Directores

by rilianx | created - 11 Nov 2012 | updated - 28 Dec 2014 | Public

2. Brillante Mendoza

Director | Alpha: The Right to Kill

Brillante Mendoza is a Philippine director and producer. He is the first Filipino to receive the Best Director award at Cannes for his film Kinatay in 2009. He is also the only Filipino to receive France's "Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres" (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in ...

3. Satoshi Kon

Writer | Tôkyô goddofâzâzu

Satoshi Kon was born in 1963. He studied at the Musashino College of the Arts. He began his career as a Manga artist. He then moved to animation and worked as a background artist on many films (including Roujin Z (1991) by 'Katsuhiro Otomo'). Then, in 1995, he wrote an episode of the anthology film ...

4. 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 ...

5. 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 ...

6. 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 ...

8. 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...

11. 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. ...

12. Hsiao-Hsien Hou

Producer | Cike Nie Yin Niang

Of the ten films that Hsiao-Hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed ...

13. 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...

The Killers: Unstaged (2012); On Death Row (2012); Into the Abyss (2011); Ode to the Dawn of Man (documentary short) (2011); Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010); Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010); My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009); La bohème (documentary short) (2009); Un policía corrupto (2009); Encounters at the End of the World (2007); Rescue Dawn (2006); The Wild Blue Yonder (2005); Grizzly Man (2005); The White Diamond (2004); Wheel of Time (2003); Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (segment) (2002); Invincible (2001); Pilgrimage (documentary short) (2001); Wings of Hope (2000); My Best Fiend - Klaus Kinski (1999); 2000 Jahre Christentum (TV series) (1999); Höllenfahrten (TV series documentary) (1998); Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997); Die Verwandlung der Welt in Musik: Bayreuth vor der Premiere (1996); Death for Five Voices (1995); Glocken aus der Tiefe - Glaube und Aberglaube in Rußland (1993); Lessons of Darkness (1992); Filmstunde (TV mini-series documentary) (1991); Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein (1991); Jag Mandir: Das exzentrische Privattheater des Maharadscha von Udaipur (1991); Echos aus einem düsteren Reich (1990); Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun (TV documentary short) (1989); Giovanna d'Arco (1989); Les Français vus par (TV mini-series documentary) (1988); Cobra Verde (1987); Werner Herzog Filmemacher (documentary short) (1986); Gasherbrum - Der leuchtende Berg (1985); Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten (1984); Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen (1984); Fitzcarraldo (1982); Huie's Predigt (TV documentary short) (1981); God's Angry Man (TV documentary short) (1981); Woyzeck (1979); Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979); La Soufrière - Warten auf eine unausweichliche Katastrophe (documentary short) (1977); Stroszek (1977); Heart of Glass (1976); How much Wood would a Woodchuck chuck... - Beobachtungen zu einer neuen Sprache (TV documentary short) (1976); No One Will Play with Me (short) (1976); The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974); Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner (1974); Aguirre: la ira de Dios (1972); Land of Silence and Darkness (1971); Fata Morgana (1971); Handicapped Future (1971); Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970); Massnahmen gegen Fanatiker (short) (1969); Die fliegenden Ärzte von Ostafrika (1969); Signs of Life (1968); Letzte Worte (short) (1968); The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (short) (1967); Game in the Sand (short) (1964); Herakles (short) (1962);

14. 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 ...

Silence (2013/I); Untitled Bill Clinton Documentary (2014); The Wolf of Wall Street (2013); La invención de Hugo Cabret (2011); George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011); Public Speaking (2010); Boardwalk Empire (TV series) (2010); Shutter Island (2010); Shine a Light (2008); The Key to Reserva (short) (2007); The Departed (2006); El aviador (2004); Lady by the Sea: The Statue of Liberty (2004); The Blues (TV series documentary) (2003); Gangs of New York (2002); The Neighborhood (short) (2001); Bringing Out the Dead (1999); My Voyage to Italy (1999); Kundun (1997); Casino (1995); A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995); The Age of Innocence (1993); The King of Ads (1993); Cape Fear (1991); Goodfellas (1990); Made in Milan (documentary short) (1990); New York Stories (segment) (1989); The Last Temptation of Christ (1988); Location Production Footage: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988); Bad (video short) (1987); The Color of Money (1986); Amazing Stories (TV series) (1986); After Hours (1985); The King of Comedy (1983); Raging Bull (1980); American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince (1978); The Last Waltz (1978); New York, New York (1977); Taxi Driver (1976); Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974); Italianamerican (1974); Mean Streets (1973); Boxcar Bertha (1972); Street Scenes (1970); The Big Shave (short) (1968); I Call First (1967); It's Not Just You, Murray! (short) (1964); What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (short) (1963); Vesuvius VI (short) (1959);

17. Raúl Ruiz

Director | La Telenovela Errante

Chilean director Raúl, or Raoul, Ruiz (1941-2011) was one of the most exciting and innovative filmmakers to emerge from 1960s World Cinema, providing more intellectual fun and artistic experimentation, shot for shot, than any filmmaker since Jean-Luc Godard. A guerrilla who uncompromisingly ...

La noche de enfrente (2012); Mysteries of Lisbon (2011); Ballet aquatique (2011); Mysteries of Lisbon (2010); A Closed Book (2010); L'estate breve (2010); El pasaporte amarillo (2009); La maison Nucingen (2008); Litoral (TV mini-series) (2008); Agathopedia (2008); La Recta Provincia (TV series) (2007); To Each His Own Cinema (segment) (2007); Klimt (2006); Le domaine perdu (2005); Días de campo (2004); Edipo (2004); Responso (2004); Vertige de la page blanche (2003); Une place parmi les vivants (2003); That Day (2003); Médée (2003); Cofralandes, rapsodia chilena (2002); Miotte vu par Raúl Ruiz (2002); Cofralandes, segunda parte: Rostros y rincones (2002); Cofralandes, tercera parte: Museos y clubes en la región antártica (2002); Cofralandes, cuarta parte: Evocaciones y valses (2002); Les âmes fortes (2001); Son of Two Mothers or The Comedy of Innocence (2000); Combat d'amour en songe (2000); Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust (1999); Shattered Image (1998); Généalogies d'un crime (1997); Trois vies & une seule mort (1996); À propos de Nice, la suite (segment) (1995); Wind Water (short) (1995); Fado majeur et mineur (1994); Viaggio clandestino - Vite di santi e di peccatori (1994); Miroirs de Tunisie (1993); Capítulo 66 (1993); L'oeil qui ment (1992); Visione e meraviglia della religione cristiana (short) (1992); Las soledades (1992); L'exote (1991); Basta la palabra (1991); A TV Dante (TV mini-series) (1991); The Golden Boat (1990); La chouette aveugle (1990); La novela errante (1990); Le livre de Christophe Colombe (short) (1990); Il pozzo dei pazzi (short) (1989); Derrière le mur (1989); Brise-glace (1988); Paya e tala, une visite chez Farid Belkahia (documentary short) (1988); Tous les nuages sont des horloges (1988); Allegoria (1988); Mémoire des apparences (1987); Le professeur Taranne (1987); Mammame (1986); Richard III (1986); Dans un miroir (1986); Régime sans pain (1985); The Insomniac on the Bridge (1985); Screen Pioneers No:3 Raul Ruiz (TV documentary short) (1985); Voyage d'une main (short) (1985); Treasure Island (1985); Cinéma cinémas (TV series documentary) (1984); La présence réelle (1984); Point de fuite (1984); Manoel's Destinies (TV mini-series) (1984); La ville des pirates (1983); Las tres coronas del marinero (1983); Bérénice (1983); La ville de Paris (1983); Het dak van de Walvis (1982); Querelle de jardins (short) (1982); Le petit théâtre (documentary short) (1982); Ombres chinoises (short) (1982); The Territory (1981); Image de sable (documentary short) (1981); L'image en silence (1980); La ville nouvelle (short) (1980); Teletests (short) (1980); Musée Dali (1980); Fahlstrom (short) (1980); Le borgne (1980); Petit manuel d'histoire de France (1979); The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1979); Jeux (1979); Images de débat (1979); De grands événements et des gens ordinaires (1979); La vocation suspendue (1978); Les divisions de la nature (short) (1978); Colloque de chiens (short) (1977); Utopia (1976); Sotelo (short) (1976); Diálogos de exiliados (1975); La expropiación (1974); El realismo socialista (1973); Palomita brava (1973); Palomita blanca (1973); Abastecimiento (short) (1973); Poesía popular: La teoría y la práctica (short) (1972); Los minuteros (short) (1972); Nadie dijo nada (1971); Ahora te vamos a llamar hermano (short) (1971); ¡Qué hacer! (1970); La colonia penal (1970); Militarismo y tortura (short) (1969); La catanaria (1969); Tres tristes tigres (1968); El tango del viudo (1967); El regreso (short) (1964); La maleta (short) (1963);

19. Joe Wright

Director | Pride & Prejudice

Joe Wright is an English film director. He is best known for Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), and Darkest Hour (2017).

Wright always had an interest in the arts, especially painting. He would also make films on his Super 8 camera as well as spend time in the evenings...

23. 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...

25. Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Writer | Gabbeh

Mohsen Makhmalbaf is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.

Many of his films like Salam Cinema, A Moment Of Innocence, Gabbeh, Kandahar and The President have been widely well received across the globe and have brought him ...

26. 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 (...

On Set Home Movies (short) (2008); Spöksonaten (2007); Saraband (2003); The Image Makers (2000); In the Presence of a Clown (1997); Harald & Harald (1996); The Last Gasp (1995); Backanterna (1993); Madame de Sade (1992); The Blessed Ones (1986); The Making of Fanny and Alexander (1986); Dom Juan (1985); After the Rehearsal (1984); Karin's Face (short) (1984); Hustruskolan (1983); Fanny and Alexander (1982); Fårö-dokument 1979 (1980); From the Life of the Marionettes (1980); Autumn Sonata (1978); The Serpent's Egg (1977); De fördömda kvinnornas dans (short) (1976); Face to Face (1976); The Magic Flute (1975); The Misanthrope (1974); Scenes from a Marriage (TV mini-series) (1973); Viskningar och rop (1972); The Touch (1971); Fårödokument 1969 (1970); The Passion of Anna (1969); The Rite (1969); Shame (1968); Hour of the Wolf (1968); Stimulantia (segment) (1967); Persona (1966); Don Juan (1965/I); All These Women (1964); The Silence (1963); A Dream Play (1963); Winter Light (1963); Through a Glass Darkly (1961); The Devil's Eye (1960); The Virgin Spring (1960); Storm Weather (1960); The Magician (1958); Rabies (1958); Nära livet (1958); The Venetian (1958); Wild Strawberries (1957); Mr. Sleeman Is Coming (1957); The Seventh Seal (1957); Bakomfilm smultronstället (short) (1957); Smiles of a Summer Night (1955); Dreams (1955); A Lesson in Love (1954); Sawdust and Tinsel (1953); Summer with Monika (1953); Secrets of Women (1952); Summer Interlude (1951); This Can't Happen Here (1950); To Joy (1950); Thirst (1949); Prison (1949); Port of Call (1948); Music in Darkness (1948); A Ship Bound for India (1947); It Rains on Our Love (1946); Crisis (1946);

27. Jacques Audiard

Writer | De rouille et d'os

Born in Paris, France, in 1952. Jacques Audiard's family has always been involved in movie business. His father, Michel, was a popular screenwriter and director and his uncle a producer. But in his teens he refused that world and wanted to be a teacher. He studied literature and philosophy at the ...

28. 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 ...

Goodbye to Language 3D (2013); Film socialisme (2010); Reportage amateur Maquette expo (2006); Vrai faux passeport (2006); Four Short Films (2006); Notre musique (2004); Moments choisis des histoire(s) du cinéma (2004); In Praise of Love (2001); The Old Place (2000); For Ever Mozart (1996); Deux fois cinquante ans de cinéma français (1995); JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December (1994); Oh, Woe Is Me (1993); Les enfants jouent à la Russie (1993); The King of Ads (1993); Allemagne 90 neuf zéro (1991); Nouvelle vague (1990); Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989); Le rapport Darty (1989); Histoire(s) du cinéma: Toutes les histoires (1988); Les Français vus par (TV mini-series documentary) (1988); Keep Your Right Up (1987); Aria (segment) (1987); King Lear (1987); Série noire (TV series) (1986); Soft and Hard (1986); Détective (1985); 'Je vous salue, Marie' (1985); Prénom Carmen (1983); Changer d'image - Lettre à la bien-aimée (1982); Passion (1982); Scénario du film 'Passion' (1982); Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980); Comment ça va? (1978); France/tour/detour/deux/enfants (TV mini-series documentary) (1977); Here and Elsewhere (1976); Six fois deux/Sur et sous la communication (TV mini-series) (1976); Numéro deux (1975); Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1972); Tout va bien (1972); 1 P.M. (1972); Vladimir et Rosa (1971); Lotte in Italia (1971); Wind from the East (1970); Pravda (1970); British Sounds (1970); Joy of Learning (1969); Sympathy for the Devil (1968); A Film Like Any Other (1968); Weekend (1967); La chinoise (1967); 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967); Made in U.S.A (1966); Masculin Féminin (1966); Pierrot le fou (1965); Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965); Une femme mariée: Suite de fragments d'un film tourné en 1964 (1964); Bande à part (1964); Contempt (1963); The Carabineers (1963); The Little Soldier (1963); Vivre Sa Vie (1962); Une femme est une femme (1961); Breathless (1960)

29. 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). ...

30. Yasujirô Ozu

Writer | Tôkyô monogatari

Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...

An Autumn Afternoon (1962); The End of Summer (1961); Late Autumn (1960); Floating Weeds (1959); Good Morning (1959); Equinox Flower (1958); Tokyo Twilight (1957); Early Spring (1956); Tokyo Story (1953); Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952); Early Summer (1951); The Munekata Sisters (1950); Late Spring (1949); A Hen in the Wind (1948); Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947); There Was a Father (1942); The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941); Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka (1937); The Only Son (1936); College Is a Nice Place (1936); Kagamijishi (documentary short) (1936); An Inn in Tokyo (1935); An Innocent Maid (1935); A Story of Floating Weeds (1934); A Mother Should Be Loved (1934); Passing Fancy (1933); Dragnet Girl (1933); Woman of Tokyo (1933); Until the Day We Meet Again (1932); Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth (1932); I Was Born, But... (1932); Spring Comes from the Ladies (1932); Tokyo Chorus (1931); The Sorrow of the Beautiful Woman (1931); The Lady and the Beard (1931); Ojosan (1930); The Luck Which Touched the Leg (1930); The Revengeful Spirit of Eros (short) (1930); I Flunked, But... (1930); Walk Cheerfully (1930); Kekkongaku nyûmon (1930); That Night's Wife (1930); A Straightforward Boy (short) (1929); The Life of an Office Worker (1929); I Graduated, But... (1929); Fighting Friends (short) (1929); Days of Youth (1929); Treasure Mountain (1929); Body Beautiful (1928); A Couple on the Move (1928); Pumpkin (1928); Wife Lost (1928); Dreams of Youth (1928); Blade of Penitence (1927)

32. 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...

33. Andrew Dominik

Director | Chopper

Andrew Dominik was born on October 7, 1967 in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a director and writer, known for Chopper (2000), Blonde (2022) and Killing Them Softly (2012).

34. Takeshi Kitano

Actor | Zatôichi

Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...

35. 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 ...

38. 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...

39. Shane Carruth

Composer | Upstream Color

Writer-director Shane Carruth, a former software engineer, burst onto the independent movie scene with his extremely low-budget science-fiction film Primer (2004) in 2004. Carruth also played one of the two leads in the film and composed its music. "Primer" won the Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P...

40. 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...

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, ...

43. 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...

44. 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 ...

45. 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 ...

47. 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 ...

48. 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 ...

49. 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 ...

50. 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 ...

51. Richard Brooks

Writer | In Cold Blood

Richard Brooks was an Academy Award-winning film writer who also earned six Oscar nominations and achieved success as a film director and producer.

He was born Reuben Sax on May 18, 1912, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. He graduated from West Philadelphia ...

52. 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 ...

53. 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 ...

54. Bernardo Bertolucci

Writer | Il conformista

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (...

55. Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer | Le salaire de la peur

Beginning his film career as a screenwriter, Henri-Georges Clouzot switched over to directing and in 1943 had the distinction of having his film The Raven (1943) banned by both the German forces occupying France and the Free French forces fighting them, but for different reasons. He shot to ...

56. D.W. Griffith

Director | The Birth of a Nation

David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 ...

57. 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 ...

58. 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.

59. Martin McDonagh

Writer | In Bruges

Martin McDonagh was born on March 26, 1970 in Camberwell, London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

60. Satyajit Ray

Writer | Pather Panchali

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father, Late Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University, he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie ...

61. 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 ...

62. 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 ...

63. 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 ...

64. 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 ...

65. 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...

66. 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 ...

67. John Schlesinger

Director | Midnight Cowboy

Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger, who was born in London, on February 16, 1926, was the eldest child in a solidly middle-class Jewish family. Berbard Schlesinger, his father, was a pediatrician, and his mother, Winifred, was a musician. He served in the Army in the Far East during World War ...

68. 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 ...

69. 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.

70. Kathryn Bigelow

Director | The Hurt Locker

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 ...

71. John Boorman

Producer | Hope and Glory

John Boorman attended Catholic school (Salesian Order) although his family was not, in fact, Roman Catholic. His first job was for a dry-cleaner. Later, he worked as a critic for a women's journal and for a radio station until he entered the television business, working for the BBC in Bristol. ...

En el libro "Lecciones de Cine" Excalibur (1981); Hope and Glory (1987); The General (1998)

72. Sydney Pollack

Director | Tootsie

Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist...

73. Claude Sautet

Writer | Un coeur en hiver

Claude Sautet was born on February 23, 1924 in Montrouge, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He was a writer and director, known for A Heart in Winter (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995) and The Things of Life (1970). He was married to Graziella Sautet. He died on July 22, 2000 in Paris, ...

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.

76. Yasuzô Masumura

Director | Daichi no komoriuta

Born in Yamanashi, Japan, Yasuzô Masumura would become known as a maverick director whose main legacy was films portraying and promoting individualism, which was the opposite of the norm in Japanese society. He earned a law degree towards the end of World War II from Tokyo University, yet joined ...

77. Víctor Erice

Director | Cerrar los ojos

Víctor Erice was born on June 30, 1940 in Karrantza, Vizcaya, País Vasco, Spain. He is a director and writer, known for Close Your Eyes (2023), El Sur (1983) and The Spirit of the Beehive (1973).

78. 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.

79. Makoto Shinkai

Writer | Suzume no Tojimari

Makoto Shinkai is a Japanese director, writer, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer. Shinkai studied Japanese literature at Chuo University where he was a member of juvenile literature club where he drew picture books. In 1999, Shinkai ...



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