My Favorite Film-Makers

1. Martin Scorsese

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 ...

Mean Streets (1973) Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Taxi Driver (1976) New York, New York (1977) The Last Waltz (1978 Doc) Raging Bull (1980) The King of Comedy (1983) After Hours (1985) The Color of Money (1986) The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Goodfellas (1990) Cape Fear (1991) The Age of Innocence (1993) Casino (1995) Kundun (1997) Bringing Out the Dead (1999) Gangs of New York (2002) The Aviator (2004) The Departed (2006) Shine A Light (2008 Doc) Shutter Island (2010) George Harrison: Living In A Material World (2011 Doc) Hugo (2011) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) The 50 Year Argument (2014) Silence (2016) Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019 Doc) The Irishman (2019) Killers of the Flower Moon (2022)

2. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

Jaws (1975) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) 1941 (1979) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) The Color Purple (1985) Empire of the Sun (1987) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Hook (1991) Jurassic Park (1993) Schindler's List (1993) The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Amistad (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Minority Report (2002) Catch Me If You Can (2002) The Terminal (2004) War of the Worlds (2005) Munich (2005) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) The Adventures of Tin-Tin (2011) War Horse (2011) Lincoln (2012) Bridge of Spies (2015) The BFG (2016) Ready Player One (2018) West Side Story (2021) The Fabelmans (2022)

3. 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 (1972) The Conversation (1974) The Godfather: Part II (1974) Apocalypse Now (1979) One From the Heart (1982) The Outsiders (1983) Rumble Fish (1983) The Cotton Club (1984) Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) Gardens of Stone (1987) Tucker: A Man and His Dream (1988) The Godfather: Part III (1990) Dracula (1992) Jack (1996) The Rainmaker (1997) Youth Without Youth (2007) Tetro (2009) Twixt (2011) Distant Vision (2016)

4. 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 ...

& Ethan of course, The Coen Brothers.

Blood Simple. (1984) Raising Arizona (1987) Millers Crossing (1990) Barton Fink (1991) The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) Intolerable Cruelty (2003) The Ladykillers (2004) No Country for Old Men (2007) Burn After Reading (2008) A Serious Man (2009) True Grit (2010) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Hail, Caesar! (2015) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) {Joel Coen} Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022 Doc) {Ethan Coen}

5. 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 ...

Paths of Glory (1957) Spartacus (1960) Lolita (1962) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Barry Lyndon (1975) The Shinning (1980) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

6. 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...

Hard Eight (1996) Boogie Nights (1997) Magnolia (1999) Punch-Drunk Love (2002) There Will Be Blood (2007) The Master (2012) Inherent Vice (2014) Phantom Thread (2017) Licorice Pizza (2021)

7. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

Following (1998) Memento (2000) Insomnia (2002) Batman Begins (2005) Prestige (2006) The Dark Knight (2008) Inception (2010) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Interstellar (2014) Dunkirk (2017) Tenet (2020) Oppenheimer (2023)

8. 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 ...

Take the Money and Run (1969) Bananas (1971) Sleeper (1973) Annie Hall (1977) Manhattan (1979) Stardust Memories (1980) Broadway Danny Rose (1984) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Hannah and her Sisters (1986) Radio Days (1987) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Alice (1990) Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) Bullets Over Broadway (1994) Mighty Aphrodite (1995) Everyone Say's I Love You (1996) Deconstructing Harry (1997) Celebrity (1998) Sweet and Lowdown (1999) The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) Melinda and Melinda (2004) Match Point (2005) Cassandra's Dream (2007) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) Midnight in Paris (2011) To Rome With Love (2012) Blue Jasmine (2013) Magic in the Moonlight (2014) Irrational Man (2015) Café Society (2016) Wonder Wheel (2017) A Rainy Day in New York (2019) Rifkin's Festival (2020)

9. 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...

Alien 3 (1992) Se7en (1995) The Game (1997) Fight Club (1999) Panic Room (2002) Zodiac (2007) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) The Social Network (2010) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Gone Girl (2014) Mank (2020) The Killer (????)

10. Wes Anderson

Director | Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an ...

Bottle Rocket (1996) Rushmore (1998) The Royal Tenenbaums (2002) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Moonrise Kingdom (2012) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Isle of Dogs (2018) The French Dispatch (2021) Asteroid City (2022) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (????)

11. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clinton Eastwood Jr. 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 Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...

Play Misty for Me (1971) High Plains Drifter (1973) The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) Sudden Impact (1983) Pale Rider (1985) Heartbreak Ridge (1986) Bird (1988) White Hunter Black Heart (1990) The Rookie (1990) Unforgiven (1992) A Perfect World (1993) The Bridges of Madison County (1995) Absolute Power (1997) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) True Crime (1999) Space Cowboys (2000) Blood Work (2002) Mystic River (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Flags of our Fathers (2006) Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) Changeling (2008) Gran Torino (2008) Invictus (2009) Hereafter (2010) J. Edgar (2011) Jersey Boys (2014) American Sniper (2014) Sully (2016) The 15:17 to Paris (2018) The Mule (2018) Richard Jewell (2019) Cry Macho (2021)

12. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

Trainspotting (1996) A Life Less Ordinary (1997) The Beach (2000) 28 Days Later (2002) Millions (2004) Sunshine (2007) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 127 Hours (2010) Trance (2013) Steve Jobs (2015) T2 Trainspotting (2017) Yesterday (2019)

13. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...

Dead Alive (1992) Heavenly Creatures (1994) The Frighteners (1996) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) King Kong (2005) The Lovely Bones (2009) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) They Shall Not Grow Old (2018 Doc) The Beatles: Get Back - The Rooftop Concert (2022 Doc)

14. Steven Soderbergh

Director | Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the second of six children of Mary Ann (Bernard) and Peter Soderbergh. His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, and his mother was of Italian ancestry. While he was still at a very young age, his family moved to ...

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) Kafka (1991) Out of Sight (1998) Erin Brockovich (2000) Traffic (2000) Ocean's Eleven (2001) Full Frontal (2002) Solaris (2002) Ocean's Twelve (2004) The Good German (2006) Ocean's Thirteen (2007) Che: Part 1 (2008) Che: Part 2 (2008) The Girlfriend Experience (2009) The Informant (2009) Contagion (2011) Haywire (2011) Magic Mike (2012) Side Effects (2013) Behind the Candelabra (2013) Mosaic (2017) Lucky Logan (2017) Unsane (2018) High Flying Bird (2019) The Laundromat (2019) Let Them All Talk (2020) No Sudden Move (2021) Kimi (2022) Magic Mike's Last Dance (????)

15. David O. Russell

Director | American Hustle

David Owen Russell is an American film writer, director, and producer, known for a cinema of intense, tragi-comedic characters whose love of life can surpass dark circumstances faced in very specific worlds. His films address such themes as mental illness as stigma or hope; invention of self and ...

Flirting With Disaster (1996) Three Kings (1999) I Heart Huckabees (2004) The Fighter (2010) The Silver Linings Playbook (2012) American Hustle (2013) Accidental Love (2015) Joy (2015) Amsterdam (2022)

16. Sofia Coppola

Actress | The Godfather Part III

Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and ...

The Virgin Suicides (1999) Lost in Translation (2003) Marie Antoinette (2006) Somewhere (2010) The Bling Ring (2013) A Very Murray Christmas (2015) The Beguiled (2017) On the Rocks (2020)

17. Julie Taymor

Director | Frida

Julie Taymor is an Academy Award-nominated director, known for such films as Frida (2002) and Across the Universe (2007).

She was born on December 15, 1952, in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Her father, Melvin Lester Taymor, was a gynecologist. Her mother, Elizabeth Bernstein, was a ...

Fool's Fire (1992) Titus (1999) Frida (2002) Across the Universe (2007) The Tempest (2010) Julie Taymor's A Midsummers Night's Dream (2014) The Glorias (2020)

18. 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 Cookoo's Nest (1975) Hair (1979) Ragtime (1981) Amadeus (1984) Valmont (1989) The People vs Larry Flynt (1996) Man on the Moon (1999) Goya's Ghost (2006) A Walk Worthwhile (2009)

19. Tim Burton

Producer | Edward Scissorhands

Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was ...

Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) Beetlejuice (1988) Batman (1989) Edward Scissorhands (1990) Batman Returns (1992) Ed Wood (1994) Mars Attacks! (1996) Sleepy Hollow (1999) Planet of the Apes (2001) Big Fish (2003) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Corpse Bride (2005) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Alice in Wonderland (2010) Dark Shadows (2012) Frankenweenie (2012) Big Eyes (2014) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) Dumbo (2019)

20. 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 ...

Being John Malkovich (1999) Adaptation. (2002) Where the Wold Things Are (2009) Her (2013) Beastie Boys Story (2020 Doc)

21. 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 ...

Alien (1979) Blade Runner (1982) Legend (1985) Thelma & Louise (1991) 1941: Conquest of Paradise (1992) G. I. Jane (1997) Gladiator (2000) Hannibal (2001) Black Hawk Down (2001) Matchstick Men (2003) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) American Gangster (2007) Body of Lies (2008) Robin Hood (2010) Prometheus (2012) The Vatican (2013) The Counsellor (2013) Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) The Martian (2015) Alien Covenant (2017) All the Money in the World (2017) The Last Duel (2021) House of Gucci (2021) Napoleon (????)

22. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme was born on February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on April 26, 2017 in ...

Stop Making Sense (1984 Doc) Married to the Mob (1988) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Philadelphia (1993) The Manchurian Candidate (2004) Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2005 Doc) Rachel Getting Married (2008) A Master Builder (2013) Line of Sight (2014) Another Telepathic Thing (2015) Ricki and the Flash (2015)

23. George Lucas

Writer | Star Wars

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

THX 1138 (1971) Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

24. Robert Zemeckis

Writer | Back to the Future

A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect ...

I Want to Hold Your Hand (1978) Romancing the Stone (1984) Back to the Future (1985) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Back to the Future II (1989) Back to the Future III (1990) Forrest Gump (1994) Contact (1997) What Lies Beneath (2000) Cast Away (2000) The Polar Express (2004) Beowulf (2007) A Christmas Carol (2009) Flight (2012) The Walk (2015) Allied (2016) Welcome to Marwen (2018) The Witches (2020) Pinocchio (2022)

25. 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 (1999) Road to Perdition (2002) Jarhead (2005) Revolutionary Road (2008) Away We Go (2009) Skyfall (2012) Spectre (2015) 1917 (2019) Empire of Light (????)

26. Kenneth Branagh

Actor | Henry V

Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on December 10, 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to parents William Branagh, a plumber and carpenter, and Frances (Harper), both born in 1930. He has two siblings, William Branagh, Jr. (born 1955) and Joyce Branagh (born 1970). When he was nine, his family ...

Henry V (1989) Dead Again (1991) Peter's Friends (1992) Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Frankenstein (1994) A Midwinters Tale (1995) Hamlet (1996) Love's Labors Lost (2000) As You Like It (2006) Sleuth (2007) Thor (2011) Macbeth (2013) Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) Cinderella (2015) Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale (2015) Murder on the Orient Express (2017) All Is True (2018) Artemis Fowl (2020) Belfast (2021) Death on the Nile (2022)

27. 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, ...

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) Sense and Sensibility (1995) The Ice Storm (1997) Ride with the Devil (1999) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Hulk (2003) Brokeback Mountain (2005) Lust, Caution (2007) Taking Woodstock (2009) Life of Pi (2012) Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2012) Gemini Man (2019)

28. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

The Terminator (1984) Aliens (1986) The Abyss (1989) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) True Lies (1994) Titanic (1997) Aliens of the Deep (2005 Doc) Avatar (2009) Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Avatar 3 (2024) Avatar 4 (2026) Avatar 5 (2028)

29. James L. Brooks

Writer | Broadcast News

James L. Brooks was born on May 9, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He was previously married to Holly Holmberg Brooks and Marianne Catherine Morrissey.

Terms of Endearment (1983) Broadcast News (1987) I'll Do Anything (1994) As Good as it Get's (1997) Spanglish (2004) How Do You Know (2010)

30. Spike Lee

Director | Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...

She's Gotta Have It (1986) School Daze (1988) Do the Right Thing (1989) Mo' Better Blues (1990) Jungle Fever (1991) Malcolm X (1992) Crooklyn (1994) Clockers (1995) Get on the Bus (1996) 4 Little Girls (1997 Doc) He Got Game (1998) Summer of Sam (1999) The Original Kings of Comedy (2000 Doc) 25th Hour (2002) Inside Man (2006) When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006 Doc) Miracle at St. Anna (2008) If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise (2010 Doc) Red Hook Summer (2012) Old Boy (2013) Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014) Chi-Raq (2015) Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016 Doc) Rodney King (2017) Pass Over (2018) BlacKkKlansman (2018) Da 5 Bloods (2020) David Byrne's American Utopia (2020 Doc)

31. 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 (1991) Dazed and Confused (1993) Before Sunrise (1995) SubUrbia (1996) Waking Life (2000) Tape (2000) School of Rock (2003) Before Sunset (2004) Bad News Bears (2005) Fast Food Nation (2006) A Scanner Darkly (2006) Me and Orson Welles (2008) Bernie (2011) Before Midnight (2013) Boyhood (2014) Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) Last Flag Flying (2017) Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2018) Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022) Merrily We Roll Along (????)

32. 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 (1992) Pulp Fiction (1994) Jackie Brown (1997) Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Inglorious Basterds (2009) Django Unchained (2012) The Hateful Eight (2015) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

33. Robert Rodriguez

Producer | El mariachi

Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.

Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none ...

El mariachi (1992) Desperado (1995) From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) The Faculty (1998) Spy Kids (2001) Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) Sin City (2005) The Adventures of Skarkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005) Machete (2010) Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D (2011) Machete Kills (2013) Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Red 11 (2019) We Can Be Heroes (2020) Hypnotic (????)

34. Zack Snyder

Director | 300

Zachary Edward "Zack" Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter, best known for action and science fiction films. Snyder made his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead and has gone on to be known for his comic book movies and ...

Dawn of the Dead (2004) 300 (2006) Watchmen (2009) Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) Sucker Punch (2011) Man of Steel (2013) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) Justice League (2017) Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) Army of the Dead (2021) Rebel Moon (????)

35. Bryan Singer

Director | X-Men

Bryan Singer is an American film director and producer who got his start writing and co-directing the short film Lions Den with his classmates while he attended USC. He was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men, which helped kick-start the superhero renaissance. He later directed three sequels....

The Usual Suspects (1995) Apt Pupil (1998) X-Men (2000) X2 (2003) Superman Returns (2006) Valkyrie (2008) Mockingbird Lane (2012) Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

36. 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 ...

Platoon (1986) Wall Street (1987) Talk Radio (1988) Born on the Fourth of July (1989) The Doors (1991) JFK (1991) Heaven & Earth (1993) Natural Born Killers (1994) Nixon (1995) U Turn (1997) Any Given Sunday (1999) Commandante (2003 Doc) Alexander (2004) World Trade Center (2006) W. (2008) Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) Castro in Winter (2012) Savages (2012) Mi Amigo Hugo (2014) Snowden (2016) JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2021 Doc)

37. Alexander Payne

Director | Nebraska

Director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Peggy (Constantine) and George Payne, ran a Greek restaurant. His father is of Greek and German ancestry, and his mother is of Greek descent; the family name was originally Papadopoulos. He is the youngest...

Citizen Ruth (1996) Election (1999) About Schmidt (2002) Sideways (2004) The Descendants (2011) Nebraska (2013) Downsizing (2017) The Holdovers (????)

38. Rob Reiner

Actor | All in the Family

Robert Reiner was born in New York City, to Estelle Reiner (née Lebost) and Emmy-winning actor, comedian, writer, and producer Carl Reiner.

As a child, his father was his role model, as Carl Reiner created and starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Estelle was also an inspiration for him to become a ...

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Stand by Me (1986) The Princess Bride (1987) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) Misery (1990) A Few Good Men (1992) Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) Bucket List (2007) Flipped (2010) 8 (2012) The Magic of Belle Isle (2012) And So It Goes (2014) Being Charlie (2015) LBJ (2016) Shock and Awe (2017) Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023 Doc)

39. 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? (1966) The Graduate (1967) Catch-22 (1970) Carnal Knowledge (1971) Silkwood (1983) Heartburn (1986) Biloxi Blues (1988) Postcards from the Edge (1990) Regarding Henry (1991) Wolf (1994) The Birdcage (1996) Wit (2001) Angels in America (2003 Mini-Series) Closer (2004) Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

40. Gus Van Sant

Director | Elephant

Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American filmmaker, painter, screenwriter, photographer and musician from Louisville, Kentucky who is known for directing films such as Good Will Hunting, the 1998 remake of Psycho, Gerry, Elephant, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Milk, Last Days, Finding Forrester, ...

Drugstore Cowboy (1989) My Own Private Idaho (1991) To Die For (1995) Good Will Hunting (1997) Psycho (1998 Remake) Finding Forrester (2000) Gerry (2002) Elephant (2003) Last Days (2005) Paranoid Park (2007) Milk (2008) Restless (2011) My Own Private River (2012) Promised Land (2012) The Sea of Trees (2015) Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018)

41. 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 ...

Pi (1998) Requiem for a Dream (2000) The Fountain (2006) The Wrestler (2008) Black Swan (2010) Noah (2014) Mother! (2017) The Whale (????)

42. 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 ...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) Jabberwocky (1977) Time Bandits (1981) Brazil (1985) The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) The Fisher King (1991) Twelve Monkeys (1995) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) The Brothers Grimm (2005) Tideland (2005) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) The Zero Theorem (2013) The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

43. Frank Oz

Actor | The Muppet Show

Frank Richard Oznowicz was born in Hereford, England to puppeteers Frances and Isidore Oznowicz. His family moved to Montana in 1951, eventually settling in Oakland, California. As a teenager, he worked as an apprentice puppeteer at Children's Fairyland amusement park. He is one of the primary ...

The Dark Crystal (1982) The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) What About Bob? (1991) HouseSitter (1992) The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) In & Out (1997) Bowfinger (1999) The Score (2001) The Stepford Wives (2004) Death at a Funeral (2007) Muppet Guys Talking (2017 Doc) Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2020 Doc)

44. M. Night Shyamalan

Producer | Lady in the Water

Born in Puducherry, India, and raised in the posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots.

He is the son of Jayalakshmi, a Tamil ...

The Sixth Sense (1999) Unbreakable (2000) Signs (2002) The Village (2004) The Lady in the Water (2006) The Happening (2008) The Last Airbender (2010) After Earth (2013) The Visit (2015) Split (2016) Glass (2019) Old (2021) Knock at the Cabin (2023)

45. John Hughes

Writer | Planes, Trains & Automobiles

John Hughes was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He was credited for creating some of the most memorable comedy films of the 1980s and the 1990s, when he was at the height of his career. He had a talent for writing coming-of-age stories, and for depicting fairly realistic...

Sixteen Candles (1984) Breakfast Club (1985) Weird Science (1985) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) She's Having a Baby (1988) Uncle Buck (1989) Curly Sue (1991)

46. Alan Parker

Director | Evita

The son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter, Alan Parker was a London advertising copywriter in the 1960s and early 1970s with Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP), an ad agency. He formed a partnership with David Puttnam as his producer (Puttnam had been a ...

Bugsy Malone (1976) Midnight Express (1978) Fame (1980) Shoot the Moon (1982) Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) Birdy (1984) Angel Heart (1987) Mississippi Burning (1988) Come See the Paradise (1990) Commitments (1991) The Road to Wellville (1994) Evita (1996) Angela's Ashes (1999) The Life of David Gale (2003)

47. Judd Apatow

Producer | Girls

Judd Apatow is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He directed The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This is 40, Funny People, Trainwreck and The King of Staten Island. He also developed the television shows Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Girls, Love and Crashing. He is ...

40 Year Old Virgin (2005) Knocked Up (2007) Funny People (2009) This Is 40 (2012) Trainwreck (2014) May It Last (2017 Doc) The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018 Doc) The King of Staten Island (2020) The Bubble (2022) George Carlin's American Dream (2022 Doc)

48. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...

The Producers (1968) Blazing Saddles (1974) Young Frankenstein (1974) Silent Movie (1976) High Anxiety (1977) History of the World: Part I (1981) Spaceballs (1987) Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) The Producers (2005)

49. 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 ...

Rebecca (1940) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Notorious (1946) Strangers on a Train (1951) Dial M for Murder (1954) Rear Window (1954) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) Vertigo (1958) North by Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) The Birds (1963)

50. 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 ...

Cronos (1993) Mimic (1997) The Devil's Backbone (2001) Blade II (2002) Hellboy (2004) Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) Pacific Rim (2013) Crimson Peak (2015) The Shape of Water (2017) Pinocchio (2019) Nightmare Alley (2021) Pinocchio (2022)

51. Guy Ritchie

Director | Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and ...

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) Snatch. (2000) Swept Away (2002) Revolver (2005) RocknRolla (2008) Sherlock Holmes (2009) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Aladdin (2019) The Gentleman (2019) Wrath of Man (2021) Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (2022) The Interpreter (????)

52. Brian De Palma

Director | Body Double

Brian De Palma is one of the well-known directors who spear-headed the new movement in Hollywood during the 1970s. He is known for his many films that go from violent pictures, to Hitchcock-like thrillers. Born on September 11, 1940, De Palma was born in Newark, New Jersey in an Italian-American ...

Carrie (1976) The Fury (1978) Dressed to Kill (1980) Blow Out (1981) Scarface (1983) Body Double (1984) The Untouchables (1987) Casualties of War (1989) Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) Raising Cain (1992) Carlito's Way (1993) Mission: Impossible (1996) Mission to Mars (2000) The Black Dahlia (2006) Redacted (2006) Passion (2012) Domino (2019)

53. Stephen Frears

Director | Dangerous Liaisons

Stephen started off in a career in the legal profession before switching to work as an assistant stage manager at London's Royal Court which led to work as an assistant director on films by Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson He directed his first short in 1967 and his feature debut, Gumshoe, in 1971....

Dangerous Liaisons (1988) The Grifters (1990) Hero (1992) Mary Reilly (1996) The Van (1996) The Hi-Lo Country (1998) High Fidelity (2000) Liam (2000) Dirty Pretty Things (2002) Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) The Queen (2006) Skip Tracer (2008) Chéri (2009) Tamara Drewe (2010) Lay the Favorite (2012) Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013) Philomena (2013) The Program (2015) Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) Victoria and Abdul (2017) The Lost King (2022)

54. 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...

Rabid (1977) Scanners (1981) Videodrome (1983) The Dead Zone (1983) The Fly (1986) Dead Ringers (1988) Naked Lunch (1991) M. Butterfly (1993) Crash (1996) eXistenZ (1999) Spider (2002) A History of Violence (2005) Eastern Promises (2007) A Dangerous Method (2011) Cosmopolis (2012) Maps to the Stars (2014) Crimes of the Future (????)

55. 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 ...

Eraserhead (1977) The Elephant Man (1980) Dune (1984) Blue Velvet (1986) Wild at Heart (1990) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) Lost Highway (1997) Mulholland Dr. (2001) Rabbits (2002) Inland Empire (2006)

56. Kevin Smith

Producer | Clerks

Kevin Patrick Smith was born in Red Bank but grew up in Highlands, New Jersey, the son of Grace (Schultz) and Donald E. Smith, a postal worker. He is very proud of his native state; this fact can be seen in all of his movies. Kevin is of mostly German, with some Irish and English, ancestry.

His ...

Clerks (1992) Mallrats (1994) Chasing Amy (1995) Dogma (1997) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) Jersey Girl (2004) Clerks II (2006) Zach and Miri Make a Porno (2008) Cop Out (2010) Red State (2011) Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Tea Bagging in the UK (2012) Jay and Silent Bob Get Irish: The Swearing O' the Green (2013) Tusk (2014) Yoga Hosers (2016) Jay & Silent Bob Reboot (2019) Clerks III (????) Killroy Was Here (????)

57. 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 ...

Amores Perros (2000) 21 Grams (2003) Babel (2006) Biutiful (2010) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) The Revenant (2015) Bardo (2022)

58. Edgar Wright

Director | Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg...

A Fistful of Fingers (1995) Shaun of the Dead (2004) Hot Fuzz (2007) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) The World's End (2013) Baby Driver (2017) The Sparks Brothers (2021 Doc) What the Hell Is It This Time? Sparks Live in London (2021 Doc) Last Night in Soho (2021)

59. F. Gary Gray

Director | Set It Off

Felix Gary Gray is an African-American music video director, film producer and film director from New York City known for directing films such as Friday, Men in Black: International, Be Cool, The Fate of the Furious, Set It Off, The Negotiator, Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job. He ...

Friday (1995) Set It Off (1996) The Negotiator (1998) A Man Apart (2003) The Italian Job (2003) Be Cool (2005) Law Abiding Citizen (2009) Straight Outta Compton (2015) The Fate of the Furious (2017) Men in Black: International (2019) Lift (????)

60. Peter Farrelly

Producer | Green Book

Peter Farrelly was born on December 17, 1956 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Green Book (2018), There's Something About Mary (1998) and Dumb and Dumber (1994). He has been married to Melinda Farrelly since December 31, 1996. They have two children.

And Bobby of course, The Farrelly Brothers.

Dumb & Dumber (1994) Kingpin (1996) There's Something About Mary (1998) Me, Myself & Irene (2000) Osmosis Jones (2001) Shallow Hal (2001) Stuck on You (2003) Fever Pitch (2005) The Heartbreak Kid (2007) Hall Pass (2011) The Three Stooges (2012) Dumb and Dumber To (2014) Green Book (2018) {Peter Farrelly} The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022) {Peter Farrelly} Champions (????) {Bobby Farrelly}