Directors Completed

1. Kerry Conran

Director | Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Born in 1964 and raised in Flint, Michigan, Kerry Conran came from a family of aspiring artists: his older brother Kevin Conran was an illustrator and his younger sister Kirsten Conran an art director at an ad agency. Growing up watching classic sci-fi films such as Metropolis (1927), King Kong (...

2. Joe Berger

Writer | Covert

Joe Berger is known for Covert (2002), Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul (2007) and The Imperfectionist (2006).

3. 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 ...

I think this was the first director that I ever managed to finish all of the feature films of.

4. Doug Walker

Writer | The Nostalgia Critic

Doug Walker was born in Naples, Italy; and because his father was in the Navy, lived in many different places across the United States when he was growing up. He went on to study film at Northern Illinois University, majoring in communications.

After college, he worked as an illustrator and started ...

5. 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...

Not really sure what to say about him that hasn't already been said before, but I quite enjoyed his films for the most part.

6. Masayuki

Animation_department | Evangelion Shin Gekijôban: Jo

Masayuki was born on January 3, 1961 in Nagano, Japan. He is an assistant director, known for Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007), Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997) and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995).

7. Shane Carruth

Composer | Upstream Color

Writer-director Shane Carruth, a former software engineer, burst onto the independent movie scene with his extremely low-budget science-fiction film Primer (2004) in 2004. Carruth also played one of the two leads in the film and composed its music. "Primer" won the Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P...

He only has two films out right now so I'm kind of cheating by having him here.

8. Joss Whedon

Producer | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon is the middle of five brothers - his younger brothers are Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. Both his father, Tom Whedon and his grandfather, John Whedon were successful television writers. Joss' mother, Lee Stearns, was a history teacher and she also wrote novels as Lee Whedon. Whedon was ...

His strengths come more from his talents as a writer... As a director he leaves quite a bit to be desired.

9. Sandra Moiseeff

Producer | The New Vaudevillians

Sandra Moiseeff is known for The New Vaudevillians (1986), New Vaudevillians Too (1987) and The Making of 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1990).

10. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

What is there left to say about this legend? I found something to like in each and every one of his films, from "Citizen Kane" to "Filming Othello". He's now quite possibly my favorite director.

11. 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 ...

One of the great pioneers of the Western genre. There have been countless imitators of his style since he started making movies, but none captured the genre in quite the same way he managed too.

12. Charles Laughton

Actor | Witness for the Prosecution

Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...

He may have only directed one feature film, but that one film is one of the best ever made.

13. 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 ...

14. J.J. Abrams

Producer | Lost

Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990)....

15. Satoshi Kon

Writer | Tôkyô goddofâzâzu

Satoshi Kon was born in 1963. He studied at the Musashino College of the Arts. He began his career as a Manga artist. He then moved to animation and worked as a background artist on many films (including Roujin Z (1991) by 'Katsuhiro Otomo'). Then, in 1995, he wrote an episode of the anthology film ...

16. James Rolfe

Writer | The Angry Video Game Nerd

James D. Rolfe is an American video game and film reviewer, filmmaker and YouTuber from Philadelphia. He started The Angry Video Game Nerd, a seminal video game reviewing series in 2004, which eventually became part of his YouTube channel. He is considered one of the most influential reviewers of ...

17. 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 ...

18. George Lucas

Writer | Star Wars

George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar ...

19. 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 ...

20. Ned Thanhouser

Director | The Thanhouser Studio and the Birth of American Cinema

Ned Thanhouser is known for The Thanhouser Studio and the Birth of American Cinema (2014) and Lost Emulsion (2016).

21. Tadayoshi Yamamuro

Animation_department | Doragon Bôru Zetto Kami to Kami

Tadayoshi Yamamuro is known for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013), Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015) and Castle in the Sky (1986).

22. James Ward Byrkit

Director | Coherence

James Ward Byrkit is known for Coherence (2013), Rango (2011) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).

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...

24. Agustin Rodriguez

Actor | Falling Down

Agustin Rodriguez is known for Falling Down (1993), Strange Days (1995) and Generation X (1996).

25. Giacomo Talamini

Director | MGS: Philanthropy

Giacomo Talamini is known for MGS: Philanthropy (2009), MGS Philanthropy Part 2: The Land Where Truth Was Born (2014) and Rainbow Six Real Life (2015).

26. Gareth Edwards

Visual_effects | Monsters

Gareth James Edwards was born on June 1, 1975 in the English town of Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Growing up, he admired movies such as the 1977 classic "Star Wars", and went on to pursue a film career. He even cites George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as his biggest influences. Edwards studied BA (Hons) ...

27. Tom Green

Director | Monsters: Dark Continent

Tom Green is known for Monsters: Dark Continent (2014), Parallel and Kiss Me First (2018).

28. 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 ...

29. 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...

30. Forugh Farrokhzad

Editor | Khaneh siah ast

Farugh Farrokhzad was primarily a poet. Indeed, she is regarded as one of the most important poets of the twentieth century in Iran, which has a millennium of poetic tradition behind it. Although she only made one film, the 22 minute so-called documentary "The House is Black", this work is ...

31. Roy Calnek

Director | Abie's Imported Bride

Roy Calnek is known for Abie's Imported Bride (1925), Hearts of the Woods (1921) and The Prince of His Race (1926).

32. Kathleen Collins

Writer | The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy

Kathleen Collins only managed to direct two films (she also wrote short stories and plays) but left an impact on the cinema as the second African American woman to direct a film, and as a teacher through her students. She had a strict upbringing in Jersey City as the daughter of an undertaker (who ...

33. Eloyce Gist

Director | Hell-Bound Train

Eloyce Gist was born on October 21, 1892 in Hitchcock, Texas, USA. She was a director and actress, known for Hellbound Train (1930), Verdict Not Guilty (1933) and Heaven-Bound Traveler (1935). She was married to John William Slaughter, Arthur C. Wood, James Gist and Roscoe C. Patrick. She died in ...

34. Zora Neale Hurston

Writer | American Playhouse

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, USA. She was a writer and director, known for American Playhouse (1980), She's Gotta Have It (1986) and Hands Upon the Heart (1991). She was married to James Howell Pitts, Albert Price III and Herbert Sheen. She died on January ...

35. Frank Peregini

Director | The Scar of Shame

Frank Peregini was born on November 26, 1888 in Italy. He was a cinematographer and director, known for The Scar of Shame (1929), The Devil's Confession (1921) and The Valley of Lost Souls (1923). He died in January 1967 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

36. Makoto Kamiya

Director | Resident Evil: Degeneration

Makoto Kamiya is known for Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008), I Am a Hero (2015) and Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007).

37. Herk Harvey

Director | Carnival of Souls

Colorado-born Herk Harvey majored in theater at Kansas University, directing and acting in stage productions and later returning to the school in a teaching capacity. He broke into the film business as an actor in some of the movies being made by Centron Corporation of Lawrence, Kansas, an ...

38. 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 ...

39. 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 ...

40. 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...

41. Jean Vigo

Writer | Zéro de conduite : Jeunes diables au collège

Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23, through meetings with people ...

42. Mario Peixoto

Director | Limite

With just one film Mario Peixoto left a mark on cinema with his acclaimed masterpiece Limit (1931). The surrealistic and artistic film launched his film career but unfortunately due to several circumstances he never managed to release another film and outdo himself. Many Brazilian filmmakers were ...

43. Tomonori Sudô

Animation_department | Gekijô-ban Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Ressha-hen

Tomonori Sudô is known for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train (2020), Fate/Zero (2011) and Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] (2014).

44. Ei Aoki

Director | Aldnoah.Zero

Ei Aoki is known for Aldnoah.Zero (2014), Fate/Zero (2011) and Re: Creators (2017).

45. Takuya Nomura

Hideaki Anno was born on May 22, 1960 in Ube, Japan. He is a writer and director, known for Shin Godzilla (2016), Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) and The Wind Rises (2013). He has been married to Moyoco Anno since March 26, 2002.

50. Makoto Shinkai

Writer | Suzume no Tojimari

Makoto Shinkai is a Japanese director, writer, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer. Shinkai studied Japanese literature at Chuo University where he was a member of juvenile literature club where he drew picture books. In 1999, Shinkai ...

51. 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 ...

52. Sam Raimi

Director | Spider-Man

Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...

53. Hiroyuki Imaishi

Director | Tengen toppa gurren lagann

Hiroyuki Imaishi is known for Gurren Lagann (2007), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) and Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997).

54. Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer | Kidô senshi Z Gundam - A New Translation: Hoshi wo tsugumono

Yoshiyuki Tomino was born on November 5, 1941 in Odawara, Japan. He is a writer and director, known for Mobile Suit Z Gundam: A New Translation - Heirs to the Stars (2004), Mobile Suit Z Gundam II: A New Translation - Lovers (2005) and Mobile Suit Gundam (1979).

55. 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 ...

56. Chad Stahelski

Producer | John Wick: Chapter 4

He came from a kick-boxing background; he entered the film field as a stunt performer at the age of 24. Before that, he worked as an instructor at the Inosanto Martial Arts Academy in California, teaching Jeet Kune Do/Jun Fan. After doing numerous roles in low budget martial art movies like Mission...

57. 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...

58. Buddy Van Horn

Stunts | High Plains Drifter

Prolific American stunt man and occasional small part actor, formerly billed as Wayne Van Horn. The son of a veterinarian who ministered to animals at Universal studios, he first worked as a horse wrangler following a stint in the U.S. Army. This earlier expertise as a rider served him well after ...

59. 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 ...

60. 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 ...