directors
by kkarakondjull | created - 15 Mar 2015 | updated - 29 Jun 2016 | Public
1. Chantal Akerman
Director | Les rendez-vous d'Anna
Chantal Akerman was born on June 6, 1950 in Brussels, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for The Meetings of Anna (1978), I, You, He, She (1974) and A Couch in New York (1996). She was married to Sonia Wieder-Atherton. She died on October 5, 2015 in Paris, France.
Belgium
seen:
No Home Movie (2015)
NOW (2015)
State of the World (2007)
Down There (2006)
From the Other Side (2002)
The Captive (2000)
D'Est (1993)
Night and Day (1991)
J'ai faim, j'ai froid (1984)
A Whole Night (1982)
Anna's Meetings (1978)
News from Home (1977)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Je Tu Il Elle (1974)
Hôtel Monterey (1972)
La chambre (1972)
Saute ma ville (1968)
see:
Almayer's Folly (2011)
Tomorrow We Move (2004)
2. Arthur Lipsett
Director | N-Zone
Arthur Lipsett was born on May 13, 1936 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was a director and editor, known for N-Zone (1970), A Trip Down Memory Lane (1965) and Free Fall (1964). He died on May 1, 1986 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Canada
seen:
A Trip Down Memory Lane (1965)
21-87 (1964)
Free Fall (1964)
Very Nice, Very Nice (1961)
Hors-d'oeuvre (1960)
3. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
USA
seen:
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Shining (1980)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Lolita (1962)
Spartacus (1960)
Paths of Glory (1957)
The Killing (1956)
Killer's Kiss (1955)
Fear and Desire (1953)
The Seafarers (1953)
Flying Padre (1951)
Day of the Fight (1951)
4. Don Hertzfeldt
Director | World of Tomorrow
Don Hertzfeldt was born on August 1, 1976 in Fremont, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for World of Tomorrow (2015), It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011) and The Simpsons (1989).
USA
seen:
World of Tomorrow (2015)
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
Wisdom Teeth (2010)
The Meaning of Life (2005)
Welcome to the Show/Intermission in the Third Dimension/The End of the Show (2003)
Rejected (2000)
Billy's Balloon (1998)
Lily and Jim (1997)
Genre (1996)
Ah, L'Amour (1995)
5. 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.
Australia
seen:
Dead Poets Society (1989)
The Truman Show (1998)
6. David Michôd
Writer | The King
David Michôd is known for The King (2019), Animal Kingdom (2010) and The Rover (2014). He is married to Mirrah Foulkes.
Australia
seen:
Crossbow (2007)
see:
Animal Kingdom (2010)
7. Ulrich Seidl
Producer | Rimini
Ulrich Seidl was born on November 24, 1952 in Vienna, Austria. He is a producer and director, known for Rimini (2022), Paradise: Love (2012) and Goodnight Mommy (2014). He is married to Veronika Franz. They have two children.
Austria
seen:
Paradise: Love (2012)
Paradise: Faith (2012)
Paradise: Hope (2013)
see:
Dog Days (2001)
Import/Export (2007)
Jesus, You Know (2003)
8. 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 ...
Austria-Hungary
seen:
Double Indemnity (1944)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
see:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Apartment (1960)
9. 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 ...
Argentina
seen:
Carne (1991)
Sodomites (1998)
I Stand Alone (1998)
Irreversible (2002)
Enter the Void (2009)
see:
Love (2015)
10. Agnès Varda
Director | Cléo de 5 à 7
Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.
Belgium
seen:
The Gleaners & I (2000)
see:
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Le Bonheur (1965)
The Beaches of Agnès (2008)
11. Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Producer | Deux jours, une nuit
After studying drama in the arts institute, Jean Pierre Dardenne and his brother Luc made some videos about the rough life in blue-collar small towns in the Wallonie. After their meeting with filmmaker Armad Gatti and cinematographer Ned Burgess, they decided to enter in the movie business.
In 1978 ...
Belgium
seen:
Rosetta (1999)
see:
The Kid with a Bike (2011)
Two Days, One Night (2014)
La Promesse (1996)
The Son (2002)
L'enfant (2005)
The Silence of Lorna (2008)
12. Luc Dardenne
Producer | Deux jours, une nuit
Luc Dardenne was born on March 10, 1954 in Awirs, Wallonia, Belgium. He is a producer and director, known for Two Days, One Night (2014), The Kid with a Bike (2011) and The Child (2005).
Belgium
seen:
Rosetta (1999)
see:
The Kid with a Bike (2011)
Two Days, One Night (2014)
La Promesse (1996)
The Son (2002)
L'enfant (2005)
The Silence of Lorna (2008)
13. Fernando Meirelles
Director | The Constant Gardener
Fernando Meirelles was born in a middle class family in São Paulo City, Brazil.
He studied architecture at the university of São Paulo. At the same time he developed an interest in filmmaking. With a group of friends he started producing experimental videos and video art. They won a huge number of ...
Brazil
seen:
City of God (2002)
see:
The Constant Gardener (2005)
14. Ivan Andonov
Director | Vchera
Ivan Andonov graduated from the National Academy of Theater and Film Art in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1956. He is one of the most important Bulgarian cinema actors. Since 1965 he is a director and designer in animation. The films 'Difficulty', 'Esperanza' and 'Melodrama' bring him international awards and...
Bulgaria
seen:
Vchera (1988)
Opasen Char (1984)
see:
Byala magiya (1982)
Dami kanyat (1980)
15. Kamen Kalev
Director | Iztochni piesi
Kamen Kalev was born on June 8, 1975 in Burgas, Bulgaria. He is a director and writer, known for Eastern Plays (2009), February (2020) and Face Down (2015).
Bulgaria
seen:
Eastern Plays (2009)
see:
The Island (2011)
16. Jean-Marc Vallée
Director | C.R.A.Z.Y.
Jean-Marc Vallée was a Canadian filmmaker, editor and screenwriter from Montreal. He directed Black List, C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria, Wild, Dallas Buyers Club, Los Locos, Loser Love and Café de Flore. He also created the HBO shows Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. He was married to Chantal ...
Canada
seen:
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
see:
Café de Flore (2011)
C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
17. 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...
Canada
seen:
Eastern Promises (2007)
A Dangerous Method (2011)
Cosmopolis (2012)
see:
Maps to the Stars (2014)
The Fly (1986)
Naked Lunch (1991)
A History of Violence (2005)
18. Michael Snow
Director | Wavelength
Central figure of the American avant-garde. An artist who made an isolated animated short, A to Z (1956), Snow concentrated on his painting career until moving to New York in 1963. After attending avant-garde film screenings organized by critic-filmmaker Jonas Mekas and turning out a second film, ...
Canada
seen:
Wavelength (1967)
see:
A to Z (1956)
La région centrale (1971)
So Is This (1983)
19. Craig Welch
Director | How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels
Craig Welch was born on September 27, 1948 in Canada. He was a director and actor, known for How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels (1996), No Problem (1992) and Disconnected (1988). He died on May 18, 2020 in Canada.
Canada
seen:
How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels (1997)
No Problem (1992)
Disconnected (1988)
20. 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 ...
China
seen:
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Chungking Express (1994)
Happy Together (1997)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Days of Being Wild (1990)
2046 (2004)
Hua yang de nian hua (2000)
My Blueberry Nights (2007)
The Grandmaster (2013)
The Follow (2001)
Six Days (2002)
see:
As Tears Go By (1988)
Ashes of Time (1994)
21. Ang Lee
Director | Wo hu cang long
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
China
seen:
Life of Pi (2012)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
see:
The Ice Storm (1997)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Taking Woodstock (2009)
22. 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 ...
Czechoslovakia
seen:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Amadeus (1984)
Man on the Moon (1999)
The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
see:
Goya's Ghosts (2006)
The Loves of a Blonde (1965)
The Fireman's Ball (1967)
23. Vera Chytilová
Director | O necem jiném
Vera Chytilová was born on February 2, 1929, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). She studied philosophy and architecture in Brno for two years, then worked as a technical draftsman, a designer, a fashion model, a photo re-toucher, then worked as a clapper girl for Barrandov Film ...
Czechoslovakia
seen:
Daisies (1966)
see:
Fruit of Paradise (1970)
24. 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 ...
Denmark
seen:
The Five Obstructions (2003)
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
Antichrist (2009)
Melancholia (2011)
see:
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Dogville (2003)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
The Boss of It All (2006)
25. 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 ...
Denmark
seen:
The Hunt (2012)
see:
Festen (1998)
Submarino (2010)
26. 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. ...
Denmark
seen:
Only God Forgives (2013)
Drive (2011)
Bronson (2008)
Valhalla Rising (2009)
see:
Pusher Trilogy
27. Carl Theodor Dreyer
Writer | Gertrud
The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the ...
Denmark
see:
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Vampyr (1932)
28. Quentin Dupieux
Writer | Rubber
Quentin Dupieux was born on April 14, 1974 in Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He is a writer and director, known for Rubber (2010), Le daim (2019) and Reality (2014).
France
seen:
Reality (2014)
Wrong (2012)
Rubber (2010)
29. 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 ...
France
seen:
Léon (1994)
The Fifth Element (1997)
see:
The Fifth Element (1997)
Nikita (1990)
The Big Blue (1988)
30. 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 ...
France
see:
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Pickpocket (1959)
31. Leos Carax
Director | Holy Motors
Leos Carax made several short films and also wrote film criticism, then at the age of 24 years made a very strong first feature Boy Meets Girl (1984). The film played at the 1984 Cannes film festival and was a critical triumph. It paved the way for Carax's second feature Bad Blood (1986) (Bad Blood...
France
seen:
Holy Motors (2012)
Tokyo! (2008)
see:
The Night Is Young (1986)
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991)
32. 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 ...
France
seen:
Pierrot le Fou (1965)
Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
Breathless (1960)
see:
Bande à Part (1964)
Le Mépris (1963)
Une Femme est une Femme (1961)
Masculin Féminin (1966)
Weekend (1967)
33. Michel Gondry
Director | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band ...
France
seen:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Science of Sleep (2006)
Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (2013)
Mood Indigo (2013)
Tokyo! (2008)
The Green Hornet (2011)
34. 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/...
France
seen:
Amélie (2001)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Delicatessen (1991)
Micmacs (2009)
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
35. Louis Malle
Director | Au revoir les enfants
Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...
France
seen:
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)
see:
Black Moon (1975)
Lift to the Scaffold (1958)
Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
36. Chris Marker
Writer | Twelve Monkeys
Chris Marker was born on July 29, 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and director, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Sans Soleil (1983) and Third Side of the Coin (1960). He died on July 29, 2012 in Paris, France.
France
seen:
Sans Soleil (1983)
Le mystère Koumiko (1967)
La Jetée (1962)
Letter from Siberia (1957)
see:
The Base of the Air Is Red (1977)
Le joli mai (1963)
37. Jacques Audiard
Writer | De rouille et d'os
Born in Paris, France, in 1952. Jacques Audiard's family has always been involved in movie business. His father, Michel, was a popular screenwriter and director and his uncle a producer. But in his teens he refused that world and wanted to be a teacher. He studied literature and philosophy at the ...
France
seen:
Rust and Bone (2012)
see:
A Prophet (2009)
Dheepan (2015)
38. Jean-Pierre Melville
Writer | Le Samouraï
The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...
France
seen:
Le Samouraï (1967)
see:
The Army of Shadows (1969)
39. Jean Renoir
Writer | La règle du jeu
Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...
France
see:
La Grande Illusion (1937)
La Règle du Jeu (1939)
40. 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, ...
France
seen:
Toute la mémoire du monde (1956)
Night and Fog (1955)
see:
Last Year in Marienbad (1961)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
41. 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, ...
France
seen:
My Night with Maud (1969)
see:
Love in the Afternoon (1972)
42. Jean Rouch
Director | Moi, un noir
Jean Rouch was born on May 31, 1917 in Paris, France. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Moi, un noir (1958), Madame L'Eau (1993) and Six in Paris (1965). He was married to Joselyne Lamothe. He died on February 18, 2004 in Birni N'Konni, Niger.
France
seen:
Chronicle of a Summer (1961)
The Human Pyramid (1961)
see:
Jaguar (1967)
43. 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 ...
France
seen:
The 400 Blows (1959)
see:
Jules and Jim (1962)
Shoot the Pianist (1960)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
44. Sylvain Chomet
Director | Les triplettes de Belleville
Sylvain Chomet was born on November 10, 1963 in Maisons-Laffitte, Seine-et-Oise [now Yvelines, Île-de-France], France. He is a director and writer, known for The Triplets of Belleville (2003), The Illusionist (2010) and Paris, I Love You (2006).
France
seen:
The Illusionist (2010)
La vieille dame et les pigeons (1997)
Paris, je t'aime (2006)
see:
Belleville Rendez-vous (2003)
Attila Marcel (2013)
45. Mathieu Kassovitz
Actor | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
Mathieu Kassovitz was born on August 3, 1967 in Paris, France. He is an actor and director, known for Amélie (2001), La haine (1995) and The Fifth Element (1997).
France
seen:
La Haine (1995)
Babylon A.D. (2008)
Fierrot le pou (1990)
46. 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. ...
Germany
seen:
M (1931)
see:
Metropolis (1927)
*1 Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922)
*2 The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
*3 The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960)
Fritz Lang first introduced the world to cinema’s most famous criminal mastermind with his startlingly modern, four-and-a-half hour silent epic, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler. The Mabuse narrative would span Lang’s entire career, the subtitle with which The Gambler opens – “An Image of Our Times” – as apt for its 1933 follow-up, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (one of the key texts of German Expressionism) as it is for his 1960 swansong, The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.
While the first film tipped its hat to the previous decade’s Louis Feuillade serials, it’s the second film – charting the spread of the insane doctor’s diabolical influence through his criminal empire – that proved most retrospectively prescient, given it’s concurrence with the rise of Hitler. Mabuse himself may be long dead come Lang’s final masterpiece, but his insidious methods of social control have been appropriated and integrated into the everyday by a new generation of monsters bearing his name. As warnings – that evil doesn’t die, it just wears a different mask – go, they don’t come more terrifying.
47. 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 ...
Germany
seen:
Amour (2012)
The Piano Teacher (2001)
see:
The White Ribbon (2009)
Caché (2005)
Funny Games (1997)
Funny Games (2007)
48. 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...
Germany
seen:
Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
*Burden of Dreams (1982)
49. F.W. Murnau
Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air ...
Germany
seen:
Sunrise (1927)
The Last Laugh (1924)
see:
Nosferatu (1922)
Faust (1926)
50. Max Ophüls
Director | La ronde
Director Max Ophüls was born Max Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany. He began his career as a stage actor and director in the golden twenties. He worked in cities such as Stuttgart, Dortmund, Wuppertal, Vienna, Frankfurt, Breslau and Berlin. In 1929 his son Marcel Ophüls was born in Frankfurt, ...
Germany
see:
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Le Plaisir (1952)
51. 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...
Germany
seen:
Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
see:
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
52. 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 ...
Germany
seen:
The Salt of the Earth (2014)
Pina (2011)
Paris, Texas (1984)
see:
Wings of Desire (1987)
53. 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 ...
Germany
seen:
The Birdcage (1996)
The Graduate (1967)
see:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
54. 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 ...
Germany
seen:
Das Experiment (2001)
see:
Downfall (2004)
55. Wolfgang Becker
Director | Good Bye Lenin!
Wolfgang Becker was born on June 22, 1954 in Hemer, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Good Bye Lenin! (2003), Schmetterlinge (1988) and Child's Play (1992).
Germany
seen:
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
see:
Life is All You Get (1997)
56. 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 ...
Greece
seen:
Eternity and a Day (1998)
see:
*1 Voyage to Cythera (1984)
*2 The Beekeeper (1986)
*3 Landscape in the Mist (1988)
No one loved a trilogy quite like Theo Angelopoulos; the Greek maestro had just started production on the final part of his fourth when he was tragically killed back in 2012. We could have chosen the earlier Trilogy of History for the purposes of this list, given its magnificent climax with his four-hour 1975 epic The Travelling Players, but then one can sling darts at Angelopoulos’ CV blindfolded and chances are you’ll hit a masterpiece.
If the earlier trilogy offered a more pronounced historical and political discourse, that which followed served to internalise such concerns, fusing them inseparably to the personal to create arguably his greatest works. “History is now silent,” said Angelopoulos of his second trilogy, “and we are all trying to find answers by digging into ourselves, for it is terribly difficult to live in silence.” Tackling respectively – in the director’s words – the silence of History, Love and God, the three films see Angelopoulos at the height of his creative powers (although he wouldn’t take the Palme d’Or at Cannes until 1998, for Eternity and a Day). The final part, Landscape in the Mist is the filmmaker’s crowning achievement, its majestic final shot one of the most unforgettable in cinema.
57. 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,...
Greece
seen:
The Lobster (2015)
Dogtooth (2009)
see:
Alps (2011)
58. 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 ...
India
see:
*1 Pather Panchali (1955)
*2 Aparajito (1957)
*3 The World of Apu (1959)
“I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it,” said Kurosawa of Pather Panchali, “I have had several more opportunities to see the film since then and each time I feel more overwhelmed. It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river”.
Adapted from the source novels by Bengal author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, each of the three films in Satyajit Ray’s exquisite trilogy charts a different stage in the development of protagonist, Apu. Pather Panchali – as well as being one of the most extraordinary debuts in cinema – provides one of its richest evocations of childhood. It’s follow-up, Aparajito begins in 1920 with an older Apu, and goes on to the chart the clash between tradition and modernity as embodied in the incompatible values of mother and son. The third film, The World of Apu may find Ray at his most uncharacteristically sentimental come the final reconciliation between Apu and his son, but it also demonstrates the director’s mastery of the medium at full power, and it’s a hard heart that fails to be moved.
59. Bernardo Bertolucci
Writer | Il conformista
Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (...
Italy
seen:
The Dreamers (2003)
see:
The Conformist (1970)
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
60. 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 ...
Italy
seen:
Umberto D. (1952)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Shoeshine (1946)
see:
The Children Are Watching Us (1944)
61. Roberto Rossellini
Writer | Roma città aperta
The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American ...
Italy
seen:
Germany Year Zero (1948)
Paisan (1946)
Rome, Open City (1945)
see:
Il Generale Della Rovere (1959)
Journey to Italy (1954)
62. 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 ...
Italy
seen:
8½ (1963)
I Vitelloni (1953)
see:
La Dolce Vita (1960)
La Strada (1954)
Amarcord (1973)
The Nights of Cabiria (1957)
63. 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...
Italy
seen:
Il divo: La spettacolare vita di Giulio Andreotti (2008)
see:
The Great Beauty (2013)
64. 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 ...
Iran
seen:
Ten (2002)
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Close-Up (1990)
see:
*1 Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987)
*2 And Life Goes On (1992)
*3 Through the Olive Trees (1994)
Abbas Kiarostami’s return to Koker – five years after his first film set in the northern Iranian town – was a response to the 1990 earthquake that devastated the region, claiming upwards of 50,000 lives. While his 1987 film, Where Is the Friend’s House? was a deceptively simple tale of a young boy’s attempt to return a school mate’s notebook, the subsequent works would blur the lines between fiction and documentary, creating – seen as a whole – a reflexive hall of mirrors that questions our perception of narrative and cinematic reality.
While And Life Goes On sees an actor portraying the first film’s director in search of its child stars, Through the Olive Trees begins by unveiling a further layer to the trilogy’s meta-fictional onion, as a second actor reveals himself as director of the previous film. Of course, thrice-removed – framing the wreckage of the natural and social landscape through his trademark long takes – is Kiarostami himself, that grand inquisitor of cinematic representation and the illusive fallibility of its truths.
65. Ana Lily Amirpour
Director | A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ana Lily Amirpour was born in Margate, Kent, England, UK. She is a director and writer, known for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), The Bad Batch (2016) and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2021).
Iran
seen:
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
66. Lenny Abrahamson
Director | Room
Lenny Abrahamson was born in Dublin in 1966. He studied physics and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. While at university he directed short videos with the Trinity Video Society, which he co-founded with Ed Guiney. He graduated in 1991 with first class honours (gold medal). His first short film...
Ireland
seen:
Room (2015)
Frank (2014)
What Richard Did (2012)
Adam & Paul (2004)
67. Ari Folman
Writer | The Congress
Ari Folman was born on December 17, 1962 in Haifa, Israel. He is a writer and director, known for The Congress (2013), Waltz with Bashir (2008) and Saint Clara (1996).
Israel
seen:
The Congress (2013)
Waltz with Bashir (2008)
see:
Saint Clara (1996)
68. 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...
Japan
seen:
Yojimbo (1961)
see:
Seven samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
Dreams (1990)
69. 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 ...
Japan
seen:
Late Spring (1949)
Early Summer (1951)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Good Morning (1959)
see:
I Was Born, But…. (1932)
A Hen in the Wind (1948)
Early Spring (1956)
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Equinox Flower (1958)
Floating Weeds (1959)
Late Autumn (1960)
The End of Summer (1961)
An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Tokyo Story (1953)
70. 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 ...
Japan
seen:
Spirited away (2001)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
The Wind Rises (2013)
see:
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Porco Rosso (1992)
The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
Ponyo (2008)
71. Katsuhito Ishii
Director | Cha no aji
Katsuhito Ishii was born on December 31, 1966 in Niigata, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for The Taste of Tea (2004), Naisu no mori: The First Contact (2005) and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003).
Japan
seen:
The Taste of Tea (2004)
see:
Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005)
72. 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), ...
Japan
see:
Nobody Knows (2004)
Still Walking (2008)
Like Father, Like Son (2013)
73. 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.
Japan
see:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer (1961)
Best known in the west for his later masterpieces Harakiri (1962) and Kwaidan (1964), Masaki Kobayashi’s most personal work took the form of his monumental epic, The Human Condition. Adapted from the six-volume novel by Junpei Gomikawa, the film’s running time offers little change from 10 hours of viewing. Unsurprisingly released in three lengthy parts by the Shochiku studio between 1959 and 1961, it remains a single work, a fierce anti-war statement charting the gradual moral compromise of an idealistic pacifist (brilliantly played by Tatsuya Nakadai), slowly broken down by brutality and bureaucracy.
Despite some early dialogue stating Masaki’s case as bluntly as the film’s title (“I’m boarding this run-down truck, but you’re trying to catch the train of humanism before it’s too late”), the cumulative effect of Nakadai’s physical and mental degradation hits hard come Part III’s snowbound climax. The director’s eye for striking visuals – not least his movement of bodies through the frame – carries a solemn weight: the tragic impotence of Part I’s half-starved Chinese labourers, in a slow-march protest against the execution of their comrades, resignedly filing back to incarceration, proves heartbreaking, but merely the tip of the iceberg with seven hours still to go.
74. Isao Takahata
Director | Hotaru no haka
Isao Takahata was born on October 29, 1935 in Ise, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Pom Poko (1994) and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He died on April 5, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
Japan
seen:
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
see:
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
Only Yesterday (1991)
75. 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 ...
Japan
seen:
Sanshô dayû (1954)
see:
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
76. 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 ...
Japan
seen:
Paprika (2006)
see:
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Perfect Blue (1997)
Millennium Actress (2001)
77. Osamu Tezuka
Writer | Tenrankai no e
Tezuka Osamu was born on November 3, 1928 in Toyonaka, Japan as the first child of Fumiko & Yutaka Tezuka. At 5, he & his family moved to the village of Kohama in Hyogo prefecture (present day city of Takarazuka). When he was 7, he entered Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka. Due to his diminutive ...
Japan
seen:
Mori no densetsu (1987)
Muramasa (1987)
Broken Down Film (1985)
Jumping (1984)
Memory (1964)
Ningyo (1964)
78. Takashi Itô
Director | Zone
Takashi Itô was born in February 1956 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Zone (1995), The Moon (1994) and Toward Zero (2021).
Japan
seen:
The Moon (1994)
Ghost (1984)
Thunder (1982)
Spacy (1981)
79. 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 ...
Mexico
seen:
The Revenant (2015)
Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Biutiful (2010)
Babel (2006)
21 Grams (2003)
Amores Perros (2000)
80. Alfonso Cuarón
Producer | Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then ...
Mexico
seen:
Gravity (2013)
Children of Men (2006)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
see:
Sólo con tu pareja (1991)
A Little Princess (1995)
81. 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 ...
Mexico
seen:
Pacific Rim (2013)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Hellboy (2004)
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
82. Carlos Reygadas
Producer | Stellet Licht
Carlos Reygadas was born on October 10, 1971 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He is a producer and director, known for Silent Light (2007), Japan (2002) and Post Tenebras Lux (2012). He is married to Natalia López.
Mexico
seen:
Post Tenebras Lux (2012)
Japan (2002)
see:
Silent Light (2007)
Battle in Heaven (2005)
83. 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 (...
Poland
seen:
Three Colours: Red (1994)
Three Colours: White (1994)
Three Colours: Blue (1993)
see:
The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
A Short Film About Love (1988)
A Short Film About Killing (1988)
Blind Chance (1987)
No End (1985)
Camera Buff (1979)
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, ...
Poland
see:
*1 A Generation (1954)
*2 Kanal (1956)
*3 Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
85. 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).
Romania
seen:
Beyond the Hills (2012)
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (2007)
see:
Occident (2002)
Tales from the Golden Age (2009)
86. 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...
Russia
seen:
The Sacrifice (1986)
Nostalgia (1983)
Stalker (1979)
The Mirror (1975)
Solaris (1972)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Ivan's Childhood (1962)
The Steamroller and the Violin (1961)
87. 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.
South Korea
seen:
*2 Oldboy (2003)
see:
*1 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
*3 Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2004)
88. 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 ...
Spain
seen:
The Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
L'Age d'Or (1930)
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
see:
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
89. 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 (...
Sweden
seen:
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
see:
Persona (1966)
From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
*1 Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
*2 Winter Light (1963)
*3 The Silence (1963)
Whether due to metaphysical progress or by virtue of some special arrangement, in 1976, if you were feeling troubled or life was getting you down, you could pick up the cosmic blower and have a talk with God – at least, you could if you were Stevie Wonder. A decade or so earlier, on the Scandinavian island of Fårö, it was a different story for one Ingmar Bergman; furiously scrawling ‘hotline to the maker’ on any number of polystyrene cups, only to puzzle over the attached string’s listless droop into the void.
Such theocentric failures of communication form the spine of the director’s early 60s trilogy; from the paranoid psychological breakdown of Through a Glass Darkly (in which a schizophrenic girl finds God manifested in the form of a spider), to the emotional chasm between two sisters investigated by The Silence, whose formal experiments prefigure Bergman’s 1966 masterpiece, Persona. It’s Winter Light that proves the trilogy’s high point however, as Bergman simultaneously escalates and undercuts his trademark austerity with a sardonic wit blacker than any he’d demonstrate elsewhere.
90. Roy Andersson
Director | En kärlekshistoria
Roy Arne Lennart Andersson is a Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdist humor and melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by long takes, and stiff caricaturing of Swedish culture and grotesque. Over his career Andersson earned ...
Sweden
seen:
Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
see:
You, the Living (2007)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
91. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Director | Memoria
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970, Bangkok) grew up in Khon Kaen, a city in the north east of Thailand. He has a degree in Architecture from Khon Kaen University and a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been making films and videos since the ...
Thailand
seen:
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
see:
Tropical Malady (2004)
92. 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. ...
Turkey
seen:
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
see:
Winter Sleep (2014)
93. 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 ...
UK
seen:
The Birds (1963)
Psycho (1960)
Vertigo (1958)
Rear Window (1954)
Rope (1948)
Notorious (1946)
see:
North by Northwest (1959)
94. Lynne Ramsay
Director | You Were Never Really Here
Lynne Ramsay was born on December 5, 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for You Were Never Really Here (2017), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Ratcatcher (1999). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.
UK
seen:
Swimmer (2012)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Morvern Callar (2002)
Kill the Day (2000)
Ratcatcher (1999)
Gasman (1998)
Small Deaths (1996)
95. Andrea Arnold
Director | American Honey
Andrea Arnold was born on April 5, 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for American Honey (2016), Fish Tank (2009) and Red Road (2006).
UK
seen:
Fish Tank (2009)
Red Road (2006)
Wasp (2003)
see:
Wuthering Heights (2011)
96. 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 ...
UK
seen:
The Spirit of '45 (2013)
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
The Navigators (2001)
Kes (1969)
see:
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
Family Life (1971)
97. David Lean
Director | Lawrence of Arabia
An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...
UK
seen:
Brief Encounter (1945)
see:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
98. John Smith
Director | Dad's Stick
John Smith was born in 1952 in London, England, UK. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Dad's Stick (2012), Blight (1996) and Regression (1999).
UK
seen:
Gargantuan (1992)
Om (1986)
Dad's Stick (2012)
99. 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 ...
UK
seen:
The Counsellor (2013)
Prometheus (2012)
American Gangster (2007)
Gladiator (2000)
Blade Runner (1982)
Alien (1979)
see:
Thelma & Louise (1991)
100. Matthew Vaughn
Producer | Kick-Ass
Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director. He is known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) and for directing the crime thriller, Layer Cake (2004), the fantasy epic, Stardust (2007), the superhero comedy, Kick-Ass (2010), and the ...
UK
seen:
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Kick-Ass (2010)
Stardust (2007)
see:
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Layer Cake (2004)
Tell Your Friends