My 100 Favorite Directors
by honeybunny6655321 | created - 13 Jan 2013 | updated - 1 month ago | Public
1. 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 ...
A Clockwork Orange 10/10 Dr. Strangelove 10/10 Paths of Glory 9/10 2001: A Space Odyssey 9/10 Full Metal Jacket 9/10 The Shining 8/10 Barry Lyndon 8/10 Lolita 8/10 Spartacus 8/10 Eyes Wide Shut 8/10 The Killing 7/10 Killer's Kiss 6/10 Fear and Desire 6/10 Day of the Fight 6/10 Flying Padre 6/10 The Seafarers 5/10
2. 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...
Dersu Uzala 10/10 Rashômon 9/10 Seven Samurai 9/10 Ikiru 8/10 Hidden Fortress 8/10 Dodeskaden 8/10 Dreams 8/10 Yôjinbô 8/10 High and Low 8/10 Red Beard 8/10 Sanjuro 8/10 Mâdadayo 8/10 Drunken Ange 8/10 Kagemusha 7/10 The Bad Sleep Well 7/10 Stray Dog 7/10 Ran 7/10 Throne of Blood 7/10 One Wonderful Sunday 7/10 No Regrets for Our Youth 7/10 The Quiet Duel 7/10 The Lower Depths 7/10 Sanshiro Sugata 7/10 Scandal 6/10 Sanshiro Sugata, Part II 6/10
3. Luis Buñuel
Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...
That Obscure Object of Desire 10/10 The Exterminating Angel 9/10 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 8/10 The Young and the Damned 8/10 Viridiana 8/10 Diary of a Chambermaid 8/10 Simon of the Desert 8/10 Belle de jour 8/10 The Phantom of Liberty 8/10 Un chien andalou 8/10 The Young One 7/10 Nazarín 7/10 Tristana 7/10 La voie lactée 7/10 Un chien andalou 7/10 Susana 7/10 The Brute 7/10 Land Without Bread 7/10 Fever Mounts at El Pao 7/10 L'âge d'or 7/10 Él 7/10 That Is the Dawn 6/10
4. 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 ...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 10/10 Taking Off 10/10 Hair 9/10 Amadeus 8/10 The Fireman's Ball 8/10 Ragtime 8/10 The People vs. Larry Flynt 8/10 Goya's Ghosts 8/10 Man on the Moon 8/10 Loves of a Blond 7/10 Valmont 7/10 Black Peter 6/10
5. 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 (...
Hour of the Wolf 9/10 Autumn Sonata 9/10 Wild Strawberries 8/10 Scenes from a Marriage 8/10 Through a Glass Darkly 8/10 Shame 8/10 The Silence 8/10 The Seventh Seal 8/10 Persona 8/10 Fanny és Alexander 8/10 Face to Face 8/10 The Passion of Anna 8/10 Summer with Monika 8/10 Saraband 8/10 The Virgin Spring 7/10 Winter Light 7/10 Sawdust and Tinsel 7/10 Cries & Whispers 7/10 Smiles of a Summer Night 6/10
6. Billy Wilder
Writer | The Apartment
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...
Ace in the Hole 10/10 Sunset Blvd. 9/10 Witness for the Prosecution 9/10 One, Two, Three 8/10 Stalag 17 8/10 The Lost Weekend 8/10 Double Indemnity 8/10 The Fortune Cookie 7/10 Five Graves to Cairo 7/10 The Apartment 7/10 Some Like It Hot 7/10 The Spirit of St. Louis 7/10 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 7/10 Sabrina 7/10 The Seven Year Itch 6/10
7. Masaki Kobayashi
Director | Seppuku
Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.
Harakiri 10/10 Samurai Rebellion 9/10 The Human Condition I: No Greater Love 9/10 The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity 9/10 The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer 9/10 Inn of Evil 8/10 Kwaidan 8/10
8. 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 ...
La strada 9/10 La dolce vita 9/10 The Nights of Cabiria 8/10 Amarcord 8/10 8½ 8/10 Casanova 8/10 Roma 8/10 I vitelloni 7/10 The Clowns 7/10 Julia and the Ghosts 7/10 Satyricon 6/10
9. 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 ...
Dancer in the Dark 10/10 Breaking the Waves 9/10 The Kingdom 8/10 Melancholia 8/10 The Idiots 8/10 The House That Jack Built 8/10 Dogville 8/10 The Element of Crime 8/10 Nymphomaniac: Vol. I 8/10 Nymphomaniac: Vol. II 8/10 Europa 7/10 Manderlay 7/10 Antichrist 7/10 Epidemic 6/10 The Boss of It All 6/10 Nocturne 5/10
10. Sidney Lumet
Director | 12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...
12 Angry Men 10/10 Network 9/10 The Hill 8/10 Dog Day Afternoon 8/10 Fail-Safe 8/10 Serpico 8/10 The Pawnbroker 8/10 The Verdict 8/10 Equus 7/10 Murder on the Orient Express 7/10 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead 7/10 Find Me Guilty 6/10
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 ...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 10/10 Once Upon a Time in the West 10/10 Once Upon a Time in America 9/10 For a Few Dollars More 7/10 A Fistful of Dollars 7/10 Duck, You Sucker 7/10 The Colossus of Rhodes 5/10
12. Jim Jarmusch
Director | Paterson
Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.
Dead Man 9/10 Down by Law 9/10 Coffee and Cigarettes 9/10 Night on Earth 8/10 Mystery Train 8/10 Stranger Than Paradise 7/10 Only Lovers Left Alive 7/10 Paterson 7/10 Broken Flowers 7/10 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai 7/10 Gimme Danger 7/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet - "segment" 7/10 Permanent Vacation 6/10 The Dead Don't Die 6/10 The Limits of Control 6/10
13. Yasujirô Ozu
Writer | Tôkyô monogatari
Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...
Tokyo Story 10/10 Late Spring 9/10 Early Summer 9/10 The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice 9/10 Floating Weeds 9/10 An Autumn Afternoon 8/10 Late Autumn 8/10 Good Morning 7/10 I Was Born, But... 7/10
14. Kar-Wai Wong
Director | Yi dai zong shi
Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong ...
In the Mood for Love 9/10 2046 9/10 Days of Being Wild 9/10 Happy Together 8/10 Chungking Express 8/10 As Tears Go By 8/10 Fallen Angels 7/10 Ashes of Time 6/10 The Grandmaster 6/10 My Blueberry Nights 5/10
15. Kim Ki-duk
Writer | Bin-jip
He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for Best Screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with "A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death". After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile (1996) ("Crocodile"). Then he ...
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring 9/10 3-Iron 9/10 The Bow 8/10 Breath 8/10 Crocodile 8/10 Birdcage Inn 8/10 Bad Guy 8/10 Time 7/10 The Net 7/10 Address Unknown 7/10 Pieta 7/10 Samaria 7/10 Dream 7/10 The Isle 7/10 Wild Animals 7/10 The Coast Guard 7/10 Real Fiction 6/10 Amen 5/10 Human, Space, Time and Human 5/10
16. Zoltán Fábri
Director | Húsz óra
He was born in 1917 and between the two World War he finished his primary and secondary school. After them he graduated in the College of Fine Arts, which helped him later to be a production-designer. He liked to learn and joined the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. He bacame a director and actor....
Az ötödik pecsét 10/10 Isten hozta, őrnagy úr! 8/10 Két félidő a pokolban 8/10 Hannibál tanár úr 8/10 Húsz óra 8/10 Körhinta 7/10 Requiem 7/10 Édes Anna 7/10 A Pál utcai fiúk 7/10 Plusz-mínusz egy nap 7/10 Utószezon 7/10 Életjel 7/10 Fábián Bálint találkozása Istennel 7/10 Vihar 5/10
17. 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 ...
Taxi Driver 9/10 Goodfellas 9/10 Casino 9/10 Mean Streets 8/10 Raging Bull 8/10 Silence 8/10 The Last Temptation of Christ 8/10 Cape Fear 8/10 The King of Comedy 8/10 Gangs of New York 8/10 After Hours 8/10 The Wolf of Wall Street 7/10 Kundun 7/10 The Irishman 7/10 New York Stories - "segment" 7/10 Shutter Island 7/10 The Age of Innocence 7/10 New York, New York 7/10 Bringing Out the Dead 7/10 Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 7/10 The Audition 7/10 Killers of the Flower Moon 6/10 I Call First 6/10 The Departed 6/10 The Honeymoon Killers 6/10 The Color of Money 6/10 Boxcar Bertha 6/10 Aviator 5/10 Hugo 5/10
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...
McCabe & Mrs. Miller 9/10 Short Cuts 8/10 The Player 8/10 Buffalo Bill and the Indians 8/10 Nashville 8/10 MASH 8/10 The Long Goodbye 8/10 California Split 8/10 Images 8/10 3 Women 7/10 Thieves Like Us 7/10 Popeye 6/10 Gosford Park 6/10 A Prairie Home Companion 6/10
19. Takeshi Kitano
Actor | Zatôichi
Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...
A Scene at the Sea 10/10 Dolls 9/10 Kikujiro 8/10 Fireworks 8/10 Boiling Point 8/10 Kids Return 7/10 Sonatine 7/10 Violent Cop 7/10 The Blind Swordsman 7/10 Takeshis' 6/10
20. 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 ...
Annie Hall 10/10 Hannah and Her Sisters 8/10 Manhattan 8/10 Play It Again, Sam 8/10 Deconstructing Harry 8/10 Stardust Memories 8/10 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex 8/10 Blue Jasmine 8/10 Zelig 8/10 Vicky Cristina Barcelona 8/10 A rádió aranykora 7/10 Sweet and Lowdown 7/10 Mighty Aphrodite 7/10 A Midsummer Night's Sex 7/10 Bananas 7/10 Sleeper 7/10 Celebrity 7/10 Husbands and Wives 7/10 New York Stories - "segment" 7/10 To Rome with Love 7/10 Crimes and Misdemeanors 7/10 Shadows and Fog 7/10 Interiors 7/10 Another Woman 7/10 Midnight in Paris 7/10 Take the Money and Run 7/10 Love and Death 6/10 The Purple Rose of Cairo 6/10 Broadway Danny Rose 6/10 Bullets Over Broadway 6/10 Cassandra's Dream 6/10 Irrational Man 6/10 Anything Else 6/10 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger 6/10 September 6/10 Small Time Crooks 6/10 A Rainy Day in New York 6/10 Everyone Says I Love You 6/10 Match Point 6/10 Hollywood Ending 6/10 What's Up, Tiger Lily? 4/10
21. 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 ...
My Life to Live 9/10 Pierrot le fou 8/10 Masculin féminin 8/10 Contempt 8/10 Band of Outsiders 8/10 Breathless 8/10 A Woman Is a Woman 8/10 A Married Woman 7/10 Le Petit Soldat 7/10 Week End 7/10 Alphaville 7/10 La Chinoise 7/10 Made in U.S.A 7/10 Charlotte et son Jules 7/10 Charlotte et Véronique 7/10 Une histoire d'eau 7/10 Les Carabiniers 6/10 Two or Three Things I Know About Her 7/10 RoGoPaG - "segment" 6/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Cello - "segment" 6/10
22. Abbas Kiarostami
Writer | Copie conforme
Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career ...
Close-up 8/10 Where Is the Friend's Home? 8/10 Certified Copy 8/10 Taste of Cherry 7/10 Through the Olive Trees 7/10 Life, and Nothing More... 7/10 Like Someone in Love 7/10 The Wind Will Carry Us 6/10
23. Sam Peckinpah
Writer | The Wild Bunch
"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid 9/10 The Wild Bunch 9/10 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 8/10 Straw Dogs 7/10 Cross of Iron 7/10 The Ballad of Cable Hogue 6/10 The Getaway 6/10 Ride the High Country 6/10
24. 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 10/10 Pulp Fiction 9/10 Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood 9/10 Jackie Brown 8/10 Kill Bill 8/10 Kill Bill 2. 8/10 The Hateful Eight 8/10 Django Unchained 8/10 Inglourious Basterds 7/10 Death Proof 7/10 Four Rooms 7/10 My Best Friend's Birthday 6/10
25. Yimou Zhang
Director | Ying xiong
Yimou Zhang was born on November 14, 1951 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. He is a director and writer, known for Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He has been married to Ting Chen since December 2011. They have three children. He was previously married to ...
Raise the Red Lantern 10/10 House of Flying Daggers 9/10 Red Sorghum 8/10 To Live 8/10 One Second 8/10 The Road Home 8/10 Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles 7/10 Hero 7/10 The Story of Qiu Ju 7/10 Not One Less 7/10 Under The Hawthorn Tree 7/10 Curse of the Golden Flower 7/10 Coming Home 6/10 The Flowers of War 6/10 A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop 5/10 Shadow 5/10 The Great Wall 3/10
26. Wim Wenders
Director | Der Himmel über Berlin
Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until ...
Kings of the Road 9/10 The State of Things 8/10 Alice in the Cities 8/10 Perfect Days 8/10 The Salt of the Earth 9/10 Buena Vista Social Club 8/10 Wings of Desire 8/10 Paris, Texas 8/10 Tokyo-Ga 8/10 The American Friend 7/10 Pina 7/10 Don't Come Knocking 6/10 Until the End of the World 6/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Cello - "segment" 6/10 The End of Violence 4/10
27. 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 ...
La notte 9/10 Red Desert 8/10 L'avventura 7/10 Blow-Up 8/10 L'eclisse 8/10 Il Grido 7/10 Zabriskie Point 7/10 The Lady Without Camelias 7/10 Professione: reporter 6/10
28. Richard Linklater
Director | Waking Life
Self-taught writer-director Richard Stuart Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, to Diane Margaret (Krieger), who taught at a university, and Charles W. Linklater III. Richard was among the first and most successful talents to emerge during the American independent film renaissance of the 1990s. ...
Slacker 9/10 Before Sunrise 9/10 Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure 9/10 Before Midnight 8/10 Waking Life 8/10 Boyhood 8/10 A Scanner Darkly 7/10 Before Sunset 7/10 Tape 7/10 SubUrbia 6/10 Fast Food Nation 6/10 Dazed and Confused 6/10 The School of Rock 5/10
29. John Huston
Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 9/10 The African Queen 8/10 The Maltese Falcon 8/10 The Asphalt Jungle 8/10 The Misfits 8/10 Key Largo 7/10 The Man Who Would Be King 7/10 Moby Dick 7/10 Fat City 7/10 Beat the Devil 6/10 Prizzi's Honor 6/10 Victory 6/10 San Pietro 6/10 The Dead 6/10
30. 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 ...
Death and the Maiden 9/10 Repulsion 8/10 Bitter Moon 8/10 Chinatown 8/10 Rosemary's Baby 8/10 Carnage 8/10 La Vénus à la fourrure 8/10 Knife in the Water 7/10 Cul-de-sac 7/10 The Tenant 7/10 The Ghost Writer 7/10 Dance of the Vampires 6/10 Frantic 6/10 The Pianist 6/10 The Ninth Gate 3/10
31. Vittorio De Sica
Director | Ladri di biciclette
Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...
Bicycle Thieves 9/10 Umberto D. 9/10 Two Women 8/10 Shoeshine 8/10 Sunflower 8/10 Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 7/10 Miracle in Milan 7/10 The Children Are Watching Us 7/10 The Roof 7/10 Marriage Italian Style 7/10 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 7/10
32. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Director | Manbiki kazoku
Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), ...
Nobody knows 9/10 Shoplifters 8/10 Like Father, like Son 8/10 Maborosi 8/10 Still Walking 8/10 I Wish 8/10 After the Storm 7/10 The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House 7/10 After Life 7/10 Our little sister 7/10 Air Doll 7/10 Distance 6/10
33. 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 ...
The Piano Teacher 8/10 The White Ribbon 8/10 Amour 7/10 Hidden 7/10 Funny Games (1997) 7/10 The Seventh Continent 7/10 Benny's Video 7/10 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance 7/10 Time of the Wolf 7/10 Funny Games (2007) 6/10
34. 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 ...
The Elephant Man 9/10 Twin Peaks 8/10 The Straight Story 8/10 Dune 7/10 Blue Velvet 7/10 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 7/10 Wild at Heart 6/10 Lost Highway 6/10 Mulholland Dr. 6/10 Eraserhead 6/10 What Did Jack Do? 6/10 Fire (PoZar) 6/10 Rabbits 3/10 The Grandmother 3/10 Inland Empire 3/10
35. Lee Chang-dong
Writer | Beoning
Lee Chang-Dong was born in 1954 in Daegu, which some consider the most right-wing city in South Korea. Lee is a former high-school teacher and an acclaimed novelist. He turned to cinema when he was over 40 years old. His debut film "Green Fish" (1997) brought immediate success and critical acclaim....
Burning 9/10 Peppermint Candy 8/10 Oasis 8/10 Poetry 8/10 Secret Sunshine 7/10
36. Kaneto Shindô
Writer | Ichimai no hagaki
Kaneto Shindô was born on April 22, 1912 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Postcard (2010), The Naked Island (1960) and A Last Note (1995). He was married to Nobuko Otowa and Miyo Shindo. He died on May 29, 2012 in Hiroshima, Japan.
Onibaba 9/10 The Naked Island 8/10 Children of Hiroshima 8/10 Black Cat 8/10
37. 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 ...
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 10/10 Brazil 10/10 12 Monkey 9/10 The Fisher King 7/10 Tideland 7/10 The Meaning of Life 7/10 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 7/10 The Man Who Killed Don Quixote 7/10 Time Bandits 7/10 Monty Python and the Holy Grail 6/10 The Zero Theorem 5/10 Jabberwocky 5/10 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus 4/10 Grimm 4/10
38. 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 Godfather 10/10 Apocalypse Now 9/10 The Godfather: Part II 9/10 The Conversation 8/10 Dracula 7/10 The Godfather: Part III 7/10 Rumble Fish 7/10 The Rainmaker 6/10 The Outsiders 5/10 Jack 5/10 New York Stories - "segment" 3/10
39. 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 ...
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) 9/10 Amores perros 9/10 The Revenant 8/10 BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths 8/10 21 Grams 8/10 Biutiful 8/10 Babel 8/10
40. 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,...
Dogtooth 9/10 The Lobster 8/10 The Favourite 8/10 The Killing of a Sacred Deer 8/10 Alps 7/10 Poor Things 6/10 Nimic 6/10
41. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Director | Nelyubov
Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...
Leviathan 9/10 Loveless 9/10 The Return 8/10 Elena 7/10 The Banishment 7/10
42. Tsai Ming-liang
Director | Qingshaonian Nuozha
Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His ...
Goodbye Dragon Inn 9/10 The Wayward Cloud 8/10 What Time Is It There? 8/10 The Hole 8/10 Vive L'Amour 7/10 Rebels of the Neon God 7/10 I Don't Want to Sleep Alone 7/10 Rizi 6/10 Stray Dogs 6/10 The River 6/10 Walker 6/10
43. 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 ...
Rope 9/10 Rear Window 9/10 Vertigo 9/10 Psycho 8/10 Dial M for Murder 8/10 Rebecca 8/10 North by Northwest 8/10 Spellbound 8/10 Strangers on a Train 8/10 Notorious 8/10 The Birds 7/10 Shadow of a Doubt 7/10 The Lady Vanishes 7/10 The Wrong Man 7/10 The Man Who Knew Too Much 7/10 Blackmail 7/10 The 39 Steps 6/10 Marnie 6/10 Torn Curtain 6/10 Sabotage 6/10 Frenzy 6/10 Lifeboat 6/10 The Trouble with Harry 5/10
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). ...
Shadows 8/10 A Woman Under the Influence 8/10 Husbands 8/10 Opening Night 8/10 Love Streams 8/10 Faces 7/10 Minnie and Moskowitz 7/10 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie 7/10 A Child Is Waiting 7/10 Big Trouble 5/10
45. Emir Kusturica
Director | Underground
A Serbian film director. Born in 1954 in Sarajevo. Graduated in film directing at the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1978. During his studies, he was awarded several times for his short movies including Guernica (1978), which took first prize at the Student's Film ...
Underground 9/10 When Father Was Away on Business 8/10 Time of the Gypsies 8/10 Black Cat, White Cat 8/10 Do You Remember Dolly Bell? 7/10 Life Is a Miracle 7/10 All the Invisible Children - "segment" 7/10 Arizona Dream 2/10
46. 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...
A Separation 9/10 The Salesman 8/10 The Past 8/10 Beautiful City 8/10 About Elly 8/10 A Hero 7/10 Fireworks Wednesday 7/10 Everybody Knows 7/10
47. 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 ...
Talk to her 8/10 Broken Embraces 8/10 Pain and Glory 8/10 The Skin I Live In 8/10 All About My Mother 8/10 Live Flesh 8/10 Volver 8/10 Parallel Mothers 7/10 Julieta 7/10 The Flower of My Secret 6/10 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 6/10 Bad Education 6/10 Strange Way of Life 6/10 High Heels 6/10 Matador 5/10 I'm So Excited 5/10
48. 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 ...
Le procès 9/10 Citizen Kane 9/10 Touch of Evil 8/10 The Stranger 7/10 Mr. Arkadin 7/10 F for Fake 7/10 The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice 7/10 The Lady from Shanghai 7/10 The Magnificent Ambersons 7/10 Falstaff 7/10
49. Luchino Visconti
Writer | Il gattopardo
Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...
La terra trema 9/10 Rocco and His Brothers 8/10 Ossessione 8/10 White Nights 8/10 The Wanton Contessa 6/10 Death in Venice 6/10 The Leopard 6/10
50. Radu Jude
Director | Toata lumea din familia noastra
Radu Jude is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. In 2003, he graduated from the Media University of Bucharest (Film Directing Department). Jude worked as an assistant director on Amen. (2002), directed by Costa-Gavras, and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), directed by Cristi Puiu. He ...
Aferim! 8/10 I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians 8/10 The Happiest Girl in the World 8/10 Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn 8/10 Everybody in Our Family 7/10
51. Sean Baker
Writer | Red Rocket
Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean's latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021...
The Florida Project 8/10 Red Rocket 8/10 Tangerine 8/10 Starlet 8/10 Snowbird 7/10
52. Alain Tanner
Director | Charles mort ou vif (petite fresque historique)
Alain Tanner was born on December 6, 1929 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a director and writer, known for Charles, Dead or Alive (1969), In the White City (1983) and Return from Africa (1973). He was married to Janine Giudici. He died on September 11, 2022 in Geneva, Canton de Genève, Switzerland.
In the White City 9/10 The Salamander 8/10 Charles, Dead or Alive 8/10 Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 8/10 Messidor 8/10 Light Years Away 7/10 The Middle of the World 7/10
53. Theodoros Angelopoulos
Director | Mia aioniotita kai mia mera
Theo Angelopoulos began to study law in Athens but broke up his studies to go to the Sorbonne in Paris in order to study literature. When he had finished his studies, he wanted to attend the School of Cinema at Paris but decided instead to go back to Greece. There he worked as a journalist and ...
Landscape In The Mist 8/10 The Travelling Players 8/10 Ulysses' Gaze 8/10 Voyage to Cythera 8/10 Eternity and a Day 8/10 The Beekeeper 7/10 The Suspended Step of the Stork 7/10 Days of ’36 7/10 The Weeping Meadow 7/10 Megalexandros 7/10 The Hunters 6/10 The Dust of Time 6/10
54. Giuseppe Tornatore
Director | La migliore offerta
Giuseppe Tornatore was born on May 27, 1956 in Bagheria, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Best Offer (2013), Cinema Paradiso (1988) and The Legend of 1900 (1998). He is married to Roberta Pacetti.
A Pure Formality 10/10 Everybody's Fine 8/10 The Legend of 1900 8/10 Malèna 7/10 Cinema Paradiso 7/10 The Professor 7/10 The Best Offer 7/10 The Unknown Woman 6/10
55. Kon Ichikawa
Director | Inugami-ke no ichizoku
Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of ...
The Burmese Harp 9/10 Fires on the Plain 9/10 Tokyo Olympiad 8/10 An Actor’s Revenge 7/10
56. 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 ...
Irréversible 9/10 I Stand Alone 8/10 Carne 8/10 Vortex 7/10 Lvx Æterna Climax 7/10 Enter the Void 7/10 Love 7/10
57. 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 ...
Black Swan 9/10 The Wrestler 9/10 Pi 8/10 Mother! 8/10 Requiem for a Dream 7/10 The Whale 6/10 The Fountain 6/10 Noah 6/10
58. 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 (...
Three Colors: Red 8/10 Three Colors: Blue 8/10 Dekalog 8/10 A Short Film About Killing 8/10 A Short Film About Love 7/10 Three Colors: White 7/10 Blind Chance 7/10 The Double Life of Veronique 5/10
59. 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 8/10 Fitzcarraldo 8/10 Stroszek 8/10 Kaspar Hauser 7/10 Woyzeck 7/10 Nosferatu the Vampyre 7/10 Cobra Verde 7/10 Grizzly Man 7/10 Cave of Forgotten Dreams 7/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet - "segment" 7/10 Rescue Dawn 7/10 The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans 5/10
60. Cristian Mungiu
Producer | 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
Cristian Mungiu was born on April 27, 1968 in Iasi, Romania. He is a producer and writer, known for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), Graduation (2016) and Beyond the Hills (2012).
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 9/10 R.M.N. 8/10 Beyond the Hills 8/10 Graduation 8/10
61. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
A Face in the Crowd 9/10 A Streetcar Named Desire 9/10 On the Waterfront 8/10 East of Eden 8/10 Splendor in the Grass 7/10 Gentleman's Agreement 7/10 The Last Tycoon 6/10
62. 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 Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover 8/10 The Pillow Book 8/10 A Zed & Two Noughts 8/10 The Draughtsman's Contrac 7/10 Drowning by Numbers 7/10 The Belly of an Architect 7/10 Prospero's Books 5/10 8 ½ Women 5/10
63. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer | Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul on January 26th, 1959. In 1976, he began studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, in a context of strong student unrest, boycotts and political polarization. In 1978, he switched courses to Electrical Engineering at Bogazici University. ...
The Wild Pear Tree 8/10 Winter Sleep 8/10 Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 8/10 Distant 7/10 Three Monkeys 7/10 Climates 7/10 Koza 7/10
64. 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...
Stalker 8/10 Ivan's Childhood 7/10 Solaris 7/10 The Mirror 7/10 Andrej Rubljov 7/10 Voyage in Time 7/10 The Steamroller and the Violin 6/10 Sacrifice 6/10 The Killers 6/10 There Will Be No Leave Today 6/10 Nostalgia 3/10
65. Paolo Sorrentino
Writer | È stata la mano di Dio
Director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, and and became an orphan when he lost both of his parents at the age of 16. At the age of 25, after studying for a few years at the Faculty of Economics and Business in University of Naples Federico II, he decided to work in the...
The Great Beauty 9/10 The Young Pope 9/10 The New Pope 8/10 The Hand of God 8/10 Youth 7/10 The Consequences of Love 7/10 The Family Friend 7/10 Loro 7/10 Il divo 7/10
66. Mikhail Kalatozov
Director | Letyat zhuravli
Mikhail Kalatozov was born on December 28, 1903 in Tiflis, Russian Empire [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Cranes Are Flying (1957), True Friends (1954) and Zagovor obrechyonnykh (1950). He died on March 27, 1973 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now ...
Soy Cuba 9/10 The Cranes Are Flying 8/10 Letter Never Sent 8/10 True Friends 7/10 The Red Tent 7/10
67. Oliver Stone
Director | JFK
Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.
William Oliver Stone was ...
Natural Born Killers 10/10 The Untold History of the United States 9/10 Platoon 8/10 JFK 8/10 Nixon 8/10 Wall Street 8/10 The Doors 8/10 Salvador 7/10 Talk Radio 7/10 Any Given Sunday 7/10 Snowden 7/10 Born on the Fourth of July 6/10 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps 6/10 Alexander 5/10
68. Mike Leigh
Director | Secrets & Lies
Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre ...
Naked 8/10 Secrets & Lies 8/10 Life Is Sweet 8/10 Mr. Turner 8/10 Vera Drake 7/10
69. Alain Resnais
Director | Hiroshima mon amour
Alain Resnais was born on June 3, 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on March 1, 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...
Last Year at Marienbad 9/10 Hiroshima mon amour 8/10 Night and Fog 8/10
70. Park Chan-wook
Director | Oldeuboi
Park Chan-wook was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a producer and director, known for Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022). He is married to Eun-hee Kim. They have one child.
Oldboy 10/10 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance 7/10 Lady Vengeance 7/10 The Handmaiden 7/10 Joint Security Area 7/10 I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK 7/10 Decision to Leave 6/10 Stoker 6/10
71. Alejandro Amenábar
Writer | The Others
Is the son of a Spanish mother and a Chilean father. His family moved back to Spain when he was 1 year old, and he grew up and studied in Madrid. He wrote, produced and directed his first short film La cabeza at the age of 19, and he was 23 when he directed his feature debut Thesis (1996). His film ...
The Sea Inside 8/10 Open Your Eyes 8/10 The Others 8/10 Agora 7/10 Thesis 5/10
72. 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 Woolf? 9/10 Carnal Knowledge 8/10 Closer 8/10 Catch-22 7/10 The Graduate 7/10 Angels in America 7/10 Biloxi Blues 7/10 Charlie Wilson's War 6/10
73. 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...
Fight Club 10/10 Se7en 9/10 The Game 8/10 Gone Girl 7/10 Mank 7/10 Alien³ 7/10 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 7/10 Zodiac 7/10 The Killer 7/10 The Social Network 6/10 Panic Room 5/10 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 4/10
74. Carlos Saura
Writer | Carmen
Spanish director, writer, producer (2 films) and actor (2 films). His interest in cinema started when he was very young. His mother, who was a pianist, instilled in him the liking for music, and his brother, Antonio, who was a painter, the passion for art. When he was an teenager he started to ...
Raise Ravens 8/10 The Hunt 8/10 Peppermint Frappé 8/10 Carmen 8/10 Blood Wedding 7/10 Anna and the Wolves 7/10 El amor brujo 7/10
75. Éric Rohmer
Director | Ma nuit chez Maud
Admirers have always had difficulty explaining Éric Rohmer's "Je ne sais quoi." Part of the challenge stems from the fact that, despite his place in French Nouvelle Vague (i.e., New Wave), his work is unlike that of his colleagues. While this may be due to the auteur's unwillingness to conform, ...
Claire's Knee 8/10 My Night at Maud's 8/10 Chloe in the Afternoon 8/10 Pauline at the Beach 7/10 La Collectionneuse 7/10 The Bakery Girl of Monceau Bakery 7/10 Autumn Tale 6/10 A Summer's Tale 6/10 A Tale of Winter 6/10 A Tale of Springtime 6/10 Suzanne's Career 6/10 The Green Ray 5/10
76. Robert Bresson
Writer | Au hasard Balthazar
Robert Bresson trained as a painter before moving into films as a screenwriter, making a short film (atypically a comedy), Public Affairs (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Angels of Sin (1943) in 1943. His next film, The ...
A Man Escaped 8/10 Au hasard Balthazar 8/10 Diary of a Country Priest 7/10 Pickpocket 7/10 L'argent 7/10 Mouchette 6/10
77. Susanne Bier
Director | Hævnen
Though Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award winning writer and director Susanne Bier's work often plays out against a wide-reaching global backdrop, its focus is intimate, carefully exploring the explosive emotions and complexities of familial bonds. This unique combination is part of ...
Open Hearts 8/10 Brothers 8/10 In a Better World 8/10 After the Wedding 8/10 Things We Lost in the Fire 7/10
78. 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 ...
Her 9/10 Being John Malkovich 8/10 Adaptation. 7/10 Where the Wild Things Are 6/10
79. Kenji Mizoguchi
Director | Ugetsu monogatari
Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent era, only his last 12 productions are really known ...
Sansho the Bailiff 8/10 Ugetsu 8/10 The Life of Oharu 8/10 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 7/10 The 47 Ronin 7/10
80. 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 ...
Jules and Jim 9/10 The 400 Blows 7/10 Day for Night 7/10 Shoot the Piano Player 7/10 Bed & Board 7/10 Fahrenheit 451 7/10 The Man Who Loved Women 710 Stolen Kisses 6/10 The Last Metro 6/10 Love on the Run 6/10 Two English Girls 6/10 The Bride Wore Black 6/10
81. 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 Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant 9/10 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 8/10 Katzelmacher 8/10 Veronika Voss 8/10 Fox and His Friends 7/10 Berlin Alexanderplatz 7/10 The Merchant of Four Seasons 6/10 Lola 6/10 The Marriage of Maria Braun 6/10 Beware of a Holy Whore 6/10 The City Tramp 6/10
82. 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 ...
The Bridges of Madison County 9/10 Unforgiven 9/10 Gran Torino 8/10 Mystic River 8/10 Letters from Iwo Jima 8/10 Million Dollar Baby 8/10 Changeling 7/10 Pale Rider 6/10 Richard Jewell 6/10 A Perfect World 6/10 Space Cowboys 6/10 Flags of Our Fathers 6/10 J. Edgar 6/10 Sully 6/10 Cry Macho 5/10 Invictus 5/10 The Rookie 5/10 Sudden Impact 5/10 American Sniper 4/10
83. Thomas Vinterberg
Director | Jagten
With Sidste omgang (1993) (Last Round), his graduation short from The National Film School of Denmark, Thomas Vinterberg got an early taste of critical success. He received the Jury's and Producers' Awards at the International Student Film Fest in Munich and won the 1st Prize at the Tel Aviv Film ...
The Celebration 9/10 The Hunt 9/10 Another Round 7/10 Submarino 7/10 Kursk 6/10
84. Andrzej Wajda
Director | Katyn
Andrzej Wajda is an Academy Award-winning director. He is the most prominent filmmaker in Poland known for The Promised Land (1975), Man of Iron (1981), and Katyn (2007).
He was Born on March 6, 1926, in Suwalki, Poland. His mother, Aniela Wajda, was a teacher at a Ukrainian school. His father, ...
Ashes and Diamonds 8/10 Kanal 7/10 Danton 8/10 A Generation 7/10 Man of Marble 7/10 Man of Iron 7/10 Katyn 7/10
85. Joel Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...
and Ethan Coen
The Big Lebowski 9/10
True Grit 8/10
Miller's Crossing 7/10
Fargo 7/10
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 7/10
O Brother, Where Art Thou? 7/10
A Serious Man 7/10
Barton Fink 7/10
The Man Who Wasn't There 7/10
Paris, je t'aime - "segment" 7/10
Inside Llewyn Davis 7/10
Burn After Reading 6/10
The Hudsucker Proxy 6/10
No Country for Old Men 6/10
The Tragedy of Macbeth 6/10
Hail, Caesar! 6/10
Raising Arizona 5/10
Blood Simple. 5/10
Intolerable Cruelty 5/10
The Ladykillers 3/10
86. Satyajit Ray
Writer | Pather Panchali
Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father, Late Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University, he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie ...
Pather Panchali 9/10 Jalsaghar 8/10 Aparajito 8/10 Apur Sansar 8/10 Agantuk 7/10
87. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
Modern Times 8/10 The Great Dictator 8/10 The Circus 8/10 The Gold Rush 8/10 City Lights 8/10 The Kid 7/10 A Dog's Life 7/10 Monsieur Verdoux 7/10 The Immigrant 6/10 The Vagabond 6/10 The Tramp 6/10 The Cure 6/10 Work 6/10 The Bank 6/10 A Film Johnnie 6/10 The Champion 6/10
88. Jirí Menzel
Director | Ostrzhe sledované vlaky
Jirí Menzel was born on February 23, 1938 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor and director, known for Closely Watched Trains (1966), I Served the King of England (2006) and Larks on a String (1969). He was married to Olga Menzelová-Kelymanová. He died on September 5, ...
Larks on a String 8/10 The Snowdrop Festival 8/10 Closely Watched Trains 8/10 Cutting It Short 7/10 My Sweet Little Village 7/10 I Served the King of England 7/10Capricious Summer 7/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Cello 6/10
89. 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. ...
M 9/10 Metropolis 8/10 Dr. Mabuse 8/10 The Woman in the Window 8/10 Fury 8/10 The Big Heat 7/10 Rancho Notorious 7/10 Die Nibelungen: Siegfried 7/10 Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache 7/10 Secret Beyond the Door... 7/10
90. Hal Ashby
Editor | In the Heat of the Night
Hal Ashby was born the fourth and youngest child in a Mormon household, in Ogden, Utah, to Eileen Ireta (Hetzler) and James Thomas Ashby, on September 2, 1929. His father was a dairy farmer. After a rough childhood that included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, his dropping out of ...
Being There 8/10 The Last Detail 8/10 Coming Home 8/10 Harold and Maude 7/10
91. Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Writer | Gabbeh
Mohsen Makhmalbaf is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.
Many of his films like Salam Cinema, A Moment Of Innocence, Gabbeh, Kandahar and The President have been widely well received across the globe and have brought him ...
A Moment of Innocence 8/10 Gabbeh 8/10 Salam Cinema 8/10 The Silence 8/10 The Cyclist 7/10 Kandahar 7/10
92. 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 ...
Adam's Apples 9/10 Riders of Justice 8/10 Flickering Lights 8/10 The Green Butchers 8/10 Men & Chicken 7/10
93. Howard Hawks
Director | Rio Bravo
What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...
His Girl Friday 8/10 The Big Sleep 7/10 Scarface 7/10 Rio Bravo 7/10 Only Angels Have Wings 7/10 To Have and Have Not 7/10 El Dorado 7/10 Bringing Up Baby 7/10 The Thing from Another World 7/10 The Big Sky 7/10 Red River 6/10 Sergeant York 6/10 Rio Lobo 5/10 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 5/10
94. Fred Zinnemann
Director | A Man for All Seasons
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...
High Noon 8/10 The Day of the Jackal 8/10 From Here to Eternity 7/10 A Man for All Seasons 7/10 Oklahoma 6/10
95. 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...
There Will Be Blood 8/10 The Master 8/10 Licorice Pizza 8/10 Magnolia 7/10 Boogie Nights 7/10 Inherent Vice 6/10 Sydney 6/10 Phantom Thread 6/10 Punch-Drunk Love 6/10
96. 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 10/10 1917 8/10 Revolutionary Road 8/10 Road to Perdition 7/10 Jarhead 7/10 Skyfall 7/10 Away We Go 6/10 Empire of Light 5/10 Spectre 5/10
97. Aki Kaurismäki
Producer | Le Havre
Aki Kaurismäki did a wide variety of jobs including postman, dish-washer and film critic, before forming a production and distribution company, Villealfa (in homage to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)) with his older brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a film-maker. Both Aki and Mika are prolific ...
The Man Without a Past 8/10 La Vie de Bohème 8/10 Le Havre 7/10 Ariel 7/10 Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana 7/10 Shadows in Paradise 7/10 The Match Factory Girl 7/10 The Other Side of Hope 7/10 Calamari Union 7/10 Leningrad Cowboys Go America 7/10 Drifting Clouds 7/10 I Hired a Contract Killer 7/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet - "segment" 7/10 Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses 6/10 Juha 6/10 Lights in the Dusk 6/10
98. Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Producer | Cike Nie Yin Niang
Of the ten films that Hsiao-Hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed ...
The Time To Live And The Time To Die 9/10 A Summer at Grandpa's 8/10 Dust in the Wind 8/10 A City of Sadness 7/10 Café Lumière 7/10 The Puppetmaster 6/10 Flowers of Shanghai 6/10 The Assassin 6/10
99. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Director | Un long dimanche de fiançailles
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a self-taught director who was very quickly interested by cinema, with a predilection for a fantastic cinema where form is as important as the subject. Thus he started directing TV commercials and video clips (such as Julien Clerc in 1984). At the same time he met designer/...
Amélie 9/10 The City of Lost Children 8/10 Delicatessen 7/10 Foutaises 7/10 A Very Long Engagement 7/10 The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet 7/10 Le bunker de la dernière rafale 6/10 Mic Macs à Tire-Larigot 5/10 Alien Resurrection 3/10
100. 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...
Naked Lunch 8/10 Videodrome 7/10 eXistenZ 7/10 The Fly 7/10 Eastern Promises 7/10 Dead Ringers 6/10 A History of Violence 6/10 Crash 6/10 The Dead Zone 5/10
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