Top 200 Directors

101. Leo McCarey

Leo McCarey was born on October 3, 1896 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for An Affair to Remember (1957), Going My Way (1944) and Love Affair (1939). He was married to Virginia Stella Martin. He died on July 5, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

Recommended Viewing: Big Business (1929) [co-directed by James W. Horne], Duck Soup (1933), Ruggles of Red Cap (1935), Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939), An Affair to Remember (1957)

102. Michael Snow

Director | Wavelength

Central figure of the American avant-garde. An artist who made an isolated animated short, A to Z (1956), Snow concentrated on his painting career until moving to New York in 1963. After attending avant-garde film screenings organized by critic-filmmaker Jonas Mekas and turning out a second film, ...

Recommended Viewing: Wavelength (1967), La Région centrale (1971), Breakfast (1976), Presents (1981)

103. James Whale

Director | Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his four classic horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He also directed films in other genres, including what is ...

Recommended Viewing: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)

104. Dziga Vertov

Director | Chelovek s kino-apparatom

Dziga Vertov was born on January 2, 1896 in Bialystok, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire [now Podlaskie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Three Songs About Lenin (1934) and The Sixth Part of the World (1926). He was married to Elizaveta Svilova. He ...

Recommended Viewing: One-Sixth of the World (1926), Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Enthusiasm (1931)

105. Robert Siodmak

Director | Nachts wenn der Teufel kam

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

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

Recommended Viewing: People on Sunday (1929) [co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer], Phantom Lady (1944), The Suspect (1944), The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), The Spiral Staircase (1945), The Killers (1946), The Dark Mirror (1946), Cry of the City (1948), Criss Cross (1949), The File on Thelma Jordan (1949), The Crimson Pirate (1952)

106. William Wyler

Director | The Best Years of Our Lives

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

Recommended Viewing: Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Westerner (1940), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Heiress (1949), Detective Story (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), The Desperate Hours (1955)

107. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) [co-directed by Terry Jones], Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

108. William A. Wellman

Director | A Star Is Born

William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of the original A Star Is Born (1937), was called "Wild Bill" during his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle.

A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the 29th...

Recommended Viewing: Wings (1927), Beggars of Life (1928), Other Men's Women (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), Heroes for Sale (1933), Midnight Mary (1933), A Star is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Magic Town (1947), Yellow Sky (1948), Battleground (1949), Track of the Cat (1954)

109. 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. ...

Recommended Viewing: That Day, on the Beach (1983), Taipei Story (1984), The Terrorizers (1986), A Brighter Summer Day (1991), A Confucian Confusion (1994), Mahjong (1996), Yi yi: A One and a Two (2000)

110. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988), The Match Factory Girl (1990), I Hired a Contract Killer (1990), Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994), Drifting Clouds (1996), Juha (1999), The Man Without a Past (2002), Lights in the Dusk (2006)

111. 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 ...

and ETHAN COEN

Recommended Viewing: Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009)

112. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

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

Recommended Viewing: Duel (1971), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Color Purple (1985), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Munich (2005)

113. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), They Live (1988), In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

114. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002), Bad Education (2004), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011)

115. 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...

Recommended Viewing: Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007)

116. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Play Misty for Me (1971), High Plains Drifter (1973), Breezy (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Honkytonk Man (1982), Bird (1988), Unforgiven (1992), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Gran Torino (2008)

117. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: 12 Angry Men (1957), The Pawnbroker (1964), Fail-Safe (1964), The Hill (1965), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), The Verdict (1982), Running on Empty (1988), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

118. Robert Wise

Director | West Side Story

Robert Earl Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Olive R. (Longenecker) and Earl Waldo Wise, a meat packer. His parents were both of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. At age nineteen, the avid moviegoer came into the film business through an ...

Recommended Viewing: The Curse of the Cat People (1944) [co-directed by Gunther von Fritsch], The Body Snatcher (1945), Born to Kill (1947), Blood on the Moon (1948), The Set-Up (1949), Three Secrets (1950), The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Captive City (1952), Executive Suite (1954), Tribute to a Bad Man (1956), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), I Want to Live! (1958), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), West Side Story (1961) [co-directed by Jerome Robbins], The Haunting (1963), The Sound of Music (1965)

119. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Loves of a Blonde (1965), The Firemen's Ball (1967), Taking Off (1971), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

120. Peter Watkins

Director | The War Game

Peter Watkins began his career in advertising as an assistant producer and turned to amateur filmmaking in the late 1950s. In the mid-'60s he was commissioned by BBC-TV to make two feature-length docudramas incorporating a quasi-newsreel style and nonprofessional actors. The second of these, The ...

Recommended Viewing: Culloden (1964), The War Game (1965), Punishment Park (1971), Edvard Munch (1974), La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)

121. René Clair

Writer | Le silence est d'or

René Clair was born on November 11, 1898 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Man About Town (1947), Beauties of the Night (1952) and The Grand Maneuver (1955). He was married to Bronia Clair. He died on March 15, 1981 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Recommended Viewing: Entr'acte (1924), The Italian Straw Hat (1927), Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931), Quatorze Julliet (1932), And Then There Were None (1945)

122. William Dieterle

Actor | Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage

Born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Wilhelm Dieterle was the youngest of nine children of parents Jacob and Berthe Dieterle. They lived in poverty, and when he was old enough to work, young Wilhelm earned money as a carpenter and a scrap dealer. He dreamed of better things, though, and theater caught ...

Recommended Viewing: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Love Letters (1945), Portrait of Jennie (1948), The Accused (1948), Rope of Sand (1949), September Affair (1950), Dark City (1950)

123. Takashi Miike

Director | Jûsan-nin no shikaku

Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, ...

Recommended Viewing: The Bird People in China (1998), Young Thugs: Nostalgia (1998), Audition (1999), Dead or Alive (1999), Dead or Alive 2 (2000), Visitor Q (2001), Ichi the Killer (2001), The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001), Graveyard of Honor (2002), Gozu (2003), Zebraman (2004), Izo (2004), Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006), 13 Assassins (2010)

124. Lindsay Anderson

Director | If....

Lindsay was born in Bangalore, India but educated in England at Cheltenham College and Wadham College, Oxford where he was a classical scholar. He then spent 3 years war time service in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. His career in the theatre started at the Royal Court in the late 1950's where he was...

Recommended Viewing: This Sporting Life (1963), If... (1968), O Lucky Man! (1973), The Whales of August (1987)

125. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Boomerang! (1947), Pinky (1949), Panic in the Streets (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), East of Eden (1955), Baby Doll (1956), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Wild River (1960), Splendor in the Grass (1961), America, America (1963)

126. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Director | Memoria

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970, Bangkok) grew up in Khon Kaen, a city in the north east of Thailand. He has a degree in Architecture from Khon Kaen University and a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been making films and videos since the ...

Recommended Viewing: Blissfully Yours (2002), Tropical Malady (2004), Syndromes and a Century (2006), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

127. 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.

Recommended Viewing: Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1991), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Broken Flowers (2005), The Limits of Control (2009)

128. 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...

Recommended Viewing: U.S. Go Home (1994), Beau Travail (1999), Trouble Every Day (2001), Friday Night (2002), The Intruder (2004), 35 Shots of Rum (2008), White Material (2009)

129. Edward Dmytryk

Director | The Caine Mutiny

Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age ...

Recommended Viewing: Murder, My Sweet (1944), Cornered (1945), Crossfire (1947), Obsession (1949), The Sniper (1952), The Caine Mutiny (1954), Broken Lance (1954), Warlock (1959), Mirage (1965)

130. Frank Borzage

Director | Bad Girl

Frank Borzage was born on April 23, 1894 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Bad Girl (1931), 7th Heaven (1927) and No Greater Glory (1934). He was married to Juanita Scott, Edna Skelton and Rena Rogers. He died on June 19, 1962 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, ...

Recommended Viewing: Seventh Heaven (1927), Lucky Star (1929), A Farewell to Arms (1932), Man's Castle (1933), Little Man, What Now? (1934), Desire (1936), History is Made at Night (1937), Mannequin (1937), Three Comrades (1938), The Shining Hour (1938), Strange Cargo (1940), Moonrise (1948)

131. Shôhei Imamura

Director | Kuroi ame

Shohei Imamura's films dig beneath the surface of Japanese society to reveal a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath. Along with his colleagues Nagisa Ôshima and Masahiro Shinoda, Imamura began his serious directorial career as a member of the New Wave movement in Japan....

Recommended Viewing: Pigs and Battleships (1961), The Insect Woman (1963), Intentions of Murder (1964), The Pornographers (1966), Vengeance is Mine (1979), The Ballad of Narayama (1983), Black Rain (1989), The Eel (1997), Dr. Akagi (1998)

132. Louis Malle

Director | Au revoir les enfants

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

Recommended Viewing: Elevator to the Gallows (1957), The Fire Within (1963), The Thief of Paris (1967), Murmur of the Heart (1971), Lacombe, Lucien (1974), Black Moon (1975), Atlantic City (1980), My Dinner with Andre (1981), Alamo Bay (1985), Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)

133. 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).

Recommended Viewing: The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), El Sur (1983), Quince Tree of the Sun (1992)

134. Dusan Makavejev

Director | W.R. - Misterije organizma

Dusan Makavejev is the premier figure in Yugoslavian film history; his films are deeply rooted in his nation's painful postwar experiences and draw on important Yugoslavian cinematic and cultural models. Makavejev's work has violated many political and sexual taboos and invited censorship in dozens...

Recommended Viewing: Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switch Board Operator (1967), Innocence Unprotected (1968), W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971), Sweet Movie (1974), Montenegro (1981)

135. René Clément

Director | Jeux interdits

René Clément was one of the leading French directors of the post-World War II era. He directed what are regarded as some of the greatest films of the time, such as The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952) and The Day and the Hour (1963). He was later almost forgotten as a director. He...

Recommended Viewing: Forbidden Games (1952), Gervaise (1956), Plein Soleil (1960), Rider on the Rain (1970)

136. Theodoros Angelopoulos

Director | Mia aioniotita kai mia mera

Theo Angelopoulos began to study law in Athens but broke up his studies to go to the Sorbonne in Paris in order to study literature. When he had finished his studies, he wanted to attend the School of Cinema at Paris but decided instead to go back to Greece. There he worked as a journalist and ...

Recommended Viewing: The Travelling Players (1975), Landscape in the Mist (1988), Ulysses' Gaze (1995), Eternity and a Day (1998), The Weeping Meadow (2004)

137. 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.

Recommended Viewing: The Human Condition (1961), Harakiri (1962), Kwaidan (1964), Samurai Rebellion (1967)

138. Roger Corman

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Roger William Corman was born April 5, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan. Initially following in his father's footsteps, Corman studied engineering at Stanford University but while in school, he began to lose interest in the profession and developed a growing passion for film. Upon graduation, he worked a...

Recommended Viewing: House of Usher (1960), Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Intruder (1961), X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)

139. Louis Feuillade

Director | Les vampires

A prolific director--over 700 films, most of them short- or medium-length--Louis Feuillade began his career with Gaumont where, as well as directing his own features, he was appointed artistic director in charge of production in 1907. His work was largely comprised of film series; his first series,...

Recommended Viewing: Fantomas (1913), Les Vampires (1915), Judex (1916), Tih Minh (1918)

140. Ousmane Sembene

Writer | Moolaadé

The first film director from an African country to achieve international recognition, Ousmane Sembene remains the major figure in the rise of an independent post-colonial African cinema. Sembene's roots were not, as might be expected, in the educated élite. After working as a mechanic and ...

Recommended Viewing: Black Girl (1966), Mandabi (1968), Xala (1975), Ceddo (1977), Camp de Thiaroye (1988) [co-directed by Thierno Faty Sow], Moolaadé (2004)

141. Ernie Gehr

Director | Carte de Visite - Der V'03-Trailer

Ernie Gehr was born on July 20, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Carte de Visite - Der V'03-Trailer (2003), Shift (1984) and For Daniel (1997).

Recommended Viewing: Wait (1968), Still (1969), Serene Velocity (1970), Table (1976)

142. David Maysles

Director | Grey Gardens

David Maysles was born on January 10, 1931 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Grey Gardens (1975), Gimme Shelter (1970) and Salesman (1969). He died on January 3, 1987 in New York City, New York, USA.

and ALBERT MAYSLES

Recommended Viewing: Salesman (1968), Gimme Shelter (1970), Grey Gardens (1975)

143. Sergei Parajanov

Director | Tini zabutykh predkiv

One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema Sergei Parajanov was born in Georgia to Armenian parents and it was always unlikely that his work would conform to the strict socialist realism that Soviet authorities preferred. After studying film and music, Parajanov became an assistant ...

Recommended Viewing: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964), The Color of Pomegranates (1968), The Legend of the Suram Fortress (1984), Ashik Kerib (1988)

144. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: The Boys from Fengkuei (1983), A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1986), Dust in the Wind (1987), A City of Sadness (1989), The Puppetmaster (1993), Flowers of Shanghai (1998), Café Lumière (2003), Three Times (2005), Flight of the Red Balloon (2007)

145. Victor Fleming

Director | Gone with the Wind

Victor Fleming entered the film business as a stuntman in 1910, mainly doing stunt driving - which came easy to him, as he had been a mechanic and professional race-car driver. He became interested in working on the other side of the camera, and eventually got a job as a cameraman on many of the ...

Recommended Viewing: Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

146. Abel Gance

Writer | La roue

Born an illegitimate son of a wealthy physician, Abel Flamant, and a working class mother, Francoise Perethon. He was raised by his mother and her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Adolphe Gance. Pressured by his parents, he began his working career as a lawyer's clerk in hopes of achieving ...

Recommended Viewing: La Roue (1923), Napoléon (1927), J'accuse (1937)

147. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: The Falls (1980), The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), A Zed & Two Noughts (1986), The Belly of an Architect (1987), Drowning by Numbers (1988), The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover (1989), The Pillow Book (1996)

148. Maya Deren

Director | Meshes of the Afternoon

Maya Deren came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father Solomon Derenkowsky, a psychiatrist, and her mother Maria Fidler, an artist, she fled the pogroms organized by the Bolsheviks against the Jews. She studied journalism and political science at the Syracuse ...

Recommended Viewing: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), At Land (1944), Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946), Meditation on Violence (1948)

149. Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writer | Zemlya

Aleksandr Dovzhenko was born on September 10, 1894 in Vyunishche, Sosnitsa Ueyzd, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Sosnitsa, Sosnitsa Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer and director, known for Earth (1930), Shors (1939) and Life in Bloom (1949). He was married to Yuliya ...

Recommended Viewing: Zvenigora (1928), Arsenal (1929), Earth (1930), Aerograd (1935)

150. Richard Fleischer

Director | Soylent Green

Richard firmly established his credentials with such epics as The Vikings (1958) , 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Barabbas (1961) and also proved to be a master of intimate drama with Compulsion (1959) , which won Cannes Festival awards for the male stars. He won an Academy Award for one ...

Recommended Viewing: Follow Me Quietly (1949), Armored Car Robbery (1950), The Narrow Margin (1952), Violent Saturday (1955), The Vikings (1958), Barabba (1961), The Boston Strangler (1968), Soylent Green (1973)

151. Leni Riefenstahl

Producer | Das blaue Licht - Eine Berglegende aus den Dolomiten

Leni Riefenstahl's show-biz experience began with an experiment: she wanted to know what it felt like to dance on the stage. Success as a dancer gave way to film acting when she attracted the attention of film director Arnold Fanck, subsequently starring in some of his mountaineering pictures. With...

Recommended Viewing: The Blue Light (1932), Triumph of the Will (1935), Olympia (1938), Tiefland (1954), Underwater Impressions (2003)

152. Jan Svankmajer

Director | Otesánek

After studying at the Institute of Industrial Arts and the Marionette Faculty of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, Jan Svankmajer started working as a theatre director, chiefly in association with the Theatre of Masks and the Black Theatre. He first experimented with film-making after ...

Recommended Viewing: Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Greedy Guts (2000), Sílení (2005)

153. Alexander Mackendrick

Writer | The Man in the White Suit

One of the most distinguished (if frequently overlooked) directors ever to emerge from the British film industry, Alexander Mackendrick, was in fact born in the US (to Scottish parents), but grew up in his native Scotland, where he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He started out as a ...

Recommended Viewing: The Man in the White Suit (1951), Mandy (1952), The Ladykillers (1955), Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

154. Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Director | Komödianten

Georg Wilhelm Pabst is considered by many to be the greatest director of German cinema, in his era. He was especially appreciated by actors and actresses for the humane way in which he treated them. This was in contrast to some of his contemporaries, such as Arnold Fanck, who have been ...

Recommended Viewing: The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), Pandora's Box (1928), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), Kameradschaft (1931), The Threepenny Opera (1931)

155. Robert Aldrich

Director | Emperor of the North Pole

Robert Aldrich entered the film industry in 1941 when he got a job as a production clerk at RKO Radio Pictures. He soon worked his way up to script clerk, then became an assistant director, a production manager and an associate producer. He began writing and directing for TV series in the early ...

Recommended Viewing: Apache (1954), Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956), Attack (1956), The Last Sunset (1961), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Ulzana's Raid (1972), The Longest Yard (1974), Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)

156. Nagisa Ôshima

Director | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Nagisa Oshima's career extends from the initiation of the "Nuberu bagu" (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in ...

Recommended Viewing: Cruel Story of Youth (1960), Violence at Noon (1966), Death by Hanging (1968), Boy (1969), The Ceremony (1971), In the Realm of the Senses (1976), Empire of Passion (1978), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

157. Joseph Losey

Director | The Servant

Belonging to an important family clan in Wisconsin, Joseph Losey studied philosophy but was always interested in theater and thus worked together with Bertolt Brecht. After directing some shorts for MGM, he made his first important film, The Boy with Green Hair (1948), for RKO. While he was filming ...

Recommended Viewing: The Boy with Green Hair (1948), The Lawless (1950), The Prowler (1951), The Big Night (1951), The Sleeping Tiger (1954), The Criminal (1960), The Servant (1963), Accident (1967)

158. Don Siegel

Director | Dirty Harry

Don Siegel was educated at Cambridge University, England. In Hollywood from the mid-'30s, he began his career as an editor and second unit director. In 1945 he directed two shorts (Hitler Lives (1945) and Star in the Night (1945)) which both won Academy Awards. His first feature as a director was ...

Recommended Viewing: The Big Steal (1949), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Lineup (1958), Hell is for Heroes (1962), The Killers (1964), The Beguiled (1971), Dirty Harry (1971), Charley Varrick (1973), The Shootist (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

159. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), Storytelling (2001), Palindromes (2004), Life During Wartime (2009)

160. Mervyn LeRoy

Director | Gypsy

The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy. While he and his father managed to survive, they lost everything they had. To make money, LeRoy sold newspapers and entered talent contests as a singer. When he entered vaudeville, his act was "LeRoy and Cooper--Two...

Recommended Viewing: Little Caesar (1930), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), They Won't Forget (1937), Random Harvest (1942), The Bad Seed (1956)

161. Mikio Naruse

Director | Ukigumo

Considered a major figure of Japan's 'golden age of cinema', Mikio Naruse was a filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed 89 films in the period 1930 to 1967. Although Naruse's work is lesser known in the twenty-first century than those of his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi...

Recommended Viewing: Meshi (1951), Mother (1952), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955), Flowing (1956), Anzukko (1958), When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), Scattered Clouds (1967)

162. Vsevolod Pudovkin

Director | Admiral Nakhimov

Vsevolod Pudovkin was born on February 28, 1893 in Penza, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Admiral Nakhimov (1947), Zhukovsky (1950) and Minin i Pozharskiy (1939). He was married to Anna Zemtsova. He died on June 30, 1953 in Jurmala, Latvian SSR, USSR [now Latvia].

Recommended Viewing: Chess Fever (1925) [co-directed by Nikolai Shpikovsky], Mother (1926), The End of St. Petersburg (1927), Storm Over Asia (1928)

163. 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...

Recommended Viewing: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

164. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Europa (1991), The Kingdom (1994), Breaking the Waves (1996), The Kingdom II (1997), The Idiots (1998), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Dogville (2003), The Boss of It All (2006), Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011)

165. Michael Cimino

Director | The Deer Hunter

Michael Cimino studied architecture and dramatic arts; later he filmed advertisements and documentaries and also wrote scripts until the actor, producer and director Clint Eastwood gave him the opportunity to direct the thriller Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). But his biggest success was The Deer...

Recommended Viewing: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Deer Hunter (1978), Heaven's Gate (1980), Year of the Dragon (1985)

166. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: The Duellists (1977), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Legend (1985), Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000)

167. 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. ...

Recommended Viewing: Point Blank (1967), Hell in the Pacific (1968), Deliverance (1972), Excalibur (1981), Hope and Glory (1987), The General (1998)

168. Emir Kusturica

Director | Underground

A Serbian film director. Born in 1954 in Sarajevo. Graduated in film directing at the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1978. During his studies, he was awarded several times for his short movies including Guernica (1978), which took first prize at the Student's Film ...

Recommended Viewing: Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), Time of the Gypsies (1988), Arizona Dream (1993), Underground (1995), Black Cat, White Cat (1998), Life is a Miracle (2004)

169. Claude Lanzmann

Director | Shoah

Claude Lanzmann was born on November 27, 1925 in Bois-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for Shoah (1985), The Four Sisters (2018) and Israel, Why (1973). He was married to Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory, Angelika Schrobsdorff and Judith Magre. He died on July 5, ...

Recommended Viewing: Shoah (1985), Tsahal (1994), Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001)

170. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Hi, Mom! (1970), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Carrie (1976), Blow Out (1981), Scarface (1983), The Untouchables (1987)

171. Arthur Penn

Director | Bonnie and Clyde

Arthur Penn was born on September 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Little Big Man (1970) and The Miracle Worker (1962). He was married to Peggy Maurer. He died on September 28, 2010 in Manhattan, New York City, New York,...

Recommended Viewing: The Left Handed Gun (1958), The Miracle Worker (1962), Mickey One (1965), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Little Big Man (1970), Night Moves (1975)

172. Mike Nichols

Director | The Graduate

He, along with the other members of the "Compass Players" including Elaine May, Paul Sills, Byrne Piven, Joyce Hiller Piven and Edward Asner helped start the famed "Second City Improv" company. They used the games taught to them by fellow cast mate, Paul Sills 's mother, Viola Spolin. He later ...

Recommended Viewing: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Graduate (1967), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Primary Colors (1998)

173. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Billy Liar (1963), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), The Day of the Locust (1975), Marathon Man (1976)

174. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Kes (1969), Family Life (1971), Riff-Raff (1990), Ladybird Ladybird (1994), Land and Freedom (1995), Sweet Sixteen (2002), Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)

175. Ermanno Olmi

Director | L'albero degli zoccoli

Ermanno Olmi was born on July 24, 1931 in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) and Il posto (1961). He was married to Loredana Detto. He died on May 5, 2018 in Asiago, Veneto, Italy.

Recommended Viewing: Il Posto (1961), I Fidanzati (1963), The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)

176. Gaspar Noé

Director | Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé is an Argentinian filmmaker and screenwriter who lives in France. He is the son of Luis Felipe Noé, an Argentinian artist. He directed I Stand Alone, Irréversible, Enter the Void, Love, Climax, Carne, Lux Æterna, Sodomites and Vortex. His films are known for having a sensory overload ...

Recommended Viewing: I Stand Alone (1998), Irreversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009)

177. George Stevens

Director | Giant

George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...

Recommended Viewing: Swing Time (1936), Gunga Din (1939), Penny Serenade (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942), The More the Merrier (1943), I Remember Mama (1948), A Place in the Sun (1951), Shane (1953), Giant (1956)

178. D.A. Pennebaker

Director | Dont Look Back

D.A. Pennebaker was born on July 15, 1925 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Don't Look Back (1967), The War Room (1993) and Unlocking the Cage (2016). He was married to Chris Hegedus, Kate Taylor and Sylvia Bell. He died on August 1, 2019 in Sag Harbor, ...

Recommended Viewing: Daybreak Express (1953), Don't Look Back (1967), Monterey Pop (1969), The War Room (1993) [co-directed by Chris Hegedus]

179. Fred Zinnemann

Director | A Man for All Seasons

Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...

Recommended Viewing: The Men (1950), High Noon (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), A Man for All Seasons (1966)

180. Francesco Rosi

Writer | Cadaveri eccellenti

His father was a shipowner. After school, Rosi initially began studying law, which he soon dropped out to work as a broadcast journalist and book illustrator in Naples. From 1944 to 1945 he worked for "Radio Napoli". In the immediate post-war years, Rosi moved to Rome, where he came into contact ...

Recommended Viewing: Salvatore Giuliano (1961), The Mattei Affair (1972), Illustrious Corpses (1976)

181. Lewis Milestone

Director | All Quiet on the Western Front

Lewis Milestone, a clothing manufacturer's son, was born in Bessarabia (now Moldova), raised in Odessa (Ukraine) and educated in Belgium and Berlin (where he studied engineering). He was fluent in both German and Russian and an avid reader. Milestone had an affinity for the theatre from an early ...

Recommended Viewing: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), The Front Page (1931), Hallelujah, I'm a Bum! (1933), Of Mice and Men (1939), Edge of Darkness (1943), A Walk in the Sun (1945), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

182. Henry Hathaway

Director | True Grit

Henry Hathaway, son of a stage actress and manager, started his career as a child actor in westerns directed by Allan Dwan. His movie career was interrupted by World War I. After his discharge he briefly tried a career in finance but returned to Hollywood to work as an assistant director under such...

Recommended Viewing: Peter Ibbetson (1935), The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), The House on 92nd Street (1945), The Dark Corner (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), Call Northside 777 (1948), Niagara (1953)

183. Zhangke Jia

Producer | Jiang hu er nü

Zhangke Jia was born on May 24, 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. He is a producer and director, known for Jiang hu er nü (2018), A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015). He has been married to Tao Zhao since January 7, 2012.

Recommended Viewing: Pickpocket (1998), Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), Still Life (2006)

184. Charles Burnett

Director | Killer of Sheep

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on April 13, 1944, Charles Burnett moved with his family to the Watts area of Los Angeles at an early age. He describes the community of having a robust mythical connection with the South as a result of having so many Southern transplants, an atmosphere which has ...

Recommended Viewing: The Horse (1973), Killer of Sheep (1981), My Brother's Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), When It Rains (1995)

185. Gillo Pontecorvo

Director | La battaglia di Algeri

Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for his 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, widely viewed as one of the finest films of its genre: realistic though fictionalized documentary. Its portrayal of the Algerian resistance during the Algerian War uses the neorealist style ...

Recommended Viewing: Kapò (1959), The Battle of Algiers (1965), The Mercenary (1969)

186. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1995), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Another Year (2010)

187. Lukas Moodysson

Director | Fucking Åmål

Lukas Moodysson was born on January 17, 1969 in Malmö, Skåne län, Sweden. He is a director and writer, known for Show Me Love (1998), Lilya 4-Ever (2002) and Together (2000). He has been married to Coco Moodysson since 1994. They have three children.

Recommended Viewing: Show Me Love (1998), Together (2000), Lilya-4-ever (2002), A Hole in My Heart (2004), Container (2006)

188. Robert Rossen

Writer | The Hustler

Robert Rossen was born on March 16, 1908 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for The Hustler (1961), All the King's Men (1949) and Alexander the Great (1956). He was married to Sarah (Sue) Siegel. He died on February 18, 1966 in New York City, New York, USA.

Recommended Viewing: Body and Soul (1947), All the King's Men (1949), The Hustler (1961), Lilith (1964)

189. Terence Davies

Writer | Distant Voices, Still Lives

Terence Davies was born on November 10, 1945 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The House of Mirth (2000) and Benediction (2021). He died on October 7, 2023 in Mistley, Essex, England, UK.

Recommended Viewing: Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992), The Neon Bible (1995), The House of Mirth (2000), Of Time and the City (2008), The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

190. 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 ...

Recommended Viewing: She's Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002), When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006)

191. Yimou Zhang

Director | Ying xiong

Yimou Zhang was born on November 14, 1951 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. He is a director and writer, known for Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He has been married to Ting Chen since December 2011. They have three children. He was previously married to ...

Recommended Viewing: Red Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), To Live (1994), Shanghai Triad (1995), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004)

192. Andy Warhol

Director | Blue Movie

Andrew Warhol's father, Ondrej, came from the Austria-Hungary Empire (now Slovakia) in 1912, and sent for his mother, Julia Zavackyová Warholová, in 1921. His father worked as a construction worker and later as a coal miner. Around some time, the family moved to Pittsburgh. During his teenage years...

Recommended Viewing: Blow Job (1963), Sleep (1963), My Hustler (1965), Screen Test (1965-1966), Chelsea Girls (1966)

193. Tsai Ming-liang

Director | Qingshaonian Nuozha

Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His ...

Recommended Viewing: Vive L'Amour (1994), The Hole (1998), What Time is it There? (2001), Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003), The Wayward Cloud (2005), I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006)

194. Ken Russell

Director | The Devils

Ken Russell tried several professions before choosing to become a film director; he was a still photographer and a dancer and he even served in the Army, but film was his destiny. He began by making several short films which paved the way for his brilliant television films of the 1960s that are ...

Recommended Viewing: Song of Summer (1968), Women in Love (1969), The Music Lovers (1970), The Devils (1971), The Boy Friend (1971), Mahler (1974), Altered States (1980), Whore (1991)

195. Bob Fosse

Director | Cabaret

Bob Fosse was born on June 23, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Cabaret (1972), All That Jazz (1979) and Lenny (1974). He was married to Gwen Verdon, Joan McCracken and Mary Ann Niles. He died on September 23, 1987 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

Recommended Viewing: Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1974), All That Jazz (1979)

196. Jules Dassin

Director | Du rififi chez les hommes

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

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

Recommended Viewing: Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Thieves' Highway (1949), Night and the City (1950), Rififi (1955), Topkapi (1964)

197. Edgar G. Ulmer

Director | The Naked Dawn

Edgar G. Ulmer was born on September 17, 1904 in Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]. He was a director and writer, known for The Naked Dawn (1955), The Black Cat (1934) and Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943). He was married to Shirley Ulmer and Joan Warner. He died on ...

Recommended Viewing: People on Sunday (1929) [co-directed by Robert Siodmak], The Black Cat (1934), Strange Illusion (1945), Detour (1945), Ruthless (1948)

198. Jane Campion

Writer | Bright Star

Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now lives in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Having graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, and a BA, with a painting major, at Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, she began filmmaking in the early...

Recommended Viewing: Sweetie (1989), An Angel at My Table (1990), The Piano (1993), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Bright Star (2009)

199. John Woo

Director | Ying hung boon sik

Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow ...

Recommended Viewing: A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Better Tomorrow II (1987), The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), Hard-Boiled (1992), Face/Off (1997)

200. Dario Argento

Writer | Profondo rosso

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

Recommended Viewing: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), Deep Red (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Opera (1987)