Kevin Costner – Dances with Wolves

• Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather Part III
• Barry Levinson – Avalon
• Martin Scorsese – Goodfellas
• Giuseppe Tornatore – Cinema Paradiso

Michael Zinberg – Quantum Leap for "The Leap Home (Part 2)"

• Lesli Linka Glatter – Twin Peaks for "Episode 5"
• Scott Winant – thirtysomething for "The Go-Between"

James Burrows – Cheers for "Woody Interruptus"

• Peter Baldwin – The Wonder Years for "The Ties That Bind"
• Barnet Kellman – Murphy Brown for "Bob & Murphy & Ted & Avery"

Roger Young – Murder in Mississippi

• Gilbert Cates – Call Me Anna
• Peter Werner – Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes

Jeff Margolis – The 62nd Annual Academy Awards

• Hal Gurnee – Late Night with David Letterman for "8th Anniversary Special"
• Paul Miller – In Living Color for "Pilot"

Lynn Hamrick – ABC Afterschool Special for "Testing Dirty"

• Joanna Lee – CBS Schoolbreak Special for "The Fourth Man"
• Mario Van Peebles – CBS Schoolbreak Special for "Malcolm Takes a Shot"

Elena Mannes – Amazing Grace

• Vincent DeVito – Let Me Be Brave
• Susan Steinberg – American Masters for "Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter (Part 1)"

Robert Fishman – 1990 American League Championship Series for "Game 4"

• William Webb – 1990 Kentucky Derby
• Doug Wilson – Wide World of Sports for "Brian Boitano & Katerina Witt Skating"

Peter Smillie – Jeep Wrangler's "Driving Lesson", United Parcel Service's "Ian Alistair Mackenzie", National Council on Alcoholism's "Little Girl",
and FMC Corporation's "Perfectionist"

• Leslie Dektor – Mercedes-Benz' "Interview", Saturn's "Launch", and Bell Atlantic's "Sundays"
• James Gartner – Pizza Hut's "Driveway" and "The Big Moment", and AT&T's "Why Not"
• Michael Grasso – Hallmark Cards' "100th Birthday" and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "HIV Positive"
• Joe Pytka – Nike's "Bo & Bo", FedEx' "New Technology", and Diet Pepsi's "Opera"