Favourite Directors

by rolandpopp | created - 05 Oct 2018 | updated - 2 months ago | Public

in no particular order except for the first eight

1. 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 ...

Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss, The Killing, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001 - A Space Odyssey, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut

2. 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 ...

The Lodger, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps, Sabotage, Young and Innocent, The Lady Vanishes, Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, Suspicion, Spellbound, Notorious, Rope, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew To Much (1956), Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Frenzy, Family Plot

3. 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 ...

Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun, Gangs of New York, Aviator, Departed, Shine A Light, Shutter Island, George Harrison: Living in a Material World, The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, Killers of the Flower Moon

4. 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 (...

Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, The Magician, Winter Light, Persona, Passion, Cries and Whispers, Scenes of a Marriage, Face to Face, Autumn Sonata, Fanny and Alexander, After The Rehearsal

5. 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 ...

Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd., The Seven Year Itch, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, One Two Three, Irma La Douce

6. 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 ...

Dementia 13, The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather II, Apocalypse Now, One from the Heart, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Cotton Club, Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Godfather III, Dracula, The Rainmaker, Twixt

7. 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 ...

Blood Simple, Arizona Junior, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, o Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit, Inside Llewny Davis, Hail Cesar!

8. Ethan Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...

Blood Simple, Arizona Junior, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, o Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit, Inside Llewny Davis, Hail Cesar!

9. Pedro Almodóvar

Writer | Hable con ella

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study ...

Das Kloster zum heiligen Wahnsinn, Matador, Das Gesetz der Begierde, Frauen am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs, Die Waffen einer Frau, Kika, Live Flesh, Alles über meine Mutter, Sprich mit ihr, La mala educacion, Volver, Zerrissene Umarmungen, Die Haut in der ich wohne, Fliegende Liebende, Leid und Herrlichkeit, Parallele Mütter

10. François Truffaut

Writer | La nuit américaine

French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...

Les mistons, Les quatre cent coups, Antoine et Colette, Jules et Jim, Fahrenheit 451, La mariée était en noir, L'enfant sauvage, La nuit Americaine

11. 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 ...

A bout de souffle, Le mepris, Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, Masculin Feminin, 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle, La Chinoise, Tout va bien, Numero 2, Comment ça va?, Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma, Le livre d'image

12. 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...

Sydney, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Junun, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza

13. 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 ...

Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, The Straight Story, Inland Empire

14. Jim Jarmusch

Director | Paterson

Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.

Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Night On Earth, Dead Man, Year of the Horse, Ghost Dog, Coffee and Cigarettes, Broken Flowers, Only Lovers Left Alive, Paterson, Gimme Danger, The Dead Don't Die

15. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer

16. 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), ...

Maelström, Incendies, Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Dune Part 1

17. 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...

Alien 3, Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, The Killer

18. Darren Aronofsky

Writer | Pi

Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies and, as a teenager, he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won ...

Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Mother!

19. Patrice Chéreau

Director | Intimacy

Patrice Chéreau was born on November 2, 1944 in Lézigné, Maine-et-Loire, France. He was a director and actor, known for Intimacy (2001), The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Queen Margot (1994). He died on October 7, 2013 in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

L'homme blessé, Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train, Intimacy, Son frère, Persécution

20. 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 ...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwocky, The Meaning of Life, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

21. 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 ...

Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City

22. François Ozon

Director | Dans la maison

François Ozon was born on November 15, 1967 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for In the House (2012), 8 Women (2002) and Swimming Pool (2003).

Sitcom, Les amants criminels, Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes, Sous le sable, 8 femmes, Swimming Pool, 5x2, Le temps qui reste, Angel, Le refuge, Potiche, Frantz, L'amant double, Grâce à Dieu, Été 85, Peter von Kant, Mon crime

23. 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 ...

Jour de fete, Les vacances de M. Hulot, Mon oncle, Play Time, Trafic, Parade

24. 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 ...

I Vitelloni, La Strada, Le Notti di Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti, Satyricon, La città delle donne, La voce della luna

25. 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...

Stereo, Shivers, Rabid, Dead Zone, Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, Maps to the Stars, Crimes of the Future

26. 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 ...

Ariel, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Das Mädchen aus der Streichholzfabrik, I Hired a Contract Killer, Das Leben der Bohème, Wolken ziehen vorüber, Juha, Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit, Le Havre, Die andere Seite der Hoffnung, Fallende Blätter

27. 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 ...

What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, Love & War, Annie Hall, Manhattan, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and her Sisters, Radio Days, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Mighty Aphrodite, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Match Point, Scoop, Cassandra's Dream, Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona, Midnight in Paris, To Rome with Love, Blue Jasmine

28. 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 ...

Repulsion, Dance of the Vampires, Rosemary's Baby, Macbeth, What?, Chinatown, Le Locataire, Tess, Frantic, Bitter Moon, Death and the Maiden, The Ninth Gate, The Pianist, The Ghost Writer, Carnage, La Vénus à la fourrure, J'accuse

29. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Director | Un long dimanche de fiançailles

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a self-taught director who was very quickly interested by cinema, with a predilection for a fantastic cinema where form is as important as the subject. Thus he started directing TV commercials and video clips (such as Julien Clerc in 1984). At the same time he met designer/...

Delicatessen, La cité des enfants perdus, Alien: Resurrection, Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Micmacs à tire-larigot, The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

30. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writer | Faustrecht der Freiheit

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...

Katzelmacher, Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant, Welt am Draht, Angst essen Seele auf, Martha, Faustrecht der Freiheit, Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel, Satansbraten, Die Ehe der Maria Braun, Lola, Querelle

31. Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Director | Biutiful

Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, is a Mexican film director.

González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born ...

Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful, Birdman, The Revenant

32. 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 ...

The Duelists, Alien, Blade Runner, Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Body of Lies, Prometheus, The Martian, All the Money in the World, House of Gucci, Napoleon

33. 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...

Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, Death Proof, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful 8, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

34. 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 ...

She's Gotta Have It, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, Inside Man, Chi-Raq, Pass Over, BlacKkKlansman

35. Kathryn Bigelow

Director | Zero Dark Thirty

A very talented painter, Kathryn spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She was given a studio in a former Offtrack Betting building, literally in an old bank vault, where she made art and waited to be ...

Near Dark, Blue Steel, Point Break, Strange Days, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, Detroit

36. Stephen Frears

Director | Dangerous Liaisons

Stephen started off in a career in the legal profession before switching to work as an assistant stage manager at London's Royal Court which led to work as an assistant director on films by Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson He directed his first short in 1967 and his feature debut, Gumshoe, in 1971....

My Beautiful Launderette, Prick up your Ears, Sammy and Rosie get laid, Dangerous Liaisons, Grifters, Hero, High Fidelity, The Queen, Chéri, Tamara Drewe, Philomena, Florence Foster Jenkins, A Very English Scandal

37. 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 ...

Un chien andalou, L'Age D'Or, El angel exterminador, Belle de Jour, Tristana, Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Le fantôme de la liberté, Cet obscur objet du désir

38. 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 ...

Der siebente Kontinent, Bennys Video, Funny Games, La pianiste, Caché, Das weiße Band, L'amour, Happy End

39. 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...

M.A.S.H., Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, Prêt-à-porter, Cookie's Fortune, Gosford Park, A Prairie Home Companion

40. Ang Lee

Director | Wo hu cang long

Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...

Eat Drink Man Woman, The Wedding Banquet, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi, Gemini Man

41. Peter Greenaway

Director | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Peter Greenaway trained as a painter and began working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information in 1965. Shortly afterwards he started to make his own films. He has produced a wealth of short and feature-length films, but also paintings, novels and other books. He has held several ...

The Draughtsman's Contract, A Zed & Two Noughts, The Belly of an Architect, Drowning by Numbers, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Prospero's Books, The Baby of Mâcon, The Pillow Book, Nightwatching, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, Eisenstein in Guanajuato

42. Gus Van Sant

Director | Elephant

Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American filmmaker, painter, screenwriter, photographer and musician from Louisville, Kentucky who is known for directing films such as Good Will Hunting, the 1998 remake of Psycho, Gerry, Elephant, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Milk, Last Days, Finding Forrester, ...

Mala Noche, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Good Will Hunting, Elephant, Last Days, Paranoid Park, Milk, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot

43. Todd Haynes

Director | Far from Heaven

Todd Haynes was always interested in art, and made amateur movies and painted while he was still a child. He attended Brown university and majored in art and semiotics. After he graduated he moved to New York City and made the controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). ...

Velvet Goldmine, Far from Heaven, I'm Not There, Carol, Wonderstruck, Dark Waters

44. Sofia Coppola

Actress | The Godfather Part III

Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and ...

The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Somewhere, The Bling Ring, The Beguiled, On the Rocks

45. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...

Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles, Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lovely Bones

46. 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 ...

Chunking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, My Blueberry Nights

47. 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...

Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, World's End, Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho, The Sparks Brothers

48. John Waters

Writer | Pecker

Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore ...

Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker, A Dirty Shame

49. Todd Solondz

Director | Welcome to the Dollhouse

Todd Solondz was born in Newark, New Jersey. One of his earliest jobs in the film industry was when, as a young man, he worked as a messenger for the Writers' Guild of America. During this time, he wrote several screenplays.

Solondz's first color film with sync sound was the short "Schatt's Last ...

Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling, Palindrome, Dark Horse, Wiener Dog

50. 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 ...

Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, Prince of Darkness, They live!, In The Mouth of Madness, Vampires

51. Milos Forman

Director | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman was born Jan Tomas Forman in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, to Anna (Svabova), who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. During World War II, his parents were taken away by the Nazis, after being accused of participating in the underground resistance. His father died in ...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hair, Amadeus, Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon

52. 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 ...

Sisters, Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, Blow Out, Body Double, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, Mission Impossible, Redacted

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 ...

Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Trance, T2 Trainspotting

54. Fatih Akin

Director | Aus dem Nichts

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wueste Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, "Sensin - You're The One!" ("Sensin -...

Kurz und schmerzlos, Im Juli, Solino, Gegen die Wand, Auf der anderen Seite, Soul Kitchen, Müll im Garten Eden, Tschick, Aus dem Nichts, Der goldene Handschuh

55. 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 ...

Bob le flambeur, Le Doulos, Le deuxième souffle, Le Samourai, L'armée des ombres, Le cercle rouge, Un flic

56. Christian Petzold

Director | Barbara

Christian Petzold was born in Hilden in 1960. After studying German and Drama at the Freie Universität Berlin, he enrolled in Berlin's German Academy for Film and Television (DFFB). There he studied film direction while at same time working as an assistant director to Harun Farocki and Hartmut ...

Die innere Sicherheit, Gespenster, Yella, Barbara, Phoenix, Transit, Undine, Roter Himmel

57. 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 ...

Performance, Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Insignificance, The Witches, Heart of Darkness

58. 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 ...

The Kid, Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Limelight, A Countess From Hong Kong

59. Bong Joon Ho

Writer | Snowpiercer

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the ...

Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer, Parasite

60. Lars von Trier

Writer | Dancer in the Dark

Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly ...

Element of Crime, Epidemic, Europa, Breaking The Waves, Geister, Die Idioten, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Antichrist, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac: Vol I & II, The House That Jack Built

61. 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).

J'ai tué ma mère, Les amours imaginaires, Laurence Anyways, Tom à la ferme, Mommy, Juste la fin du monde

62. Michel Gondry

Director | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band ...

Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind, L'écume des jours, Mikro & Sprit

63. 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, Pusher II, Pusher III, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, Drive, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon

64. Luca Guadagnino

Director | Call Me by Your Name

Luca Guadagnino was born on August 10, 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and producer, known for Call Me by Your Name (2017), Suspiria (2018) and Bones and All (2022).

I am Love, A Bigger Splash, Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria, The Staggering Girl, Bones and All

65. Sam Mendes

Producer | 1917

Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5-...

American Beauty, Road To Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Skyfall, Spectre, 1917

66. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme was born on February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on April 26, 2017 in ...

Stop Making Sense, Something Wild, Married To The Mob, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate, Neil Young: Heart of Gold

67. 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 ...

A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America

68. Oliver Stone

Director | JFK

Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.

William Oliver Stone was ...

Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the 4th of July, The Doors, JFK, Heaven & Earth, Natural Born Killers, On Any Given Sunday, Snowden

69. 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 ...

12 Angry Men, Fail Safe, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Murder on the Orient Express, Network, Family Business, Q & A, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

70. Peter Weir

Director | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Peter Weir was born on August 21, 1944 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Way Back (2010) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Wendy Stites since 1966. They have two children.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, Witness, Dead Poets Society, Fearless, The Truman Show, Master and Commander, The Way Back

71. 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...

Blue Collar, American Gigolo, Cat People, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Light Sleeper, Dog Eat Dog, First Reformed, The Card Counter

72. Luchino Visconti

Writer | Il gattopardo

Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...

Rocco e i suoi fratelli, Il gattopardo, Morte a Venezia, Ludwig, Gruppo di famiglia in un interno

73. 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: Der Zorn Gottes, Stroszek, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde, Invincible, Rescue Dawn, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Salt and Fire, The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

74. Claude Chabrol

Director | Le beau Serge

Claude Chabrol was born on June 24, 1930 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Le Beau Serge (1958), La Cérémonie (1995) and Story of Women (1988). He was married to Aurore Chabrol, Stéphane Audran and Agnès Goute. He died on September 12, 2010 in Paris, France.

Les biches, Que la bête meure, Le boucher, Juste avant la nuit, La decade prodigeuse, Les innocents aux mains sales, Les noces rouges, La ceremonie, La fille coupée en deux

75. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clinton Eastwood Jr. 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 Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...

Dirty Harry, The Unforgiven, A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, Absolute Power, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, True Crime, Space Cowboys, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Gran Torino, American Sniper, Sully, Richard Jewell

76. 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 ...

Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Insider, Ali, Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Collateral

77. 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 ...

Robo Cop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, Black Book, Elle, Benedetta

78. Tim Burton

Producer | Edward Scissorhands

Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was ...

Beetle Juice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland

79. 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 (...

No End, Blind Chance, A Short Film About Love, A Short Film About Killing, The Double Life of Véronique, Three Colours: Blue, Three Colours: White; Three Colours: Red

80. Sam Raimi

Director | Spider-Man

Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...

The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Darkman, Army of Darkness, The Quick and the Dead, A Simple Plan, The Gift, Spiderman, Spiderman 2, Spiderman 3, Drag Me To Hell

81. Andreas Dresen

Director | Halt auf freier Strecke

Andreas Dresen was born on August 16, 1963 in Gera, German Democratic Republic. He is a director and writer, known for Stopped on Track (2011), Cloud 9 (2008) and Grill Point (2002).

Nachtgestalten, Halbe Treppe, Sommer vorm Balkon, Wolke 9, Whiskey mit Wodka, Halt auf freier Strecke, Gundermann, Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush

82. Park Chan-wook

Director | Oldeuboi

Park Chan-wook was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a producer and director, known for Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022). He is married to Eun-hee Kim. They have one child.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, Thirst, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave

83. Claire Denis

Director | High Life

The films of Claire Denis frequently explore the fragile connections between people and the ways in which the most seemingly inconsequential relationship can have life-changing effects. At the heart of Denis' cinema is a fascination with the delights and difficulties of belonging and otherness, the...

Chocolat, Nénette et Boni, Beau travail, Trouble Every Day, White Material, Un beau soleil interieur, High Life

84. Agnès Varda

Director | Cléo de 5 à 7

Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.

Du coté de la cote, Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald, Salut les Cubans, Cléo de 5 à 7, Le Bonheur, Black Panthers, Réponse de femmes: Notre corps, notre sexe, Ulysse, Sans toit ni loi, T'as de beaux escaliers, tu sais..., Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma, Les glaneurs et la glaneuse, Le lion volatile, Ydessa, les ours et etc..., Les plages d'Agnès, Visages villages

85. Ken Loach

Director | I, Daniel Blake

Unlike virtually all his contemporaries, Ken Loach has never succumbed to the siren call of Hollywood, and it's virtually impossible to imagine his particular brand of British socialist realism translating well to that context.

After studying law at St. Peter's College, Oxford, he branched out into ...

It's a Free World, The Angels Share, Jimmy's Hall, I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You

86. 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 ...

Pickpocket, Procès de Jeanne d'Arc, Au hasard Balthazar, Mouchette



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