Personal favorite directors
by anji-13 | created - 01 Jun 2011 | updated - 01 Jun 2011 | Public
1. Phillip Noyce
Producer | Rabbit-Proof Fence
Born in the Australian rural town of Griffith, New South Wales, Phillip Noyce moved to Sydney with his family at the age of 12. As a teenager, he was introduced to underground films produced on shoestring budgets as well as mainstream American movies. He was 18 when he made his first film, the 15-...
2. 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 ...
3. Chris Eyre
Director | Smoke Signals
Chris Eyre was born in 1969 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is known for Smoke Signals (1998), Dark Winds (2022) and Skins (2002).
4. Pierre Morel
Director | Banlieue 13
Pierre Morel was born on May 12, 1964 in France. He is a cinematographer and director, known for District B13 (2004), Taken (2008) and The Gunman (2015).
5. Luc Besson
Writer | Le Cinquième Élément
Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in ...
6. Paul Haggis
Writer | Crash
Paul Haggis established himself over twenty years with an extensive career in television, before his big break into features arrived when he became the first screenwriter to garner two Best Film Academy Awards back-to-back for his scripts: "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, ...
7. 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 ...
8. Guy Ritchie
Director | Sherlock Holmes
Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and ...
9. 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.
10. 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...
11. John McTiernan
Director | Die Hard
John McTiernan was born on January 8, 1951 in Albany, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Die Hard (1988), Rollerball (2002) and Last Action Hero (1993). He has been married to Gail Sistrunk since 2012. He was previously married to Kate Harrington, Donna Dubrow and Carol Land.
12. Oliver Hirschbiegel
Director | Das Experiment
Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1957. In his teens he left high school and worked as a cooker in a boat.
Then he studied painting and graphism in the Academy of arts in Hamburg where he also started experimenting with video and photography. Those experimental movies attracted the attention of some ...
13. 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. ...
14. Louis Leterrier
Director | The Incredible Hulk
Louis Leterrier is a French film director and producer. He notably directed the first two Transporter films, Unleashed, The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans, Now You See Me, Tower of Strength and The Brothers Grimsby. He also directed episodes of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance on Netflix ...
15. Anders Thomas Jensen
Writer | Retfærdighedens ryttere
Anders Thomas Jensen was born on 6th April 1972 in Frederiksværk on Sjælland in Denmark to Carl Benny Jensen and Kirsten Jensen (born Sørensen). He attended the high school in Frederiksværk from 1988 to 1991. In 1990 while still in high school, he wrote and directed 10 år på bagen - 3 år i skyggen ...
16. Michael Mann
Producer | The Insider
As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...
17. 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...
18. Robert Rodriguez
Producer | El mariachi
Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none ...
19. Kevin Spacey
Actor | L.A. Confidential
Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in...
20. Jonas Pate
Producer | Outer Banks
Jonas Pate was born on January 15, 1970 in Raeford, North Carolina, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Outer Banks (2020), Deceiver (1997) and Good vs Evil (1999). He has been married to Jennifer Fishman since 2001. They have two children.
21. Ted Demme
Director | Blow
Ted Demme was born on October 26, 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Blow (2001), Beautiful Girls (1996) and A Decade Under the Influence (2003). He was married to Amanda Scheer-Demme. He died on January 13, 2002 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
22. 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, ...
23. David L. Cunningham
Director | To End All Wars
David L. Cunningham is an international filmmaker known for striking visuals, authentic performances and dynamic subject matters.
For more than two decades, Cunningham has directed big budget Studio films (Fox, Disney, ABC), experimental and pioneering independent features, as well as hard hitting ...
24. Steve McQueen
Director | 12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen was born on October 9, 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.
25. Craig Lahiff
Director | Fever
Craig Lahiff was born on April 23, 1947 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. He was a director and producer, known for Fever (1988), Swerve (2011) and Heaven's Burning (1997). He died on February 2, 2014 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
26. 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 ...
27. David Twohy
Writer | The Fugitive
As both writer and director, David Twohy has contributed much to the film world, helping to elevate movies in such a way that Entertainment Weekly was prompted to name him "one of the 100 most creative people in Hollywood." In his career, Twohy has worked with on-screen notables like Harrison Ford,...
28. Greg McLean
Director | Wolf Creek
After training as a fine artist before working as a director in Theatre and Opera, Australian writer, director, and producer Greg McLean's filmmaking career began when he wrote and directed the horror smash hit 'Wolf Creek.' The film played at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals before going ...
29. Bille August
Director | The House of the Spirits
Bille August was born on November 9, 1948 in Brede, Denmark. He is a director and writer, known for The House of the Spirits (1993), Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and Les Misérables (1998). He is married to Sara-Marie Maltha. He was previously married to Pernilla August, Masja Dessau and Annie ...
30. Daniel Alfredson
Director | Flickan som lekte med elden
Daniel Alfredson was born on May 23, 1959 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He is a producer and director, known for The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) and Varg (2008). He is married to Stina. They have three children.
31. 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 ...
32. Darren Lynn Bousman
Director | Repo! The Genetic Opera
Darren Lynn Bousman was born on January 11, 1979 in Overland Park, Kansas, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), Saw II (2005) and Abattoir (2016). He has been married to Laura Bousman since January 2, 2010. They have two children.
33. Danny Pang
Director | Gin gwai
The twin brothers Oxide and Danny Pang started their career in Hong Kong, where Oxide worked as colourist and Danny as editor. After moving to Bangkok, Oxide made the experimental film Who's Running. Bangkok Dangerous (2000) is the first film in which the brothers combine their talents.
34. Oxide Chun Pang
Director | Gin gwai
Oxide Chun Pang was born in 1965 in Hong Kong. He is a director and writer, known for The Eye (2002), Bangkok Dangerous (2000) and The Messengers (2007). He has been married to Angelica Lee since February 6, 2010. They have two children.
35. Brad Anderson
Director | Session 9
Brad Anderson was born in 1964 in Madison, Connecticut, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Session 9 (2001), The Machinist (2004) and Transsiberian (2008).
36. Tony Scott
Producer | Domino
Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British...
37. Jan Kounen
Director | Blueberry
Jan Kounen was born on May 2, 1964 in Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is a director and writer, known for Renegade (2004), Vibroboy (1994) and 8 (2008).
38. John Hillcoat
Director | The Proposition
John Hillcoat was born on August 14, 1961 in Queensland, Australia. He is a director and producer, known for The Proposition (2005), The Road (2009) and Lawless (2012).
Tell Your Friends