DIRECTORS
by asgunfehmi | created - 07 Jan 2021 | updated - 1 month ago | Public
1. Ezel Akay
Actor | Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü?
Ezel Akay was born in 1961. He studied engineering at Bosphorus University, and theatre arts at Villanova University. He took part in many theatre productions as an actor and director before entering film production as a founding partner of IFR, where he was the director of more than 900 ...
2. Kazim Öz
Director | He bû tune bû
Kazim Öz was born in 1973 in Tunceli, Turkey. He is a director and writer, known for Once Upon a Time (2014), Zer (2017) and Fotograf (2001).
3. Zeki Demirkubuz
Director | Masumiyet
Demirkubuz dropped out of high school and started working in a textile workshop. He then worked as a street vendor for some time. After the 1980 coup d'état, he was imprisoned without trial for three years at the age of 17 for alleged communist activities and was tortured.
At the time, he was ...
4. 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 ...
5. Costa-Gavras
Director | Z
Costa-Gavras was born on February 12, 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, Greece. He is a director and writer, known for Z (1969), Missing (1982) and Amen. (2002). He has been married to Michèle Ray-Gavras since 1968. They have two children.
6. 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 ...
7. Emin Alper
Director | Tepenin Ardi
Emin Alper (born in Karaman, Turkey) is a Turkish filmmaker and historian. His directorial debut, Beyond the Hill won the Caligari Film Prize in the 62nd Berlinale and Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. His second feature Frenzy won the Special Jury Prize after premiering in competition ...
8. Ferzan Özpetek
Director | La finestra di fronte
He is a Turkish-Italian director, screenwriter and writer. In 1976, he first went to Perugia Foreigners University in Italy, learned Italian for a year, and then transferred to Rome La Sapienza University to study cinema. After completing his education there, he went to Accademia Navona and ...
9. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer | Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul on January 26th, 1959. In 1976, he began studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, in a context of strong student unrest, boycotts and political polarization. In 1978, he switched courses to Electrical Engineering at Bogazici University. ...
10. Pelin Esmer
Director | Ise Yarar Bir Sey
Pelin Esmer, writer&director of both fiction and documentary films studied sociology and afterwards moved on to cinema. She established her film company Sinefilm and since 2001 she has made her independent films The Collector, The Play, 10 to 11, Watchtower, Something Useful and Queen Lear. A ...
11. Zülfü Livaneli
Composer | Sis
Zülfü Livaneli was born on June 20, 1946 in Ilgin, Konya, Turkey. He is a composer and writer, known for Sis (1989), Iron Earth, Copper Sky (1987) and Mutluluk (2007).
12. Onur Ünlü
Director | Itirazim Var
Onur Ünlü is a Turkish film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He was born in Izmit, Turkey in 1973. He studied Communication Arts in Anadolu University. He gained a Master's degree on Communication Studies from Marmara University. He is a poet and a musician at the same time. All of his ...
13. Masaki Kobayashi
Director | Seppuku
Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.
14. Lütfi Ö. Akad
Director | Dügün
Turkish film director, screenwriter, academician. Who directed movies from 1948 to 1990. In 1949, he debuted as a film director with Vurun Kahpeye ("Strike the Whore") an adaptation of Halide Edip Adivar's book of the same title. He became one of the pioneers of the period in the "Director ...
15. Halit Refig
Director | Hanim
Halit Refig, Turkish filmmaker, film critic and theoretician and an intellectual was born in Izmir, Turkey in 1934 to an industrial family. He attended Sisli Terakki High School and briefly attended Robert College Engineering Dept. During his military service he started making documentaries in ...
16. Dervis Zaim
Director | Tabutta Rövasata
Born in 1964 in Famagusta, North Cyprus, Dervish Zaim graduated from Warwick University. He took a course in independent film production, organized in London by the Hollywood Film Institute. In 1995 his first novel won the prestigious "Yunus Nadi" literary prize in Turkey. Tabutta Rövasata (...
17. 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...
18. Tunç Basaran
Director | Uçurtmayi Vurmasinlar
Tunç Basaran was born on October 1, 1938 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a director and writer, known for Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite (1989), Sen de Gitme (1995) and Biri ve Digerleri (1988). He was married to Füsun Önal. He died on December 18, 2019 in Turkey.
19. Özer Kiziltan
Director | Takva
Özer Kiziltan was born on January 17, 1963 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a director and actor, known for Takva (2006), Beni Unutma (2011) and Sehrin Melekleri (2015). He died on May 5, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey.
20. Uri Barbash
Director | Me'Ahorei Hasoragim
Uri Barbash was born on December 24, 1946 in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is a director and writer, known for Beyond the Walls (1984), Nitza's Choice (2022) and Once We Were Dreamers (1987).
21. 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 ...
22. Nicolas Vanier
Director | Belle et Sébastien
Born in Senegal in 1962, ,Nicolas Vanier grew up on the farm belonging to his grandfather in Sologne where he developed his feeling for the ecology of nature and his love for animals.His adventures, in the style of an author he admires, Jack London, have taken him to Alaska, Canada, Lapland, ...
23. Robert Eggers
Director | The Lighthouse
Robert Houston Eggers is an American filmmaker and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), as well as directing and co-writing the historical fiction epic film The Northman (2022). His films are noted ...
24. 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 ...
25. 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...
26. Seren Yüce
Director | Çogunluk
Seren Yüce was born in 1975 in Istanbul, Turkey. Seren is a director and assistant director, known for Majority (2010), Rüzgarda Salinan Nilüfer (2016) and The Edge of Heaven (2007). Seren has been married to Elif Bereketli since October 2022. They have one child.
27. Reha Erdem
Director | Hayat Var
Born in Istanbul, Reha Erdem began his studies in History at Bogazici University in Istanbul. He graduated from Cinema Department of Paris 8 University. He obtained his M.A. in Plastic Arts at the same university. He shot his first feature-length film Oh Moon in 1989 as a French-Turkish ...
28. Çagan Irmak
Director | Babam ve Oglum
Çagan Irmak is a Turkish film and television writer and director, who has managed to attract a large audience in Turkey and is best known for the TV series Çemberimde Gül Oya (2004-2005) and Asmali Konak (2002-2004), and for the hit films Alone (2008) and My Father and My Son (2005), for which he ...
29. Nikita Mikhalkov
Actor | 12
Nikita Mikhalkov is the son of the famous communist poet Sergey Mikhalkov, who wrote the lyrics of the Soviet national anthem and had strong connections to the Communist Party. Nikita Mikhalkov's mother, Natalya Petrovna Konchalovskaya, was also a poet and daughter of famous painter Pyotr Petrovich...
30. Kudret Sabanci
Director | Anlat Istanbul
Kudret Sabanci was born on July 8, 1966 in Bergama, Izmir, Turkey. He is a director and actor, known for Anlat Istanbul (2005), Karaoglan (2013) and A Madonna in Laleli (1999). He was previously married to Esra Akkaya.
31. Baris Pirhasan
Writer | Sawdust Tales
Writer, translator, director and poet Baris Pirhasan was born in Istanbul in 1951. He got his BA in 1976 at Bogazici University, Department of English Language and Literature. His poems were published in Turkish magazines such as Yeni Dergi, Militan, Sanat Emegi, Yazko Edebiyat, Gösteri, Sözcükler....
32. Mike Newell
Director | Four Weddings and a Funeral
Mike Newell was born on March 28, 1942 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Donnie Brasco (1997). He is married to Bernice Stegers. They have three children.
33. 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 ...
34. 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 ...
35. Halit Refig
Director | Hanim
Halit Refig, Turkish filmmaker, film critic and theoretician and an intellectual was born in Izmir, Turkey in 1934 to an industrial family. He attended Sisli Terakki High School and briefly attended Robert College Engineering Dept. During his military service he started making documentaries in ...
36. Özcan Alper
Director | Karanlik Gece
Özcan Alper (b. 1975 Hopa, Artvin) is a Turkish director and screenwriter.
He was born in Hopa district of Artvin. He graduated from Trabzon High School. In 1992, he started at Istanbul University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics. In 1996, he entered Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters...
37. Zeki Ökten
Director | Sürü
Zeki Ökten was born on August 4, 1941 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a director and assistant director, known for The Herd (1978), Faize Hücum (1982) and Düsman (1980). He was married to Güler Ökten. He died on December 19, 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey.
38. Chloé Zhao
Director | Nomadland
Chloé Zhao or Zhao Ting (born March 31, 1982) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Her second feature film, The Rider (2017), was critically acclaimed and received several accolades ...
39. Özer Kiziltan
Director | Takva
Özer Kiziltan was born on January 17, 1963 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a director and actor, known for Takva (2006), Beni Unutma (2011) and Sehrin Melekleri (2015). He died on May 5, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey.
40. Serdar Akar
Director | Gemide
Serdar Akar was born in 1964 in Ankara, Turkey. He is a director and writer, known for Gemide (1998), Dar Alanda Kisa Paslasmalar (2000) and At the Bar (2007).
41. Cemal San
Director | Dilber'in Sekiz Günü
Cemal San was born on January 1, 1966 in Tunceli, Turkey. He is a director and writer, known for Dilber'in Sekiz Günü (2008), Ali'nin Sekiz Günü (2009) and The Pain (2009).
42. 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 ...
43. Tolga Karaçelik
Director | Sarmasik
Tolga Karacelik is one of the promising new generation Turkish directors who is known for his own unique style.
After receiving law degree in Turkey he studied film in New York City. He had been writing short stories and poetry.
I addition to writing and directing five short films that have been ...
44. Alfonso Cuarón
Producer | Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then ...
45. Olivier Assayas
Writer | Personal Shopper
Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is best know for his films Demonlover (2002), Something in the Air (2012), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016).
Assayas is the son of French director/screenwriter Raymond Assayas, alias Jacques Rémy.
His ...
46. Cary Joji Fukunaga
Producer | Beasts of No Nation
Cary Joji Fukunaga is a Japanese-American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer from Oakland, California who is known for directing the James Bond film No Time to Die, Kofi, Beasts of No Nation, Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre. He co-wrote the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King ...
47. 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 ...
48. Fikret Reyhan
Editor | Çatlak
Fikret Reyhan was born on September 15, 1974 in Hatay, Turkey. He is an editor and director, known for Fractured (2020), Sari Sicak (2017) and Glass Curtain (2023).
49. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
50. 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 ...
51. Yilmaz Güney
Writer | Yol
Güney and his work were almost entirely unknown outside of his homeland Turkey until his 1981 escape from imprisonment in Turkey and his "discovery" the following year at the Cannes Film Festival for his autobiographical screenplay for Yol (1982), the festival's grand prize winner. Born in 1937 in ...
52. Yilmaz Erdogan
Actor | The Water Diviner
He spent his childhood in Ankara until he moved to Istanbul along with his family. His family is of Kurdish origin. In 1987, he dropped out of his civil engineering studies at Istanbul Technical University and joined the On Duty Theater Staff (Turkish: Nöbetçi Tiyatrosu) managed by Ferhan Sensoy. ...
53. Bahman Ghobadi
Director | Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand
Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even ...
54. Nadav Lapid
Director | Haganenet
Nadav Lapid was born on April 8, 1975 in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is a director and writer, known for The Kindergarten Teacher (2014), Synonyms (2019) and Policeman (2011).
55. Gregory Hoblit
Producer | Hill Street Blues
Gregory Hoblit was born in Texas but moved to Northern California at a young age because of his father's job in law enforcement, a hint at what might have attracted the mystery/courtroom plots of his movie/TV credits. After graduating from UCLA, he worked as a TV co-producer with Steven Bochco ...
56. 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...
57. Lee Isaac Chung
Director | Minari
A son of Korean immigrants, Chung grew up on a small farm in rural Arkansas and then attended Yale University, majoring in Ecology. During his senior year, Chung dropped his plans for medical school and turned to filmmaking. He studied film at the University of Utah, earning his MFA in 2004.
Chung's...
58. Corneliu Porumboiu
Writer | A fost sau n-a fost?
Corneliu Porumboiu was born on September 14, 1975 in Vaslui, Romania. He is a writer and director, known for 12:08 East of Bucharest (2006), The Whistlers (2019) and Police, Adjective (2009).
59. 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 -...
60. Nima Javidi
Writer | Sorkhpoost
Nima Javidi is an Iranian screenwriter and director, born in 1980. His first feature "Melbourne" (2014) which was the opening film in critics' week in Venice film festival(2014) has attended more than 90 festivals around the world including Tokyo film festival, Stockholm film festival , Zurich film...
61. Bay Okan
Director | Sari Mercedes
Bay Okan was born on August 18, 1942 in Istanbul, Turkey. He is an actor and director, known for The Yellow Mercedes (1992), Otobüs (1975) and Umut Üzümleri (2013).
62. Ugur Yücel
Director | Yazi Tura
Ugur Yücel is a Turkish film actor, producer and director. He graduated from the Theater Department of the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory (Istanbul Belediye Konservatuari Tiyatro Bölüm). He took part in several plays between 1975 and 1984 in Kenter Tiyatrosu (Kenter Theatre), Tef Kabare Theatre...
63. George Ovashvili
Producer | Gagma napiri
George Ovashvili was born on November 14, 1963 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR [now Republic of Georgia]. He is a producer and director, known for Gagma napiri (2009), Corn Island (2014) and Zgvis donidan... (2005).
64. Vadim Perelman
Director | House of Sand and Fog
Vadim Perelman was born in 1963 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is a director and producer, known for House of Sand and Fog (2003), Persian Lessons (2020) and The Life Before Her Eyes (2007).
65. Ömer Kavur
Director | Akrebin Yolculugu
Ömer Kavur was born on June 18, 1944 in Ankara, Turkey. He was a director and producer, known for Akrebin Yolculugu (1997), Karsilasma (2003) and Motherland Hotel (1987). He was married to Hümeyra. He died on May 12, 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey.
66. Vladimir Bortko
Director | Idiot
Vladimir Bortko was born on May 7, 1946 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He is a director and writer, known for The Idiot (2003), Dusha shpiona (2015) and Tsirk sgorel, i klouny razbezhalis (1998).
67. Ivan Pyrev
Director | Skazanie o zemle sibirskoy
Ivan Pyrev was born on November 4, 1901 in Kamen, Tomsk Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kamen-na-Obi, Altayskiy kray, Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for Symphony of Life (1948), They Met in Moscow (1941) and Six P.M. (1944). He was married to Marina Ladynina and Lionella Pyryeva. He ...
68. Hüseyin Tabak
Director | Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert
Hüseyin Tabak was born on July 15, 1981 in Lemgo, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Your Beauty Is Worth Nothing (2012), Gipsy Queen (2019) and Cheeese... (2008).
69. 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).
70. 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 ...
71. 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 ...
72. Erdem Tepegöz
Director | Gölgeler Içinde
Erdem Tepegoz was born in 1982. Graduated from Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Economics. He studied film directing in Prague. He traveled all around the world for making many documentaries.
Zerre (The Particle), his first feature film that he had written and directed, won almost 23 awards ...
73. Sam Garbarski
Director | Irina Palm
Sam Garbarski was born the 13th of February 1948 in Munich, Germany. In 1970 he founded the advertising agency Garbarski Euro Rscg, where he directed more than 50 commercials, among which several won awards in many international festivals (Cannes, New York, London...). Since 1997 he has directed ...
74. Atif Yilmaz
Director | Bir Yudum Sevgi
Atif Yilmaz Batibeki was a renowned Turkish film director, screenwriter, and film producer. After finishing high school in Mersin, he attended the Law School of Istanbul University. Because of his interest in arts, he dropped out of Law School and entered the Painting Department of the Academy of ...
75. Jean-Jacques Annaud
Director | Der Name der Rose
Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, best known for directing Quest for Fire (1981), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Lover (1992), Seven Years in Tibet (1997) and Wolf Totem (2015). Annaud has received numerous awards for his work, including four César Awards, ...
76. Ümit Ünal
Writer | 9
Born in 1965 in Turkey, Ünal wrote and directed nine feature films including Istanbul Tales (2004), Ara (2007), Gölgesizler (2008), The Voice (2010), The Pomegranate (2011), Serial Cook (2017). He has published five books: a collection of short stories, three novels and an autobiography. Themes ...
77. Onur Saylak
Director | Daha
Arif Onur Saylak (born 12 May 1977, Ankara) is a Turkish actor and director. He is also a lecturer at Kadir Has University in the field of film and drama.
He was born in Ankara. He studied at the Middle East Technical University, Department of Physics.
He left the university and tried his luck in ...
78. Kasim Ördek
Director | Together, Alone
Kasim Ördek was born in 1992 in Diyarbakir. He spent his student life in Istanbul. In 2018, he shot his first short film "Kerata", which is his undergraduate graduation project. With this film, he succeeded in being a finalist in many National and International film festivals. His second short film...
79. Hasan Tolga Pulat
Director | Güzel Günler Görecegiz
Hasan Tolga Pulat was born in 1982 in Balikesir, Turkey. He is a director and writer, known for Güzel Günler Görecegiz (2011), Stair Dad (2015) and Baraj (2020).
80. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...
81. 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, ...
82. Claude Lalonde
Writer | 10½
Claude Lalonde is known for 10½ (2010), The 3 L'il Pigs (2007) and Origami (2017).
83. Tayfun Pirselimoglu
Writer | Saç
Tayfun Pirselimoglu is known for Hair (2010), Kerr (2021) and I Am Not Him (2013).
84. 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 (...
85. Stephen Daldry
Director | The Reader
In 1989, Stephen Daldry worked as a freelance reader of unsolicited manuscripts for Literary Manager Nicholas Wright in the Scripts Department at the Royal National Theatre. In July of that year, he directed a Dadaist/expressionist production of "Judgement Day," a play by Odon von Horvath, at the ...
86. Elizabeth Lo
Director | Stray
Elizabeth Lo is a film director whose work has been showcased internationally, including at Sundance, IDFA, Tribeca, AFI Fest, Museum of Modern Art, True/False, New York Times Op-Docs, Field of Vision, and PBS' POV. She's been featured in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," DOC...
87. Mehmet Ada Öztekin
Director | Yedinci Kogustaki Mucize
During his university years in Antalya and Izmir, he worked as a manager in private radios. He prepared and presented the radio show "Gamli baykus". After years of radio broadcasting, his passion for cinema made his way to Istanbul. He started working in a production company and met Kaan Çaydamli ...
88. Sergey Loznitsa
Director | Donbass
Sergei Loznitsa, Ukrainian film maker, was born on September, 5th 1964 in Baranovichi, USSR. He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1987-1991 Sergei worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in ...
89. Adina Pintilie
Director | Touch Me Not
Adina Pintilie was born on January 12, 1980 in Bucharest, Romania. She is a director and writer, known for Touch Me Not (2018), Nu te supara, dar... (2007) and An American Haunting (2005).
90. Sergei Eisenstein
Director | Ivan Groznyy
The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and ...
91. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Director | Nelyubov
Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...
92. Asghar Farhadi
Writer | Forooshande
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelors in Theater from University of Tehran's School of...
93. Yôji Yamada
Writer | Tasogare Seibei
Yamada Yoji graduated Tokyo University in 1954, the year he joined Shochiku as an assistant director. In 1969, he launched the popular "Tora-san" series, the world's longest theatrical film series. "The Twilight Samurai" (The Twilight Samurai (2002)) marks his 77th film as well as his 41th year as ...
94. Alan Parker
Director | Evita
The son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter, Alan Parker was a London advertising copywriter in the 1960s and early 1970s with Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP), an ad agency. He formed a partnership with David Puttnam as his producer (Puttnam had been a ...
95. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Director | Nelyubov
Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...
96. Alexander Korda
Director | The Private Life of Don Juan
One of a large group of Hungarian refugees who found refuge in England in the 1930s, Sir Alexander Korda was the first British film producer to receive a knighthood. He was a major, if controversial, figure and acted as a guiding force behind the British film industry of the 1930s and continued to ...
97. Ernst Lubitsch
Director | To Be or Not to Be
From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...
98. 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-...
99. 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 ...
100. Richard Kwietniowski
Director | Love and Death on Long Island
Richard Kwietniowski was born on March 17, 1957 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Love and Death on Long Island (1997), Flames of Passion (1989) and Alfalfa (1988).
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