Kathryn Bigelow and Oliver Stone: What do they have in common?

The Academy Awards are still two months away, but the surge of critical support for Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty� is raising a provocative question: How many filmmakers have won two best director Oscars within just a few years?

Bigelow became the first woman ever to win the directing Academy Award for “The Hurt Locker,� which also took the trophy for best picture at the 2010 ceremony. If she were to take home the directing statuette in 2013 for “Zero Dark Thirty,� she would have collected the honor twice in a four-year span, tying the modern mark held by Oliver Stone. And both filmmakers would have been honored for movies about war.

Stone won the best director Oscar for two Vietnam-themed productions, 1986’s “Platoon� and 1989’s “Born on the Fourth of July.� In keeping with the awards appeal of military tales, Steven Spielberg won the directing Oscars for 1993’s “Schindler’s List� and 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan.�

Among other recent double-winners, Clint Eastwood collected the best director Academy Award for 1992’s “Unforgiven� and 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby.�

The record for proximate wins is shared by John Ford, who won back-to-back directing Oscars for 1940’s “The Grapes of Wrath� and 1941’s “How Green Was My Valley,� and Joseph Mankiewicz, who won with 1949’s “A Letter to Three Wives� and repeated with 1950’s “All About Eve.�

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