Directors to Watch

by 3ric_Huss | created - 20 Apr 2011 | updated - 22 Jul 2021 | Public

A list of directors and their movies I have seen (*) as well as those I still want to watch.

1. 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...

Alien3* Se7en* The Game* Fight Club* Panic Room* Zodiac* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button* The Social Network* The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo* Gone Girl* Mank*

2. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

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

Following* Memento * Insomnia* Batman Begins* The Prestige* The Dark Knight* Inception* The Dark Knight Rises* Interstellar* Dunkirk* Tenet*

3. Darren Aronofsky

Writer | Pi

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

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

4. John Waters

Writer | Pecker

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

Multiple Maniacs* Pink Flamingos* Female Trouble* Desperate Living* Polyester* Hairspray* Cry-Baby* Serial Mom* Pecker* Cecil B. DeMented* A Dirty Shame*

5. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

Piranha Part 2 The Terminator* Aliens* The Abyss* The Terminator 2* Titanic* Avatar*

6. Baz Luhrmann

Writer | Moulin Rouge!

Baz Luhrmann is an Australian writer, director and producer with projects spanning film, television, opera, theater, music and recording industries. He is regarded by many as a contemporary example of an auteur for his distinctly recognizable style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, ...

Strictly Ballroom* Romeo + Juliet* Moulin Rouge* Australia* The Great Gatsby*

7. 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 ...

Alien* Blade Runner* Legend* Thelma & Louise Gladiator* Hannibal* Black Hawk Down* Robin Hood Prometheus* The Martian* All the Money in the World* Alien: Covenant*

8. Peter Jackson

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

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

Dead Alive Heavenly Creatures The Frighteners The Lord of the Rings Trilogy* King Kong* The Lovely Bones* The Hobbit Trilogy*

9. Sam Mendes

Producer | 1917

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

American Beauty* Road to Perdition* Jarhead* Revolutionary Road* Away We Go* Skyfall* Spectre* 1917*

10. 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 ...

Bananas Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex Sleeper* Annie Hall* Interiors* Manhattan* Stardust Memories A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy Zelig Broadway Danny Rose The Purple Rose of Cairo Hannah and Her Sisters Radio Days Another Woman New York Stories Crimes and Misdemeanors Alice Shadows and Fog Husbands and Wives Manhattan Murder Mystery Bullets Over Broadway Mighty Aphrodite The Curse of the Jade Scorpion Hollywood Ending Match Point* Scoop* Vicky Cristina Barcelona* Midnight in Paris Blue Jasmine* Cafe Society*

11. 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...

Pride & Prejudice* Atonement* Hanna* Anna Karenina The Darkest Hour*

12. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

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

13. David Lynch

Writer | Twin Peaks

Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...

Eraserhead* The Elephant Man* Dune* Blue Velvet* Wild at Heart* Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me* Lost Highway* Mulholland Dr.* Inland Empire*

14. Stanley Kubrick

Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...

Fear and Desire Killer's Kiss The Killing Paths of Glory Spartacus Lolita Dr. Strangelove* 2001: A Space Odyssey* A Clockwork Orange* Barry Lyndon* The Shining* Full Metal Jacket* Eyes Wide Shut*

15. 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...

Hard Eight Boogie Nights* Magnolia* Punch Drunk Love* There Will Be Blood The Master* Inherent Vice Phantom Thread*

16. Ang Lee

Director | Xi yan

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

Eat Drink Man Woman Sense and Sensibility The Ice Storm Ride with the Devil Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* Brokeback Mountain* Lust, Caution Taking Woodstock Life of Pi*

17. David Cronenberg

Actor | The Fly

David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early...

Shivers* Rabid* The Brood* Scanners* Videodrome* The Dead Zone* The Fly* Dead Ringers* Naked Lunch M. Butterfly* Crash* eXistenZ* A History of Violence* Eastern Promises* A Dangerous Mind* Maps to the Stars*

18. Robert Altman

Director | Gosford Park

Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...

Brewster McCloud McCabe & Mrs. Miller* Images The Long Goodbye Theives Like Us California Split Nashville Buffalo Bill and the Indians 3 Women A Wedding Popeye Come Back to the 5 & Dime Secret Honor Vincent & Theo The Player* Shortcuts Gosford Park* The Company* A Prairie Home Companion

19. Gus Van Sant

Director | Elephant

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

Mala Noche Drugstore Cowboy My Own Private Idaho* To Die For* Good Will Hunting* Psycho* Gerry Elephant* Last Days Milk* Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot

20. Sofia Coppola

Actress | The Godfather Part III

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

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

21. Quentin Tarantino

Writer | Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of...

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

22. Alfred Hitchcock

Director | Psycho

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) The 39 Steps Sabotage The Lady Vanishes Rebecca Suspicion Shadow of a Doubt Spellbound Notorious* Rope Stage Fright Strangers on a Train I Confess Rear Window* Dial M for Murder To Catch a Theif The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)* Vertigo* North by Northwest* Psycho* The Birds* Marnie Torn Curtain Frenzy Family Plot

23. Martin Scorsese

Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...

Mean Streets Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore Taxi Driver* New York, New York Raging Bull* The King of Comedy After Hours The Color of Money The Last Temptation of Christ Goodfellas* Cape Fear* The Age of Innocence Casino Kundun Bringing Out the Dead Gangs of New York The Aviator* The Departed* Shutter Island* Hugo* The Wolf of Wall Street* Silence

24. 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, ...

Duel The Sugarland Express Jaws* Close Encounters of the Third Kind* Raiders of the Lost Ark* E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* Temple of Doom* The Color Purple* The Last Crusade* Hook* Schindler's List* Jurassic Park* The Lost World* Amistad Saving Private Ryan* A.I.* Catch Me If You Can* War of the Worlds* Munich* Kingdom of the Crystal Skull* The Adventures of Tintin* Lincoln* The Post Ready Player One

25. Joel Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...

Blood Simple* Raising Arizona* Miller's Crossing Barton Fink Fargo* The Big Lebowski O Brother, Where Art Thou?* The Man Who Wasn't There No Country for Old Men* Burn After Reading* True Grit* Inside Llewyn Davis* Hail, Caesar!

26. 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 ...

Knife in the Water Repulsion Cul-De-Sac The Fearless Vampire Killers Rosemary's Baby* Macbeth Chinatown* The Tenant* Tess The Ninth Gate* The Pianist* Oliver Twist The Ghost Writer Carnage Venus in Fur* Based on a True Story An Officer and A Spy

27. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs

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

Something Wild Married to the Mob Silence of the Lambs* Philadelphia* Beloved* Rachel Getting Married*

28. Tim Burton

Producer | Edward Scissorhands

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

Pee-wee's Big Adventure* Beetlejuice* Batman* Edward Scissorhands* Batman Returns* Ed Wood Mars Attacks! Sleepy Hollow* Big Fish Corpse Bride* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* Sweeney Todd* Alice in Wonderland* Frankenweenie* Big Eyes* Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

29. 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 ...

The Rain People The Godfather* The Godfather Part II The Conversation Apocalypse Now* The Outsiders* Rumble Fish The Godfather Part III Dracula* Tetro

30. Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Director | Biutiful

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

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

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

31. Wes Craven

Writer | A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold vision.

Wesley Earl Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Caroline (Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He had a midwestern suburban upbringing. His first feature film was The Last House on ...

The Last House on the Left* The Hills Have Eyes* A Nightmare on Elm Street* The Serpent an the Rainbow* The People Under the Stairs New Nightmare Scream* Scream 2* Scream 3* Red Eye* Scream 4*

32. 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 ...

Halloween* The Fog Escape From New York* The Thing* Christine In the Mouth of Madness* Big Trouble in Little China* They Live Escape from LA

33. Xavier Dolan

Actor | J'ai tué ma mère

Xavier Dolan was born on March 20, 1989 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for I Killed My Mother (2009), Tom at the Farm (2013) and Heartbeats (2010).

I Killed My Mother Heartbeats Laurence Anyways Tom at the Farm* Mommy It's Only the End of the World The Death and Life of John F. Donovan Matthias & Maxime*

34. Michael Haneke

Writer | Caché

A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...

Funny Games (1997)* The Piano Teacher Cache Funny Games (2007)* The White Ribbon Amour Happy End

35. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

Aguirre, the Wrath of God The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser Heart of Glass Stroszek Woyzeck Nosferatu the Vampire* Fitzcarraldo Cobra Verde Rescue Dawn Bad Lieutenant

36. Terry Gilliam

Writer | Brazil

Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In ...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail* Jabberwocky Time Bandits* The Meaning of Life Brazil The Adventures of Baron Munchausen The Fisher King Twelve Monkeys* Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Tideland The Brothers Grim The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus The Zero Theorem The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

37. 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 ...

The Element of Crime Europa Breaking the Waves Dancer in the Dark The Five Obstructions Dogville Manderlay Antichrist* Melancholia* Nymphomaniac* The House That Jack Built*

38. 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 ...

I Stand Alone Irreversible* Enter the Void Love* Climax*

39. 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 ...

Badlands* Days of Heaven* The Thin Red Line The New World The Tree of Life*

40. Nicolas Roeg

Director | Don't Look Now

When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's ...

Performance Walkabout Don't Look Now* The Man Who Fell to Earth Bad Timing The Witches*

41. George A. Romero

Writer | Land of the Dead

George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; by all indications, though, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking "Living Dead" films was born February 4, 1940 ,in New York City to Ann (Dvorsky) and Jorge Romero. His father was born in Spain and raised in Cuba, and...

Night of the Living Dead* There's Always Vanilla Season of the Witch* The Crazies Martin Dawn of the Dead* Creepshow* Day of the Dead* Monkey Shines* Two Evil Eyes* Land of the Dead

42. Rob Zombie

Writer | Grindhouse

Robert Bartleh Cummings, more famously known as Rob Zombie, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on January 12, 1965. He is the oldest son of Louise and Robert Cummings, and has a younger brother, Michael David (aka Spider One; b. 1968), who is the lead singer of Powerman 5000. Growing up, Zombie ...

House of 1000 Corpses* The Devil's Rejects* Halloween* Halloween II* The Lords of Salem* 31 3 From Hell*

43. Brian De Palma

Director | Body Double

Brian De Palma is one of the well-known directors who spear-headed the new movement in Hollywood during the 1970s. He is known for his many films that go from violent pictures, to Hitchcock-like thrillers. Born on September 11, 1940, De Palma was born in Newark, New Jersey in an Italian-American ...

Sisters* Phantom of the Paradise* Carrie* The Fury Dressed to Kill* Blow Out Scarface Body Double The Untouchables Mission to Mars* The Black Dahlia*

44. 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). ...

Faces Minnie and Moskowitz A Woman Under the Influence The Killing of a Chinese Bookie Opening Night Gloria Love Streams

45. 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 ...

Women in Love* The Music Lovers The Devils* The Boy Friend* Valentino* Savage Messiah Mahler Tommy* Gothic* Lisztomania Altered States Crimes of Passion*

46. Alejandro Jodorowsky

Writer | El Topo

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in Tocopilla, Chile on February 17, 1929. In 1939 he moved to Santiago where he attended university, was a circus clown and a puppeteer. In 1953 he went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau. He worked with Maurice Chevalier there and made a short film, La ...

El Topo The Holy Mountain* Tusk Santa Sangre* The Dance of Reality Endless Poetry*

47. Mario Bava

Cinematographer | Ecologia del delitto

Italian director Mario Bava was born on July 31, 1914 in the coastal northern Italian town of Sanremo. His father, Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), was a cinematographer in the early days of the Italian film industry. Bava was trained as a painter, and when he eventually followed his father into film ...

Black Sunday* The Whip and the Body Evil Eye Black Sabbath* Blood and Black Lace* Kill, Baby...Kill! A Hatchet for the Honeymoon A Bay of Blood* Baron Blood Lisa and the Devil Rabid Dogs Shock

48. Lucio Fulci

Writer | Lo squartatore di New York

Lucio Fulci, born in Rome in 1927, remains as controversial in death as he was in life. A gifted craftsman with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of dark humor, Fulci achieved some measure of notoriety for his gore epics of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but respect was long in coming.

Abandoning ...

One On Top of the Other A Lizard in a Woman's Skin* Don't Torture a Duckling The Psychic Zombie* City of the Living Dead The House by the Cemetery* The Black Cat The Beyond* The New York Ripper*

49. 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 ...

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage* The Cat o' Nine Tails* Four Flies on Grey Velvet* Deep Red* Suspiria* Inferno* Tenebre* Phenomena* Opera* Two Evil Eyes* Trauma* The Stendhal Syndrome* The Phantom of the Opera Sleepless The Card Player Mother of Tears*

50. Luca Guadagnino

Director | Call Me by Your Name

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

I Am Love A Bigger Splash Call Me by Your Name* Suspiria*

51. Gregg Araki

Writer | Mysterious Skin

Gregg Araki was born on December 17, 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Mysterious Skin (2004), White Bird in a Blizzard (2014) and Kaboom (2010).

The Living End* The Doom Generation Nowhere Mysterious Skin* Smiley Face Kaboom*

52. Guillermo del Toro

Writer | El laberinto del fauno

Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his ...

Cronos Mimic The Devil's Backbone* Blade II* Hellboy* Pan's Labyrinth* Hellboy II* Pacific Rim* Crimson Peak* The Shape of Water*

53. 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 ...

A Little Princess* Y Tu Mama Tambien* The Prisoner of Azkaban* Children of Men Gravity* Roma*

54. Leos Carax

Director | Holy Motors

Leos Carax made several short films and also wrote film criticism, then at the age of 24 years made a very strong first feature Boy Meets Girl (1984). The film played at the 1984 Cannes film festival and was a critical triumph. It paved the way for Carax's second feature Bad Blood (1986) (Bad Blood...

Mauvais Sang The Loveres on the Bridge Pola X Holy Motors

55. Andrzej Zulawski

Writer | Possession

Born in Lvov, Ukraine; then he moved with his father Miroslaw Zulawski to Czechoslovakia and later to Poland. In the late 1950s, he studied cinema in France. In the 1960s, he was an assistant of the famous Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. His feature debut The Third Part of the Night (1971) was ...

The Third Part of the Night The Devil The Most Important Thing: Love Possession* La Femme Publique L'Amour Braque On the Silver Globe My Nights are More Beautiful Than Your Days Boris Godounov La Note Bleue Cosmos

56. 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 ...

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors The Color of Pomegranates The Legend of Suram Fortress Ashik Kerib

57. 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...

The Merchant of Four Seasons The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant Fear Eats the Soul Effi Briest Fox and His Friends Satan's Brew Chinese Roulette The Marriage of Maria Braun In a Year with 13 Moons Despair The Third Generation Lola Lili Marleen Veronika Voss Querelle

58. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writer | Il Decameron

Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...

Accattone Mamma Roma Ro.Go.Pa.G. The Gospel According to St. Matthew The Hawks and the Sparrows The Witches Oedipus Rex Teorema* Porcile Medea The Decameron The Canterbury Tales Arabian Nights Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom*

59. 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 ...

Labyrinth of Passion Dark Habits What Have I Done to Deserve This? Matador Law of Desire Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Tie me Up! Tie me Down! High Heels Live Flesh All About My Mother* Talk to Her Bad Education* Volver Broken Embraces The Skin I Live In I'm So Excited! Julieta Pain and Glory*

60. 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 ...

The Loveless* Near Dark* Point Break Strange Days The Hurt Locker* Zero Dark Thirty* Detroit

61. 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 ...

The Host Mother Snowpiercer* Okja* Parasite*

62. Denis Villeneuve

Director | Dune

Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), ...

Polytechnique Incendies Prisoners* Enemy* Sicario* Arrival* Blade Runner 2049* Dune

63. Alex Garland

Writer | Ex Machina

Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).

Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).

He is ...

Ex Machina* Annihilation*

64. Yorgos Lanthimos

Director | The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens, Greece. He studied directing for Film and Television at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theater plays. Kinetta,...

Kinetta Dogtooth Alps The Lobster* The Killing of a Sacred Deer* The Favourite*

65. George Miller

Producer | Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max ...

Mad Max* The Road Warrior* Beyond Thunderdome* The Witches of Eastwick* Lorenzo's Oil Mad Max: Fury Road*

66. Hayao Miyazaki

Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.

Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the ...

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro* Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind* Castle in the Sky* My Neighbor Totoro* Kiki's Delivery Service* Porco Rosso* Princess Mononoke* Spirited Away* Howl's Moving Castle* Ponyo* The Wind Rises*

67. Taika Waititi

Producer | What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi, also known as Taika Cohen, hails from the Raukokore region of the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and is the son of Robin (Cohen), a teacher, and Taika Waititi, an artist and farmer. His father is Maori (Te-Whanau-a-Apanui), and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish...

Eagle vs Shark Boy What We Do in the Shadows* Hunt for the Wilderpeople* Thor: Ragnarok*

68. Nicolas Winding Refn

Writer | The Neon Demon

Writer, director, and producer Nicolas Winding Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1970, to Anders Refn, a film director and editor, and Vibeke Winding (née Tuxen), a cinematographer. Just before he turned 11, in 1981, he moved to New York with his parents, where he lived out his teen years. ...

Pusher Bleeder Fear X Bronson* Valhalla Rising Drive* Only God Forgives The Neon Demon

69. Spike Lee

Director | Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...

She's Gotta Have It Do the Right Thing Jungle Fever Malcolm X Crooklyn Summer of Sam Bamboozled* 25th Hour Inside Man Oldboy Chi-Raq* BlacKkKlansman* Da Five Bloods*

70. Spike Jonze

Producer | Her

Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...

Being John Malkovich Adaptation Where the Wild Things Are* Her*

71. Steven Soderbergh

Director | Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the second of six children of Mary Ann (Bernard) and Peter Soderbergh. His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, and his mother was of Italian ancestry. While he was still at a very young age, his family moved to ...

Sex, Lies, and Videotape King of the Hill Gray's Anatomy Out of Sight The Limey Traffic* Erin Brockovich* Ocean's Eleven* Che Haywire Contagion Magic Mike Side Effects* Behind the Candelabra Logan Lucky* Unsane*

72. Todd Haynes

Director | Far from Heaven

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

Poison Safe Velvet Goldmine Far From Heaven* I'm Not There Carol* Wonderstruck*

73. John Cameron Mitchell

Actor | Hedwig and the Angry Inch

John Cameron Mitchell was born on April 21, 1963 in El Paso, Texas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Shortbus (2006) and How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017).

Hedwig and the Angry Inch* Shortbus* Rabbit Hole* How to Talk to Girls at Parties

74. 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 ...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf The Graduate* Catch-22 Carnal Knowledge Silkwood Working Girl Postcards from the Edge* The Birdcage* Closer* Charlie Wilson's War

75. William Friedkin

Director | To Live and Die in L.A.

Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with ...

The Boys in the Band The French Connection The Exorcist* Sorcerer Cruising* To Live and Die in LA Bug Killer Joe

76. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...

The Producers The Twelve Chairs Young Frankenstein* Blazing Saddles* Silent Movie High Anxiety History of the World: Part I Spaceballs Robin Hood: Men in Tights

77. 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).

In Bruges* Seven Psycopaths Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*

78. 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...

Drunken Angel The Quiet Duel Stray Dog Scandal Roshomon The Idiot Ikiru Seven Samurai I Live in Fear The Throne of Blood The Lower Depths The Hidden Fortress The Bad Sleep Well Yojimbo Sanjuro High and Low Red Beard Dodes'ka-den Kagemusha Ran Dreams Rhapsody in August Maadadayo

79. 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 ...

Bottle Rocket Rushmore The Royal Tenenbaums The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou The Darjeeling Limited Fantastic Mr. Fox* Moonrise Kingdom* The Grand Budapest Hotel Isle of Dogs*

80. 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...

Ivan's Childhood Andrei Rublev Solaris The Mirror The First Day Stalker Nostalgia The Sacrifice

81. 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 (...

Prison Summer Interlude Summer with Monika Sawdust and Tinsel Smiles of a Summer Night Wild Strawberries The Seventh Seal* The Magician The Virgin Spring The Devil's Eye Through a Glass Darkly Winter Light The Silence Persona Shame Hour of the Wolf The Passion of Anna Cries & Whispers Scenes From a Marriage Autumn Sonata Fanny and Alexander

82. 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 ...

Breathless A Woman is a Woman Vivre sa Vie Contempt Band of Outsiders Alphaville Pierrot le Fou Masculin Feminin Two or Three Things I Know About Her La Chinoise Weekend Tout va Bien Numero Deux First Name: Carmen Film Socialisme

83. Peter Greenaway

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

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

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

84. Fritz Lang

Actor | Le mépris

Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...

Destiny Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler Die Nibelungen: Siegried & Kriemhild's Revenge Metropolis M Fury You Only Live Once Hangmen Also Die! The Woman in the Window Scarlet Street The Big Heart While the City Sleeps Beyond a Reasonable Doubt The Indian Tomb Der Tiger von Eschnapur

85. 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 ...

Il Grido L'Avventura La Notte L'Eclisse Red Desert Blow Up* Zabriskie Point The Passenger

86. Federico Fellini

Writer | Le notti di Cabiria

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

I Vitelloni La Strada The Nights of Cabiria La Dolce Vita 8 1/2 Juliet of the Spirits Roma Amarcord Casanova City of Women And the Ship Sails On

87. François Truffaut

Writer | La nuit américaine

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

The 400 Blows Shoot the Piano Player Jules et Jim The Soft Skin The Bride Wore Black Stolen Kisses The Wild Child Day For Night* The Story of Adele H Small Change The Green Room The Last Metro Confidentially Yours

88. João Pedro Rodrigues

Director | Fogo-Fátuo

João Pedro Rodrigues was born in 1966 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a director and writer, known for Will-o'-the-Wisp (2022), Morrer Como Um Homem (2009) and The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012).

O Fantasma* Two Drifters To Die Like a Man The Last Time I Saw Macao The Ornithologist*

89. Jonathan Glazer

Director | Under the Skin

Jonathan first found fame for his revolutionary work on Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' and Jamiroquai's multi-MTV award winning 'Virtual Insanity' video.

In 1999 he directed the ground-breaking Guinness 'Surfer', which picked up 2 D&AD Black Pencils and the top spot at most of the other awards ...

Sexy Beast Birth Under The Skin*

90. Edgar Wright

Director | Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg...

Shaun of the Dead* Hot Fuzz Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World* The World's End* Baby Driver*

91. Lynne Ramsay

Director | You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsay was born on December 5, 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for You Were Never Really Here (2017), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Ratcatcher (1999). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.

Ratcatcher Morvern Callar We Need to Talk About Kevin* You Were Never Really Here*

92. Debra Granik

Director | Leave No Trace

Debra Granik (born February 6, 1963) is an American New York City-based independent film and documentary film director and screenwriter. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and ...

Down to the Bone Winter's Bone* Leave No Trace*

93. Pawel Pawlikowski

Director | Zimna wojna

A literature and philosophy graduate, with extensive post-graduate work at Oxford on German literature, Polish-born Pawel Pawlikowski started as a documentary filmmaker in British television.

His second feature, Last Resort (2000), earned him international critical acclaim at numerous festivals, ...

Ida Cold War*

94. Jordan Peele

Writer | Nope

Jordan Peele is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning director, writer, actor, producer, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions. Peele's first feature film, "Get Out," was a critically acclaimed blockbuster, recognized with four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film would earn Peele the ...

Get Out* Us*

95. Panos Cosmatos

Writer | Mandy

Panos Cosmatos is known for Mandy (2018), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) and Tombstone (1993).

Beyond the Black Rainbow Mandy*

96. Barry Jenkins

Producer | If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins was born on November 19, 1979 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is a producer and director, known for If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Moonlight (2016) and Aftersun (2022).

Moonlight* If Beale Street Could Talk*

97. Julian Schnabel

Director | Before Night Falls

Julian Schnabel was born on October 26, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Before Night Falls (2000), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) and At Eternity's Gate (2018). He was previously married to Olatz López Garmendia and Jacqueline Schnabel.

Basquiat Before Night Falls* The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Miral At Eternity's Gate*

98. 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 ...

Black Peter Loves of a Blonde The Firemen's Ball Taking Off One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest* Hair Ragtime Amadeus* Valmont The People vs. Larry Flynt Man on the Moon Goya's Ghosts

99. Robert Zemeckis

Writer | Back to the Future

A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect ...

I Wanna Hold Your Hand* Used Cars Romancing the Stone Back to the Future* Who Framed Rodger Rabbit* Back to the Future II* Back to the Future III* Death Becomes Her* Forrest Gump* Contact* What Lies Beneath Cast Away* The Polar Express Beowulf*

100. Lana Wachowski

Writer | The Matrix

Lana Wachowski and her sister Lilly Wachowski, also known as the Wachowskis, are the duo behind such ground-breaking movies as The Matrix (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2012). Born to mother Lynne, a nurse, and father Ron, a businessman of Polish descent, Wachowski grew up in Chicago and formed a tight ...

Bound The Matrix* The Matrix Reloaded* The Matrix Revolutions* Speed Racer* Cloud Atlas* Jupiter Ascending



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