Diako's Favorite Director

1. Martin Scorsese

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 ...

1.Taxi Driver:10 2.Goodfellas:10 3.Gangs of New York:10 4.Raging Bull:9 5.Casino:9 6.The Departed:8 7.The Age of Innocence:8 8.The King of Comedy:8 9.The Color of Money:7 10.Hugo:7 11.The Wolf of Wall Street:7 12.The Aviator:7 13.Shutter Island:7 14.Cape Fear:6 15.Silence:5

2. John Ford

Director | The Quiet Man

John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...

1.Grapes of Wrath:10 2.My Darling Clementine:10 3.How Green Was My valley:9 4.Stagecoach:9 5.The Searchers:9

3. 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 ...

1.A Clockwork Orange:10 2.Dr. Strangelove:9 3.2001: A Space Odyssey:9 4.Lolita:8 5.Eyes Wide Shut:8 6.Full Metal Jacket:7 7.The Shining:7

4. 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 ...

1.Vertigo:10 2.Rear Window:10 3.North By Northwest:9 4.Psycho:9

5. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

1.The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:10 2.Once Upon a Time in America:9 3.Once Upon a Time in the West:9

6. Francis Ford Coppola

Producer | Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...

1.The Godfather:10 2.The Godfather:Part II:10 3.Apocalyps Now:8 4.The Godfather:Part III:7

7. 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...

1.Pulp Fiction:10 2.Kill Bill: Vol. 2:9 3.Kill Bill: Vol. 1:7 4.Reservoir Dogs:7 5.Inglourious Basterds:6 6.Django Unchained:6 7.Hateful Eight:6 8. Jackie Brown: 6 9.Death Proof 6

8. 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 ...

1.Rosemary's Baby:9 2.China Town:9 3.The Pianist:8 4.The Ghost Writer:5 5.Carnage:5

9. 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...

1. Thron of Blood:8 2. Yojimbo:7 3.Sanjuro:7

10. 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 ...

1.Gladiator:10 2.Thelma & Louise:8 3.Alien:8 4.Blade Runner:7 5.The Martian:5 6.Alien: Covenant:5 7.Prometheus:4 8.Robin Hood:4

11. 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 ...

1.Edward Scissorhands:8 2.Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street:7 3.Big Fish:7 4.Ed Wood:7 5.Charlie and The Chocolate Factory:7 6.Sleepy Hollow:7 7.Corps Bride:6 8.Frankenweenie:4 9.Miss Peregines Home:4 10.Dark Shadow:3

12. Krzysztof Kieslowski

Writer | Trois couleurs: Bleu

Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (...

1. Three Colores: White:8 2. Three Colors: Red:7 3.Three Colors: Blue:7

13. Peter Weir

Director | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Peter Weir was born on August 21, 1944 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Way Back (2010) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Wendy Stites since 1966. They have two children.

1. Truman Show:7 2. Dead Poets Society:7 3. Master And Commander:7

14. 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 ...

1.Unforgiven:8 2.Mystic River:7 3.Million Dollar Baby:7 4. Letters From Iwo Jima :7 4.Changeling:5 5.J.Edgar:5 6.American Sniper:3

15. Frank Darabont

Writer | The Shawshank Redemption

Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. Brought to America as an infant, he settled with his family in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High ...

1.The Shawshank Redemption:8 2.The Green Mile:8 3.The Mist:4

16. 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 ...

1.21 Grams:8 2.Biutiful:7 3.Birdman:6 4.The Revanant:6 5.Babel:5

17. Ethan Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...

1.No Country for Old Men:8 2.O Brother, Where Art Thou?:7 3.True Grit:6 4.A Serious Man:5 5.Hail, Caesar!:5

18. 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 ...

1.No Country for Old Men:8 2.O Brother, Where Art Thou?:7 3.True Grit:6 4.A Serious Man:5 5.Hail, Caesar!:5

19. 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...

1.Fight Club:8 2.The Social Network:6 3.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:6 4.Se7en:6 5.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:5 6.Gone Girl:5

20. 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 ...

1.Requiem for a Dream:8 2.The Wrestler:6 3.Black Swan:6 4.Mother: 4

21. 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 ...

1.Sprited Away:8 2.Princess Mononoke:7 3.Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind:7 4.My Neighbor Totoro:6 5.Howl's Moving Castle:6 6.Poco Rosso:6 7.The Wind Rises:6 8.The Castle of Cagliostro:6 9.Castle in Sky:6 10.Kiki's Delivery Service:6 11.Ponyo:5

22. Brad Bird

Writer | The Incredibles

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films. Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in...

1.The Incredibles:7 2.The Iron Giant:6 3.Ratatouille:6

23. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director | Punch-Drunk Love

Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...

1.There Will Be Blood: 7 2.Inherit Vice: 6 3.Phantom Thread: 6

24. Andrew Stanton

Writer | WALL·E

Andrew Stanton has been a major creative force at Pixar Animation Studios since 1990, when he became the second animator and ninth employee to join the company's elite group of computer animation pioneers. As Vice President, Creative he currently oversees all shorts and feature projects at the ...

1.WALL-E:7 2.Finding Nemo:7 3.Finding Dory:4

25. James Mangold

Producer | Logan

James Mangold is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Films he has directed include Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005), which he also co-wrote, the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Wolverine (2013), and Logan (2017).

Mangold also wrote and directed Cop...

1. 3:10 To Yuma:8 2. Logan :6 3.Knight and Day:4

26. 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 ...

1.Forrest Gump:8 2.Who Framed Roger Rabbit:6 3.Flight:6 4.A Christmas Carol:4

27. Mel Gibson

Actor | Braveheart

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, USA, as the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson (who died in December of 1990). His mother was Irish, from County Longford, while his American-born father is ...

1. Brave Heart:8 2.Apocalypto:5 3.Hacksaw Ridge:4

28. Asghar Farhadi

Writer | Forooshande

Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelors in Theater from University of Tehran's School of...

1.a Separation:8 2.About Elly:6 3.The past:6 4.Fireworks Wednesday:5 5.Beautiful City:4 6.The Salesman: 4

29. 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 ...

1.Terminator Judgment Day:7 2.Avatar:5 3.Titanic:5

30. David O. Russell

Director | American Hustle

David Owen Russell is an American film writer, director, and producer, known for a cinema of intense, tragi-comedic characters whose love of life can surpass dark circumstances faced in very specific worlds. His films address such themes as mental illness as stigma or hope; invention of self and ...

1.American Hustle:6 2.Silver Linings Playbook:6 3.The Fighter:6 4. Joy: 4

31. 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. ...

1.The Neon Demon:6 2.Drive:6 3.Only God Forgives:5

32. Pete Docter

Writer | Up

Pete Docter is the Oscar®-winning director of "Monsters, Inc.," "Up," and "Inside Out," and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. He is currently directing Pixar's feature film "Soul" with producer Dana Murray, which is set to release June 19, 2020.

Starting at Pixar in 1990 as the ...

1.Up:6 2.Monster Inc:6 3.Inside Out:5

33. 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 ...

1. Slumdog Millionaire:6 2.Steve Jobs: 6 3.127 H: 5

34. 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...

1.Atonement:7 2.Darkest Hour:5 3.Hanna:4

35. Rob Marshall

Director | Mary Poppins Returns

Rob Marshall was born on October 17, 1960 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Chicago (2002) and Into the Woods (2014).

1.Chicago: 8 2. Pirates of the Caribbean: 4 3. Nine: 3

36. 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 ...

1.Fantastic Mr Fox:6 2.The Grand Hotel Budapest: 6 3.Moonrise Kingdom: 5

37. 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 ...

1.The Dark Knight:6 2.Interstellar:6 3.Inception:6 4.Memento:6 5.The Prestige:5 6.Batman Begins:5 7.The Dark Knight Rises:5 8.Dunkirk:5 9.Insomnia:4

38. 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, ...

1.Saving Private Ryan:7 2.Munich:6 3.Schindler's List:6 4.Lincoln:5 5.War Horse:5 6.The Birdge of Spies:4 7.The Adventures of Tintin:3

39. Gore Verbinski

Director | Rango

Gore Verbinski, one of American cinema's most inventive directors who was a punk-rock guitarist as a teenager and had to sell his guitar to buy his first camera, is now the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) which made the industry record for highest opening weekend of ...

1.Pirates of The Caribbean:The Curse of The Black Pearl:6 2.Pirates of The Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest:6 3.Pirates of The Caribbean:At world's End:6 4.Rango:5 5.The Ring:4 6.Lone Ranger:3

40. John Lasseter

Writer | Toy Story 2

Although born in Hollywood, John and his twin sister Johanna were raised in Whittier near Los Angeles. His parents were Jewell Mae (Risley), an art teacher, and Paul Eual Lasseter, a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. His mother's profession contributed to his interest in animation and ...

1.Toy story:7 2.Toy story 2:6 3.Cars:4 4.Cars 2:2

41. 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 ...

1.Children of Men:5 2.Your Mothers Too:5 3.Gravity:5

42. Bennett Miller

Director | Foxcatcher

Bennett Miller is an American film director, best known for Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011), and Foxcatcher (2014). He began his film career directing the 1998 documentary The Cruise.

In 2006 Miller directed the Bob Dylan music video "When the Deal Goes Down" starring Scarlett Johansson.

Miller has ...

1.Moneyball:5 2.Foxcatcher:5 3.Capote:5

43. Bryan Singer

Director | X-Men

Bryan Singer is an American film director and producer who got his start writing and co-directing the short film Lions Den with his classmates while he attended USC. He was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men, which helped kick-start the superhero renaissance. He later directed three sequels....

1.The Usual Suspect:6 2.X-Men:5 3.X-Men:First Class:5 4.X-Men: Days of Future Past:4 5.X-Men: Apocalypse:4