Best Directors

It's difficult to name a filmmaker who has walked the line between commercial success and artistic achievement more deftly than Spielberg - a true modern Hollywood mogul with two Best Director Academy Awards (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) on his mantle.

Now eighty and in his fifth decade directing succinct, humanistic films, Eastwood is a no-brainer for this list, what with Best Director wins for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.

Part of the dynamic duo that is the Coen Brothers, director/writer Joel has teamed with producer/writer Ethan to collaborate on some of the more darkly humorous films (Fargo, The Big Lebowski) of the past 20 years. Their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men won both Best Picture and Best Director in 2008.

An astoundingly prolific filmmaker who's work ranges from highbrow (Traffic) to obtuse (Bubble) and everything in between. Helmed one of the most influential indie films ever (sex, lies, and videotape) and steered Julia Roberts to her Best Actress Academy Award in Erin Brockovich.

The very selective Fincher has made two of the more iconic films of the past 20 years - Se7en and The Fight Club - and it' s quite possible his latest, The Social Network, will make it a directorial trifecta.

We can tell you why Jackson's on this list in six words - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Unfairly labeled a 'populist' director, the prolific (13 films in 20 years) Howard has shown he can do it all behind the lens, including winning a Best Director Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind.

Tarantino meshes a kinetic style with an encyclopedic knowledge of the medium to create some of the most memorable films of our time. 1994's Pulp Fiction, with its' fractured, criss-crossing storylines and oft-quoted dialogue, was unlike anything else before it and influenced much that was to follow.

The Taiwanese-born Lee first garnered attention in this country with his adaptation of Sense and Sensibility in the mid 90's and then positively wowed audiences with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. None of this, however, prepared us for the devastating Brokeback Mountain, which earned him Best Director at the 2006 Academy Awards.

With Avatar and Titanic, Cameron's directed (and written) the two highest-grossing films of all-time, which together have made well over 1 billion dollars at the box-office. Two films, 10 figures, enough said.

In the wake of The Dark Knight and on the heels of the mind-bending Inception, the 40 year-old Nolan is perhaps the 'hottest' director on this list. What will he he dream up next?

With Leonardo DiCaprio replacing Robert De Niro as his preferred leading man/muse, the revered, tireless Scorsese finally won his first Best Director statue for 2006's [link=tt0407887The Departed[/link].

As the first, and only, woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director (The Hurt Locker), Bigelow's groundbreaking achievement has earned her spot on this list. That and Point Break.

1996's Trainspotting made us take notice and 28 Days Later ... made us cringe (in a good way), but nothing Boyle had done previously prepared us for the phenomenon that was Slumdog Millionaire, which took home 8 Academy Awards, including one for Best Director.

A brilliant technician who often serves as his own camera operator, Mann has directed Depp, Crowe, Cruise, Smith, Day- Lewis, Pacino and De Niro - all top-tier actors in larger-than-life roles - yet only has one Best Director nod to show for it, for The Insider.

The auteur of ambitious, character-driven epics like Magnolia and Boogie Nights struck gold with 2007's critically acclaimed There Will Be Blood, and there was, led by a ferocious lead performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.

Sir Ridley has consistently directed engrossing, expertly-made films, often featuring Russell Crowe, but this is much more than a sympathy listing. 2000's Gladiator is an almost perfect blend of action and drama and won 5 Academy Awards (not for Best Director, alas).

Lynch makes this list because he helmed the sweet The Straight Story, an 'atypical' film much to everyone's amazement, and then followed it two years later with the unsettling Mulholland Dr., a more Lychian effort, much to everyone's amazement.

Every Cronenberg film is a visceral experience, at once riveting and impossible to watch, e.g., Crash (um, the one that didn't win Best Picture). Even his more recent, conventional work, such as The History of Violence has a controlled, almost unbearable suspense, a mark of director who knows exactly what he's doing.

Never one to shy away from big themes or controversial topics, Stone has made three films about presidents over the past 20 years, including one, W., made while said commander-in-chief was still in office. We like that kind of bravado and a director skilled enough to pull it off.

Although she only has four films to her credit, Coppola has emerged as a unique stylist with her own distinctive filmmaking approach and execution. It's not just us saying that - her latest, the soon-to-be released Somewhere just took home the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Demme has had a fascinating career, building a portfolio that encompasses documentaries, music videos and feature films, one of which - The Silence of the Lambs - earned him a Best Director Academy Award in 1991.

Speaking of eclectic, Van Sant has made highly accessible films (Good Will Hunting), arthouse fare (Gerry) and much in-between (Milk, To Die For), many bearing the hallmark of a director willing to explore lives rarely portrayed on screen.

Love them or hate them (there seems to be no middle ground here), it's hard to argue against the fact that Anderson's films capture an immediately identifiable cinematic landscape, an original tone as it were. So much so that after the release of 1998's Rushmore, he was named “the next Scorsese” by Martin Scorsese himself.

One could make the case that the director of The 40 Year Old Virgin may have the most influential reach of any of his contemporaries, launching the careers of Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Steve Carell and others while creating a new comedy sub-genre - call it the 'bawdy bromance'.