to Make Music

• Merrill Brockway – American Masters for "Stella Adler: Awake and Dream!"
• Gene Laski – American Masters for "W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult"

Robert Fishman – 1989 US Open

• Craig Janoff – 1989 World Series
• Edward Nathanson – Super Bowl XXIII

David Cornell – AT&T's "Small Town"

• Leslie Dektor – Pepsi's "Glasnost", International Cotton Association's "One Day", and United Airlines' "Speech"
• James Gartner – First City Texas' "Going Back to Work", Pizza Hut's "Right Field", and Barnett Bank's "World Series"
• Michael Grasso – Dr Pepper's "Baseball" and 7-Eleven's "Proposal" and "Small Businessmen"
• Richard Levine – Pepsi's "Missing Link" and "Two Michaels", and Sprint's "Trauma Unit"