Favourite Directors
by rolandpopp | created - 05 Oct 2018 | updated - 2 months ago | Publicin 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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