My Favorite Directors
by marwanmak | created - 09 Aug 2017 | updated - 12 May 2019 | Public
1. 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 ...
Interstellar ------------- 10/10 The Dark Knight ---------- 10/10 Inception ----------------- 9/10 The Dark Knight Rise ------- 9/10 Dunkirk ------------------------ 9/10 Memento --------------------- 9/10 Batman Begins ---------------- 8/10 The Prestige ------------------- 8/10 Insomnia ----------------------- 8/10
2. 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 ...
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ----- 10/10 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ------------ 9/10 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - 9/10 King Kong --------------------------------------------- 8/10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ---------------- 8/10 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug --------------- 8/10 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ----------- 8/10
3. 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, ...
Schindler's List ------------------------- 10/10 Catch Me If You Can -------------------- 9/10 Saving Private Ryan -------------------- 9/10 Ready Player One ---------------------- 9/10 The Terminal ---------------------------- 8/10 Jaws ------------------------------------- 8/10
4. Peter Berg
Actor | Chicago Hope
Peter Berg is an American actor, director, writer, and producer. His first role was in the Adam Rifkin road movie Never on Tuesday (1988). He went on to star in the World War 2 film A Midnight Clear (1992). Roles in Fire in the Sky (1993) and Cop Land (1997) followed, and the Tom Cruise films ...
Lone Survivor --------------- 9/10 Deepwater Horizon --------- 8/10 Patriots Day ----------------- 8/10 Battleship ------------------- 8/10 Hancock --------------------- 8/10 The Kingdom ---------------- 8/10
5. 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...
The Curious Case of Benjiman Button ----- 9/10 Seven ------------------------------ 9/10 Gone Girl --------------------------- 9/10 Fight Club ---------------------------- 8/10 Zodiac ------------------------------- 8//10 Panic Room -------------------------- 8/10
6. 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 ...
The Martian --------------- 9/10 Gladiator ------------------ 9/10 Black Hawk Down --------- 8/10 Body of Lies --------------- 8/10 Alien: Covenant ----------- 8/10 Blade Runner -------------- 7/10 Prometheus ---------------- 7/10
7. 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 ...
Forrest Gump -- 10/10 Cast Away ------ 9/10 Flight ------------ 9/10 The Walk -------- 8/10
8. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
The Wolf of Wall Street ------------ 9/10 The Departed ----------------------- 9/10 Goodfellas --------------------------- 9/10 Raging Bull -------------------------- 9/10 Shutter Island ----------------------- 8/10 Taxi Driver --------------------------- 8/10 The Aviator -------------------------- 8/10
9. 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...
Inglourious Bastards ------- 10/10 Pulp Fiction ----------------- 9/10 Django Unchained --------- 9/10 The Hatefull Eight ---------- 9/10 Kill Bill: Vol. 2 --------------- 9/10 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 --------------- 8/10 Reservoir Dogs -------------- 8/10
10. Denis Villeneuve
Director | Dune
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), ...
Prisoners -------------- 9/10 Incendies ------------- 9/10 Arrival ---------------- 9/10 Blade Runner 2049 -- 8/10 Sicario ---------------- 8/10
11. 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 ...
Terminator 2 -------------- 9/10 Titanic --------------------- 9/10 The Terminator ----------- 8/10 Avatar --------------------- 8/10
12. Frank Darabont
Writer | The Shawshank Redemption
Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. Brought to America as an infant, he settled with his family in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High ...
The Shawshank Redemption --------------- 10/10
The Green Mile ------------------------------ 9/10
The Mist -------------------------------------- 9/10
The Walking Dead - TV Show
13. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...
Million Dollar Baby (2004) ------------- 9/10 Unforgiven (1992) ---------------------- 9/10 Sniper American (2014) ---------------- 8/10
14. Francis Ford Coppola
Producer | Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...
The Godfather --------------- 10/10 The Godfather: Part II ------ 9/10 Apocalypse Now ------------- 8/10
15. Mel Gibson
Actor | Braveheart
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, USA, as the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson (who died in December of 1990). His mother was Irish, from County Longford, while his American-born father is ...
Hacksaw Ridge ----- 9/10 Braveheart --------- 9/10 Apocalypto --------- 9/10
16. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
A Clockwork Orange ---------- 9/10 Full Metal Jacket -------------- 9/10 Barry Lyndon ------------------ 8.5/10
17. 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 ...
The Shape of Water ---- 8/10 Pacific ------------------- 7/10
18. Paul Thomas Anderson
Director | Punch-Drunk Love
Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...
There Will Be Blood ------ 9/10 Magnolia ------------------ 8/10 Phantom Thread --------- 6/10
19. Asghar Farhadi
Writer | Forooshande
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelors in Theater from University of Tehran's School of...
The Salesman ----- 9/10 A Separation ------ 9/10
20. 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 - 9/10 Snatch ---------------------------------- 9/10
21. 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 ...
Dial M for Murder - 9/10 Psycho ------------- 8.5/10
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