My favorite directors!

1. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Openly homosexual, he married twice; one of his wives acted in his films and the other served as his editor. Accused variously by detractors of being anticommunist, male chauvinist, antiSemitic and...

Eight Hours Don't Make a Day 10/10 The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant 10/10 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 10/10 Fox and his Friends 10/10 Berlin Alexanderplatz 10/10 The Marriage of Maria Braun 10/10 Veronika Voss 10/10 Merchant of Four Seasons 10/10 Chinese Roulette 9/10 I Only Want You To Love Me 9/10 Lola 9/10 Martha 8/10 In a Year With 13 Moons 8/10 Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? 8/10 Fear of Fear 7/10 World on a Wire 7/10 Quarelle 7/10 Beware of a Holy Whore 6/10 Despair 6/10 Lili Marleen 6/10 The Little Chaos (short film) 6/10 Effi Briest 4.5/10 Love Is Colder Than Death 3/10 Rio das Mortes 3/10 Katzelmacher 3/10 The City Tramp (short film) 2/10

2. Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer | Offret

The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...

Andrei Rublev 10/10 Stalker 10/10 Mirror 10/10 The Sacrifice 10/10 Ivan's Childhood 8.5/10 Solaris 8/10 Nostalgia 7/10

3. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Producer | Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul on January 26th, 1959. In 1976, he began studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, in a context of strong student unrest, boycotts and political polarization. In 1978, he switched courses to Electrical Engineering at Bogazici University. ...

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 10/10 The Wild Pear Tree 10/10 Winter Sleep 10/10 Uzak 8/10 Clouds of May 8/10 Three Monkeys 7/10 Climates 6/10 Kasaba 3/10

4. Michelangelo Antonioni

Writer | Blow-Up

Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...

Blow Up 10/10 The Passenger 10/10 La Notte 10/10 The Red Desert 10/10 L'Avventura 8/10 Zabriskie Point 8/10 L'Eclisse 6.5/10

5. Joel Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...

Fargo 10/10 No Country For Old Men 10/10 Inside Llewyn Davis 10/10 Raising Arizona 9/10 Blood Simple 9/10 Big Lebowski 9/10 Millers Crossing 9/10 Barton Fink 8/10 A Serious Man 8/10 The Man Who Wasn't There 8/10 True Grit 7/10 O Brother, Where Art Thou? 7/10 Burn After Reading 6/10 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 6/10 Hail, Ceaser! 5/10

6. Stanley Kubrick

Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...

2001: A Space Odessey 10/10 A Clockwork Orange 10/10 Dr. Strangelove 10/10 Paths Of Glory 10/10 Barry Lyndon 10/10 Shining 9/10 The Killing 9/10 Eyes Wide Shut 8/10 Full Metal Jacket 8/10 Lolita 6/10 Fear and Desire 4/10 Killer's Kiss 3/10 Spartacus 6/10 The Seafarers (a documentary) 3/10

7. Robert Altman

Director | Gosford Park

Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...

Nashville 10/10 The Player 10/10 Fool For Love 10/10 3 Women 9/10 Short Cuts 9/10 The Long Goodbye 9/10 Images 8/10 Secret Honor 8/10 Kansas City 8/10 McCabe & Mrs. Miller 7/10 California Split 7/10 Gosford Park 4/10 MASH 2/10

8. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director | Punch-Drunk Love

Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...

There Will Be Blood 10/10 The Master 10/10 Punch-Drunk Love 10/10 Phantom Thread 9/10 Boogie Nights 8/10 Licorice Pizza 7/10 Magnolia 7/10 Inherent Vice 7/10 Cigarettes and Coffee (short film) 7/10 The Dirk Diggler Story (short film) 4/10

9. David Cronenberg

Actor | The Fly

David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early...

Crash 10/10 The Fly 10/10 Dead Ringers 9/10 Videodrome 9/10 Spider 9/10 A History of Violence 9/10 Naked Lunch 8/10 eXistenZ 8/10 A Dangerous Method 7/10 Crimes of the Future (2022) 6/10 Dead Zone 6/10 Eastern Promises 6/10 Shivers 6/10 Rabid 6/10 Maps to the Stars 5/10 The Brood 4/10 Crimes of the Future (1970) 2/10 Cosmopolis 1.5/10

10. Sam Peckinpah

Writer | The Wild Bunch

"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...

The Wild Bunch 10/10 Major Dundee 9/10 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 9/10 Straw Dogs 8/10 The Getaway 7/10 Ride the High Country 7/10 Cross of Iron 7/10 Pat Garret and Billy the Kid 7/10 The Deadly Companions 6/10 The Osterman Weekend 3/10

11. Roy Andersson

Director | En kärlekshistoria

Roy Arne Lennart Andersson is a Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdist humor and melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by long takes, and stiff caricaturing of Swedish culture and grotesque. Over his career Andersson earned ...

You the Living 10/10 About Endlessness 10/10 A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence 8/10 Songs From the Second Floor 8/10

12. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

F For Fake 10/10 Citizen Kane 10/10 Touch of Evil 10/10 The Trial 9/10 The Magnificent Ambersons 9/10 Chimes at Midnight 8/10 The Lady From Shanghai 7/10 The Other Side of the Wind 7/10 The Stranger 5/10

13. Andrey Zvyagintsev

Director | Nelyubov

Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...

Loveless 10/10 Leviathan 10/10 The Return 8/10 Elena 8/10

14. David Lynch

Writer | Twin Peaks

Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...

Mulholland Drive 10/10 Twin Peaks 10/10 Blue Velvet 10/10 The Straight Story 9/10 Eraserhead 9/10 The Elephant Man 9/10 Inland Empire 9/10 Lost Highway 8/10 Wild At Heart 7/10 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 6/10

15. Mike Leigh

Director | Secrets & Lies

Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre ...

Naked 10/10 Mr. Turner 9/10 Secrets & Lies 9/10 All or Nothing 9/10 Life is Sweet 8/10 Vera Drake 8/10 Career Girls 8/10 Another Year 7/10

16. Béla Tarr

Producer | Werckmeister harmóniák

Béla Tarr was born on July 21, 1955 in Pécs, Hungary. He is a producer and director, known for Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), The Turin Horse (2011) and Satantango (1994). He is married to Ágnes Hranitzky.

Werckmeister Harmonies 10/10 Satantango 8.5/10 The Turin Horse 8/10 Damnation 7/10 Autumn Almanac 6/10

17. Aki Kaurismäki

Producer | Le Havre

Aki Kaurismäki did a wide variety of jobs including postman, dish-washer and film critic, before forming a production and distribution company, Villealfa (in homage to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)) with his older brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a film-maker. Both Aki and Mika are prolific ...

Fallen Leaves 10/10 The Man Without a Past 10/10 Shadows in Paradise 9/10 Ariel 8/10 The Match Factory Girl 8/10 I Hired a Contract Killer 8/10 The Other Side of Hope 8/10 Lights In the Dusk 8/10 Le Havre 7.5/10

18. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

Aguirre, Wrath of God 10/10 Fitzcarraldo 10/10 Grizzly Man 9/10 My Best Fiend 9/10 The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser 8/10 Happy People 8/10 My Son, My Son, What have Ye Done 8/10 Nosferatu 7/10 Meeting Gorbachev 7/10 Cobra Verde 7/10 Woyzeck 6/10 Rescue Dawn 4/10

19. Martin Scorsese

Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...

Raging Bull 10/10 Taxi Driver 10/10 After Hours 10/10 King Of Comedy 9.5/10 Goodfellas 9.5/10 The Wolf of Wall Street 9/10 Rolling Thunder Revue 9/10 The Last Temptation of Christ 8/10 Killers of the Flower Moon 8/10 Mean Streets 8/10 The Irishman 8/10 The Departed 8/10 Shine a Light 8/10 Casino 7.5/10 The Color Of Money 7/10 Cape Fear 7/10 Shutter Island 6/10 Gangs of New York 6/10 The Aviator 6/10

20. Brian De Palma

Director | Body Double

Brian De Palma is one of the well-known directors who spear-headed the new movement in Hollywood during the 1970s. He is known for his many films that go from violent pictures, to Hitchcock-like thrillers. Born on September 11, 1940, De Palma was born in Newark, New Jersey in an Italian-American ...

Blow Out 10/10 Dressed To Kill 9/10 Raising Cain 8.5/10 Body Double 8/10 Passion 8/10 Carlito's Way 8/10 Carrie 8/10 Scarface 7/10 The Untouchables 6/10 Phantom of the Paradise 6/10 The Black Dahlia 5/10

21. Billy Wilder

Writer | The Apartment

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...

Sunset Boulevard 10/10 Ace In The Hole 10/10 Some Like It Hot 10/10 The Lost Weekend 9/10 Double Indemnity 8/10 Witness for the Prosecution 8/10 The Apartment 8/10 One, Two, Three 8/10 Stalag 17 7/10 A Foreign Affair 5/10

22. Akira Kurosawa

Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...

Throne of Blood 10/10 Rashamon 10/10 Yojimbo 9/10 The Hidden Fortress 8/10 Ikiru 8/10 The Bad Sleep Well 8/10 Seven Samurai 7.5/10 High and Low 7.5/10 Sanjuro 7/10 Ran 7/10 The Drunken Angel 7/10 Dodesukaden 7/10 Rhapsody in August 6/10 Kagemusha 5/10

23. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10 Once Upon A Time In America 10/10 The Good, the Bad, The Ugly 10/10 For a Few Dollars More 9.5/10 Fistful Of Dynamite (Duck, You Sucker!) 8/10 Fistful Of Dollars 6/10

24. Ingmar Bergman

Writer | Smultronstället

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...

Persona 10/10 Wild Strawberries 10/10 Autumn Sonata 10/10 Seventh Seal 10/10 Winter Light 10/10 Shame 10/10 Through A Class Darkly 9/10 Cries and Whispers 8/10 Sawdust and Tinsel 8/10 The Hour Of The Wolf 7/10 The Passion Of Anna 7/10 Hamnstad 5/10

25. Luis Buñuel

Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...

Viridiana 10/10 The Discreet Charm of The Bourgeois 10/10 The Exterminating Angel 10/10 Los Oldvidados 10/10 That Obscure Object of Desire 10/10 Diary of a Chambermaid 10/10 Belle de Jour 9.5/10 Tristana 9.5/10 The Phantom of Liberty 9/10 L'Age d'Or 8.5/10 Un Chien Andalou 8/10

26. Michael Haneke

Writer | Caché

A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...

Cache 10/10 Amour 10/10 The Piano Teacher 9/10 The White Ribbon 9/10 Funny Games U.S 8/10 Time of the Wolf 8/10 Happy End 8/10 71 Fragments... 7/10 Benny's Video 6/10

27. Jacques Tati

Writer | Playtime

The comic genius Jacques Tati was born Taticheff, descended from a noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a well-to-do picture framer who ...

Playtime 9/10 Monsieur Hulot's Holiday 9/10 Mon Oncle 8/10 Trafic 7/10

28. Jean-Pierre Melville

Writer | Le samouraï

The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...

Le Samourai 10/10 Le Cercle Rouge 10/10 Army Of Shadows 10/10 Le Doulos 10/10 Bob The Gambler 9/10 Un Flic 7/10

29. Yorgos Lanthimos

Director | The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens, Greece. He studied directing for Film and Television at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theater plays. Kinetta,...

The Killing of a Sacred Deer 10/10 The Favourite 9/10 The Lobster 8/10 Dogtooth 7/10

30. Federico Fellini

Writer | Le notti di Cabiria

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

La Dolce Vita 10/10 Nights Of Capiria 10/10 La Strada 10/10 8½ 10/10 I Vitelloni 10/10 Giulietta Degli Spiriti 9.5/10 Fellini's Roma 9/10 Il Bidone 8/10 The White Sheik 5.5/10

31. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

Annie Hall 10/10 Hannah And Her Sisters 10/10 Blue Jasmine 9/10 Manhattan 8/10 Love and Death 8/10 Bananas 8/10 Radio Days 8/10 Stardust Memories 8/10 Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask 6/10 Irrational Man 5/10 Midnight in Paris 5/10 Hollywood Ending 5/10 To Rome With Love 4/10 Cafe Society 4/10 A Rainy Day in New York 0/10

32. Douglas Sirk

Director | Schlußakkord

Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, ...

Written on the Wind 10/10 All That Heaven Allows 8/10 The Tarnished Angels 8/10 Imitation of Life 7.5/10 Magnificent Obsession 6/10

33. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

Circus 10/10 City Lights 10/10 The Great Dictator 10/10 Goldrush 10/10 The Kid 10/10 Modern Times 9/10

34. Alfred Hitchcock

Director | Psycho

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...

Vertigo 10/10 Psycho 10/10 North by Northwest 8/10 Rear Window 8/10 The 39 Steps 8/10 The Birds 8/10 Rope 6/10 The Man Who Knew Too Much 6/10 To Catch a Thief 6/10 Shadow of a Doubt 5/10 Strangers on a Train 5/10 The Trouble With Harry 3/10

35. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.

A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...

Badlands 10/10 Days of Heaven 10/10 Tree of Life 10/10 The Thin Red Line 9/10 To The Wonder 6.5/10

36. Robert Bresson

Writer | Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson trained as a painter before moving into films as a screenwriter, making a short film (atypically a comedy), Public Affairs (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Angels of Sin (1943) in 1943. His next film, The ...

Au Hasard Balthazar 10/10 Pickpocket 9/10 A Man Escaped 9/10 L'Argent 8/10 Mouchette 8/10

37. Bennett Miller

Director | Foxcatcher

Bennett Miller is an American film director, best known for Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011), and Foxcatcher (2014). He began his film career directing the 1998 documentary The Cruise.

In 2006 Miller directed the Bob Dylan music video "When the Deal Goes Down" starring Scarlett Johansson.

Miller has ...

Capote 10/10 Foxcatcher 10/10 Moneyball 7/10

38. Roman Polanski

Director | Chinatown

Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.

His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...

Chinatown 10/10 Knife in the Water 10/10 Rosemary's Baby 10/10 The Pianist 9/10 Repulsion 9/10 The Tenant 8/10 Carnage 7/10 Bitter Moon 4/10

39. Louis Malle

Director | Au revoir les enfants

Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...

Au Revoir les Enfants 9/10 My Dinner With Andre 9/10 Elevator to the Gallows 8/10 Atlantic City 7/10 Murmur of the Heart 5/10 Damage 2/10

40. William Friedkin

Director | To Live and Die in L.A.

Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with ...

Sorcerer 10/10 The Exorcist 10/10 To Live and Die in L.A. 9/10 The French Connection 8/10 Bug 8/10 Cruising 4/10

41. Ernst Lubitsch

Director | To Be or Not to Be

From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...

To Be or Not To Be 10/10 Design for Living 9/10 Ninotchka 8/10 Trouble in Paradise 8/10 The Shop Around The Corner 8/10 Heaven Can Wait 8/10

42. Terry Gilliam

Writer | Brazil

Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In ...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 10/10 Brazil 10/10 Twelve Monkeys 9/10 Monty Python and The Holy Grail 9/10 Life of Brian 9/10

43. Jules Dassin

Director | Du rififi chez les hommes

Jules Dassin was an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and actor best known for his films Rififi (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), and Topkapi (1964).

He was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was one of eight children of Russian-Jewish ...

Rififi 10/10 Brute Force 9/10 Thieves' Highway 8/10 Night and the City 8/10 The Naked City 7/10

44. Francis Ford Coppola

Producer | Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...

The Conversation 10/10 Apocalypse Now 10/10 The Godfather 10/10 The Godfather Part II 10/10 The Godfather Part III 3/10 The Outsiders 2/10

45. Kar-Wai Wong

Director | Yi dai zong shi

Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong ...

Days of Being Wild 10/10 Chungking Express 10/10 In The Mood For Love 9.5/10 Happy Together 9/10 Fallen Angels 7/10

46. Denis Villeneuve

Director | Dune

Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), ...

Sicario 9/10 Enemy 9/10 Blade Runner 2049 9/10 Prisoners 8/10 Arrival 8/10 Incendies 7/10 Dune 6/10

47. Wes Anderson

Director | Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an ...

The Grand Budapest Hotel 10/10 Moonrise Kingdom 9/10 The Royal Tenenbaums 8.5/10 Fantastic Mr. Fox 7/10 Darjeeling Limited 5/10

48. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...

Young Frankenstein 9.5/10 The Producers 9/10 Spaceballs 8/10 Blazing Saddles 8/10

49. Krzysztof Kieslowski

Writer | Trois couleurs: Bleu

Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (...

The Double Life of Veronica 10/10 Three Colors: Blue 9/10 A Short Film about Killing 9/10 A Short Film about Love 8/10 Three Colors: Red 8/10 Three Colors: White 7/10

50. Steve McQueen

Director | 12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen was born on October 9, 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.

12 Years a Slave 10/10 Shame 9.5/10 Hunger 9/10

51. John Cassavetes

Actor | Rosemary's Baby

John Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer of American independent film, as he often financed his own films.

Cassavetes was born in New York City in 1929 to Nicholas John Cassavetes (1893-1979) and his wife, Katherine Demetre (1906-1983). ...

Opening Night 9/10 A Woman Under the Influence 9/10 Minnie and Moskowitz 8/10 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie 7/10 Husbands 7/10

52. Jean-Luc Godard

Director | Bande à part

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...

Weekend 10/10 Contempt 9/10 Band of Outsiders 9/10 Vivre Sa Vie 8/10 Breathless 8/10 Notre musique 7/10 Alphaville 6/10 Goodbye to Language La Chinoise 4/10 A Woman Is a Woman 4/10

53. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

Trainspotting 9/10 Steve Jobs 9/10 Sunshine 8/10 127 Hours 8/10 Beach 5/10 Yesterday 3/10

54. Spike Jonze

Producer | Her

Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...

Her 10/10 Being John Malkovich 9/10 Adaptation 7/10

55. Edward Yang

Writer | Yi yi

Born on November 6, 1947 in Shanghai, China, Edward Yang has become one of the most talented international filmmakers of his generation. Along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang, Yang ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave, and one of the world's most brilliant auteurs. ...

A Brighter Summer Day 10/10 That Day, On the Beach 8/10 Yi Yi 7/10

56. Wim Wenders

Director | Der Himmel über Berlin

Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until ...

Paris, Texas 10/10 Alice in the Cities 8/10 Wings of Desire 8/10 The American Friend 6/10 Room 666 4/10 Kings of the Road 3/10 The Wrong Move 2/10 Hammett 1/10

57. Xavier Dolan

Actor | J'ai tué ma mère

Xavier Dolan was born on March 20, 1989 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for I Killed My Mother (2009), Tom at the Farm (2013) and Heartbeats (2010).

Mommy 9/10 I Killed My Mother 9/10 Lawrence Anyways 7/10 Tom at the Farm 6/10 It's Only the End of the World 4/10

58. Paul Schrader

Writer | First Reformed

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a...

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters 10/10 The Card Counter 9/10 First Reformed 8/10 Hardcore 6/10 Light Sleeper 6/10 American Gigolo 2/10

59. Alexander Payne

Director | Nebraska

Director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Peggy (Constantine) and George Payne, ran a Greek restaurant. His father is of Greek and German ancestry, and his mother is of Greek descent; the family name was originally Papadopoulos. He is the youngest...

Nebraska 9/10 The Descendants 9/10 Sideways 8/10 Election 6/10

60. John Huston

Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...

Fat City 10/10 The Treasure Of Sierra Madre 10/10 Wise Blood 9/10 Maltese Falcon 9/10 The Dead 8/10 The African Queen 7/10 Key Largo 5/10 The Man Who Would Be King 2/10

61. James L. Brooks

Writer | Broadcast News

James L. Brooks was born on May 9, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He was previously married to Holly Holmberg Brooks and Marianne Catherine Morrissey.

As Good As It Gets 8/10 Terms of Endearment 7.5/10 Broadcast News 7/10

62. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...

Shoeshine 10/10 Bicycle Thieves 10/10 Umberto D. 8/10 Two Women 5/10

63. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writer | Il Decameron

Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom 8/10 Arabian Nights 7/10 The Gospel According to St. Matthew 6/10 The Canterbury Tales 5/10 Porcile 4/10

64. Nicolas Roeg

Director | Don't Look Now

When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's ...

Walkabout 10/10 Don't Look Now 8/10 The Man Who Fell to Earth 4/10

65. Edgar Wright

Director | Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg...

Hot Fuzz 9/10 Baby Driver 8/10 Shaun of the Dead 8/10 The World's End 7/10 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 7/10 Last Night in Soho 4/10

66. Quentin Tarantino

Writer | Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of...

The Hateful Eight 10/10 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 9/10 Pulp Fiction 8/10 Inglorious Basterds 8/10 Grindhouse: Death Proof 8/10 Reservoir Dogs 8/10 Jackie Brown 7/10 Django Unchained 7/10 Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2 6/10

67. Dario Argento

Writer | Profondo rosso

Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by his parents and other ...

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage 7/10 Deep Red 5/10 Suspiria 5/10 Tenebrae 2/10 Phenomena 1/10 Opera 1/10

68. Jeremy Saulnier

Cinematographer | Blue Ruin

Jeremy Saulnier has slyly defined a unique cinematic aesthetic that complements his idiosyncratic narrative premises. His sophomore feature, Blue Ruin (2013) a quirky, crime drama set in a pretty, but grimier part of suburban America was a festival darling and supplanted his name within the ...

Green Room 8/10 Blue Ruin 8/10 Murder Party 7/10 Hold the Dark 3/10

69. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

The Thing 10/10 Halloween 10/10 The Fog 7/10 Christine 7/10 Big Trouble in Little China 7/10 Assault on Precinct 13 6/10 Escape from New York 5/10 They Live 4/10 Prince of Darkness 3/10

70. Samuel Fuller

Writer | Shock Corridor

At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also ...

Pickup on South Street 9/10 White Dog 9/10 Shock Corridor 9/10 The Naked Kiss 7/10

71. Paul Verhoeven

Director | RoboCop

Paul Verhoeven graduated from the University of Leiden, with a degree in math and physics. He entered the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he began his film career by making documentaries for the Navy and later for TV. In 1969, he directed the popular Dutch TV series, Floris (1969), about a medieval ...

RoboCop 10/10 Basic Instinct 8/10 Total Recall 8/10 Starship Troopers 7/10 Showgirls 3/10

72. Michael Mann

Producer | The Insider

As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...

Heat 10/10 Thief 8/10 Collateral 8/10 Public Enemies 7/10 Manhunter 6/10

73. Hal Ashby

Editor | In the Heat of the Night

Hal Ashby was born the fourth and youngest child in a Mormon household, in Ogden, Utah, to Eileen Ireta (Hetzler) and James Thomas Ashby, on September 2, 1929. His father was a dairy farmer. After a rough childhood that included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, his dropping out of ...

The Last Detail 10/10 Shampoo 8/10 Being There 8/10 Harold and Maude 7/10

74. Robert Siodmak

Director | Nachts wenn der Teufel kam

Robert Siodmak (8 August 1900 - 10 March 1973) was a German-born, American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of stylish, unpretentious Hollywood films noirs he made in the 1940s.

Siodmak (pronounced SEE-ODD-MACK) was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of ...

The Killers 8/10 Phantom Lady 8/10 Criss Cross 5/10 The Dark Mirror 3/10

75. David Fincher

Director | Se7en

David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials...

Zodiac 9/10 The Social Network 8/10 Gone Girl 8/10 Fight Club 8/10 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 7/10 Seven 7/10 Panic Room 6/10 Alien 3 4/10 Mank 4/10

76. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

Raiders of the Lost Ark 10/10 Munich 9/10 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 9/10 Lincoln 8/10 Jaws 8/10 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 8/10 Catch Me If You Can 8/10 Schindler's List 7/10 Jurassic Park 7/10 Bridge of Spies 7/10 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 7/10 Saving Private Ryan 6/10 Duel 5/10 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull 5/10

77. Sidney Lumet

Director | 12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...

Network 10/10 Dog Day Afternoon 10/10 12 Angry Men 10/10 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead 8/10 Find Me Guilty 8/10

78. Peter Strickland

Director | Katalin Varga

Peter Strickland was born in 1973 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Katalin Varga (2009), In Fabric (2018) and Berberian Sound Studio (2012).

The Duke of Burgandy 9/10 In Fabric 8/10 Berberian Sound Studio 7/10

79. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

The General 9/10 The Goat 9/10 Battling Butler 9/10 Sherlock Jr. 8/10 The Navigator 8/10 One Week 8/10 Seven Chances 8/10 Steamboat Bill, Jr. 7/10 The Cameraman 7/10 Our Hospitality 7/10 Three Ages 6/10 College 6/10 Go West 5/10

80. Kenji Mizoguchi

Director | Ugetsu monogatari

Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent era, only his last 12 productions are really known ...

Ugetsu 10/10 Sansho the Bailiff 10/10 The Life of Oharu 10/10 Street of Shame 9/10 Miss Oyu 6/10

81. David Lean

Director | Lawrence of Arabia

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...

The Bridge on the River Kwai 10/10 Lawrence of Arabia 10/10 Doctor Zhivago 5/10

82. Otto Preminger

Actor | Stalag 17

Otto Ludwig Preminger was born in Wiznitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary. His father was a prosecutor, and Otto originally intended to follow his father into a law career; however, he fell in love with the theater in his 20's and became one of the most imaginative stage producers and directors. He was ...

Anatomy of a Murder 9/10 Where the Sidewalk Ends 8/10 Laura 8/10 Bunny Lake is Missing 5/10

83. John Ford

Director | The Quiet Man

John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...

Stagecoach 9/10 My Darling Clementine 7/10 Wagon Master 7/10 Fort Apache 7/10 The Searchers 7/10 Young Mr. Lincoln 5/10 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 4/10 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 4/10

84. Elia Kazan

Director | On the Waterfront

Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...

A Streetcar Named Desire 10/10 Panic in the Streets 8/10 On the Waterfront 8/10 A Face in the Crowd 7/10 East of Eden 5/10

85. Sean Baker

Writer | Red Rocket

Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean's latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021...

Red Rocket 9/10 The Florida Project 9/10 Tangerine 8/10

86. John Dahl

Director | The Last Seduction

John Dahl was born on June 15, 1956 in Billings, Montana, USA. He is a director and writer, known for The Last Seduction (1994), Kill Me Again (1989) and Rounders (1998). He is married to Beth Jana Friedberg. They have four children.

The Last Seduction 9/10 Red Rock West 8/10 Kill Me Again 6/10 Joy Ride 5/10 Rounders 3/10

87. Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writer | Gertrud

The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the ...

The Passion of Joan of Arc 10/10 Ordet 8/10 Vampyr 8/10

88. Olivier Assayas

Writer | Personal Shopper

Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is best know for his films Demonlover (2002), Something in the Air (2012), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016).

Assayas is the son of French director/screenwriter Raymond Assayas, alias Jacques Rémy.

His ...

Irma Vep 9/10 Personal Shopper 7/10 Clouds of Sils Maria 6/10

89. Ridley Scott

Producer | The Martian

Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...

Alien 10/10 Blade Runner 9/10 Thelma and Louis 8/10 The Martian 7/10 American Gangster 7/10 Prometheus 6/10 Napoleon 6/10 Hannibal 4/10 Alien: Covenant 3/10 Robin Hood 2/10

90. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

Unforgiven 10/10 Mystic River 9/10 Million Dollar Baby 9/10 Richard Jewell 8/10 High Plains Drifter 7/10 J. Edgar 7/10 The Outlaw Josey Wales 6/10 Sully 6/10 American Sniper 4/10 Cry Macho 4/10 The 15:17 to Paris 1/10

91. Paul Greengrass

Director | United 93

Paul Greengrass started his filmmaking career with a super 8 camera he found in his art room in secondary school. Those short movies were animation horror films he made using old dolls, artist dummies, and the general art room clutter.

After studying in Cambridge University he got into Granada ...

Captain Phillips 9/10 United 93 8/10 Bloody Sunday 8/10 22 July 5/10

92. William Wyler

Director | The Best Years of Our Lives

William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...

The Best Years of Our Lives 8/10 Dead End 8/10 The Big Country 8/10 Roman Holiday 8/10

93. Spike Lee

Director | Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...

Do The Right Thing 10/10 Malcolm X 8/10 Inside Man 7/10 BlacKkKlansman 7/10

94. Nicolas Winding Refn

Writer | The Neon Demon

Writer, director, and producer Nicolas Winding Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1970, to Anders Refn, a film director and editor, and Vibeke Winding (née Tuxen), a cinematographer. Just before he turned 11, in 1981, he moved to New York with his parents, where he lived out his teen years. ...

Pusher 2 9/10 Pusher 3 8/10 Pusher 7/10 Drive 7/10 Only God Forgives 5/10 The Neon Demon 2/10

95. Tobe Hooper

Director | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Honored with many awards for his films and achievement in the horror genre, Tobe Hooper is truly one of the Masters of Horror (2005).

Tobe Hooper was born in Austin, Texas, to Lois Belle (Crosby) and Norman William Ray Hooper, who owned a theater in San Angelo. He spent the 1960s as a college ...

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 8/10 The Funhouse 4/10 Eaten Alive 4/10 Poltergeist 2/10

96. Damien Chazelle

Writer | La La Land

Damien Sayre Chazelle is an American director and screenwriter. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His mother, Celia Sayre (Martin) Chazelle, is an American-Canadian writer and professor of history at The College of New Jersey. His father, Bernard Chazelle, is a French-American Eugene Higgins...

Whiplash 10/10 Babylon 9/10 First Man 7/10 La La Land 5/10

97. Abbas Kiarostami

Writer | Copie conforme

Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career ...

Certified Copy 10/10 Close-Up 9/10 Taste of Cherry 9/10 Where is the Friend's House? 8/10 The Wind Will Carry Us 7/10

98. Kelly Reichardt

Director | Wendy and Lucy

Kelly Reichardt was born and raised in Miami-Dade Country, Florida, to a family of police officers. She had an interest in photography from a very young age. She started by using her father's camera, which he used for photographing crime scenes. She went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in ...

Certain Women 10/10 First Cow 9/10 Night Moves 8/10