My Top 25 Directors
by SloppyMilkshake | created - 06 Apr 2019 | updated - 1 month ago | Public
1. 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 ...
Raging Bull - 10
The King of Comedy - 10
Goodfellas - 10
Casino - 9
The Departed - 9
Shutter Island - 9
The Wolf of Wall Street - 9
Silence - 9
Killers of the Flower Moon - 9
Total - 84
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 - 9
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - 9
Schindler's List - 10
Jurassic Park - 10
The Lost World: Jurassic Park - 9
Saving Private Ryan - 10
Minority Report - 9
The Terminal - 9
War of the Worlds - 9
Total - 84
3. 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 ...
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - 9
Castle in the Sky - 9
My Neighbor Totoro - 9
Porco Rosso - 9
Princess Mononoke - 9
Spirited Away - 10
Howl's Moving Castle - 10
Ponyo - 9
Total - 74
4. 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 ...
Memento - 9
Batman Begins - 9
The Prestige - 9
The Dark Knight - 10
Inception - 10
Interstellar - 10
Oppenheimer - 9
Total - 66
5. 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), ...
Incendies - 9
Enemy - 9
Prisoners - 9
Arrival - 9
Blade Runner 2049 - 10
Dune - 10
Dune: Part Two - 9
Total - 65
6. 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 - 9
2001: A Space Odyssey - 9
A Clockwork Orange - 10
Barry Lyndon - 9
The Shining - 9
Full Metal Jacket - 9
Eyes Wide Shut - 9
Total - 64
7. 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 - 9
Pulp Fiction - 10
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 - 9
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - 9
Death Proof - 9
Inglourious Basterds - 9
Django Unchained - 9
Total - 64
8. 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 Fellowship of the Ring - 10
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 10
King Kong - 9
They Shall Not Grow Old - 9
The Beatles: Get Back - 9
Total - 57
9. Dave Filoni
Producer | The Mandalorian
Dave grew up in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was in the marching band, and was the starting goaltender for half of his senior year on the hockey team. He graduated from high school in 1992 and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1996, where he played club ...
Avatar: The Last Airbender - 9
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - 9
Star Wars: Rebels - 9
The Mandalorian - 9
The Book of Boba Fett - 9
Total - 45
10. Anthony Russo
Producer | Everything Everywhere All at Once
Anthony J. Russo is an American filmmaker and producer who works alongside his brother Joseph Russo. They have directed You, Me and Dupree, Cherry and the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Endgame is one of ...
(+ Joe Russo)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 9
Captain America: Civil War - 10
Avengers: Infinity War - 10
Avengers: Endgame - 9
Total - 38
11. 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...
Boogie Nights - 10
Magnolia - 10
There Will Be Blood - 9
The Master - 9
Licorice Pizza - 9
Total - 47
12. 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 Coen)
Fargo - 9
The Big Lebowski - 9
No Country for Old Men - 10
Inside Llewyn Davis - 9
Total - 37
12. Daniel Kwan
Director | Everything Everywhere All at Once
Daniel Kwan with Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, are a duo of film directors and writers. They began their career as directors of music videos, including the popular DJ Snake promotional for the single "Turn Down for What" (2013). They have since ventured into film, having written ...
(+ Daniel Scheinert)
Swiss Army Man - 10
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 10
Total - 20
14. 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. ...
Before Sunrise - 9
Tape - 9
Before Sunset - 9
Before Midnight - 9
Boyhood - 10
Total - 46
15. Paul Greengrass
Director | United 93
Paul Greengrass started his filmmaking career with a super 8 camera he found in his art room in secondary school. Those short movies were animation horror films he made using old dolls, artist dummies, and the general art room clutter.
After studying in Cambridge University he got into Granada ...
Bloody Sunday - 10
United 93 - 10
The Bourne Ultimatum - 9
Captain Phillips - 9
Total - 38
16. 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 ...
Breaking the Waves - 9
Dancer in the Dark - 9
The Five Obstructions - 9
Dogville - 9
Melancholia - 9
Total - 45
17. 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
The Green Mile - 10
The Mist - 9
The Walking Dead - 9
Total - 38
18. J.J. Abrams
Producer | Lost
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990)....
Mission: Impossible III - 9
Star Trek - 10
Super 8 - 10
Star Wars: Episode VII - 9
Total - 38
19. Matt Reeves
Producer | The Batman
Matthew George "Matt" Reeves was born April 27, 1966 in Rockville Center, New York, USA and is a writer, director and producer. Reeves began making movies at age eight, directing friends and using a wind-up camera. He befriended filmmaker J.J. Abrams when both were 13 years old and a public-access ...
Cloverfield - 9
Let Me In - 9
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - 9
War of the Planet of the Apes - 9
Total - 36
20. Pete Docter
Writer | Up
Pete Docter is the Oscar®-winning director of "Monsters, Inc.," "Up," and "Inside Out," and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. He is currently directing Pixar's feature film "Soul" with producer Dana Murray, which is set to release June 19, 2020.
Starting at Pixar in 1990 as the ...
Monsters, Inc. - 9
Up - 10
Inside Out - 10
Total - 29
21. John Lasseter
Writer | Toy Story 2
Although born in Hollywood, John and his twin sister Johanna were raised in Whittier near Los Angeles. His parents were Jewell Mae (Risley), an art teacher, and Paul Eual Lasseter, a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. His mother's profession contributed to his interest in animation and ...
Toy Story - 10
A Bug's Life - 9
Toy Story 2 - 10
Total - 29
22. 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 - 10
Avatar - 9
Avatar: Avatar the Way of Water - 9
Total - 28
23. 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 - 10
Blade Runner - 9
The Martian - 9
Total - 28
25. Charlie Kaufman
Writer | I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Avid reader Charlie Kaufman wrote plays and made short films as a young student. He moved from Massapequa, New York to West Hartford, Connecticut in 1972 where he attended high school. As a comedic actor, he performed in school plays and, after graduation, he enrolled at Boston University but soon ...
Synecdoche, New York - 10
Anomalisa - 9
I'm Thinking of Ending Things - 9
Total - 28
26. David Fincher
Director | Se7en
David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials...
Fight Club - 10
Panic Room - 9
Gone Girl - 9
Total - 28
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