Directors - IMDb

1. Alejandro G. Iñárritu

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 (2014) The Revenant (2015) Bardo (2022)

2. 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 Shining (1980) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

3. 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 (2001) Batman Begins (2005) The Prestige (2006) The Dark Knight (2008) Inception (2010) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Interstellar (2014) Dunkirk (2017) Tenet (2020) Oppenheimer (2023)

4. 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 (2001) 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 (2023)

5. 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 (1975) 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) Lost in La Mancha (2002) Tideland (2005) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2008) The Zero Theorem (2013) The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

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) Anima (2019) Licorice Pizza (2021)

7. 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 ...

Who's That Knocking At My Door (1967) Boxcar Bertha (1972) Mean Streets (1973) Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Taxi Driver (1976) New York, New York (1977) Raging Bull (1980) The King Of Comedy (1982) 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) Shutter Island (2010) Hugo (2011) The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013) Silence (2016) The Irishman (2019) Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023)

8. 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. (2004) Death Proof (2007) Inglorious Bastards (2009) Django Unchained (2012) The Hateful Eight (2015) Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

9. 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 (1990) Dazed and Confused (1993) Before Sunrise (1995) School of Rock (2003) Before Sunset (2004) A Scanner Darkly (2006) Bernie (2011) Before Midnight (2013) Boyhood (2014)

10. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.

A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...

Badlands (1973) Days of Heaven (1978) The Thin Red Line (1998) The Tree Of Life (2011) Knight of Cups (2015)

11. 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...

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972) Stroszek (1977) Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979) Fitzcarraldo (1982) Lessons Of Darkness (1992) My Best Friend (1999) Grizzly Man (2005) Rescue Dawn (2006)

12. 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 Godfather Part 2 (1974) The Conversation (1974) Apocalypse Now (1979)

13. 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) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Hook (1991) Empire of the Sun (1987) Jurassic Park (1993) Schindler's List (1993) The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Artificial Intelligence (2001) Minority Report (2002) Catch Me If You Can (2002) The Terminal (2004) War of the Worlds (2005) Lincoln (2012) The Post (2017) Ready Player One (2018) The Fabelmans (2022)

14. 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 ...

Blood Simple (1984) Raising Arizona (1987) Miller's Crossing (1990) Barton Fink (1991) Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998) O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) No Country For Old Men (2007) Burn After Reading (2008) A Serious Man (2009) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Hail Ceaser (2016) The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)

15. 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 ...

I Stand Alone (1998) Irreversible (2002) Enter The Void (2009) Climax (2018) Lux Aeterna (2019) Vortex (2022)

16. 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.

Joint Security Area (2000) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Oldboy (2003) Lady Vengeance (2005) I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK (2006) Thirst (2009) Stoker (2013) The Handmaiden (2016) Decision To Leave (2022)

17. 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/...

Delicatessen (1991) The City of Lost Children (1995) Alien: Resurrection (1997) Amelie (2001) Micmacs (2009) The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

18. 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 Wrestler (2008) Black Swan (2010) Mother! (2017)

19. 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 ...

Europa (1991) Breaking The Waves (1996) Dancer in the Dark (2000) Dogville (2003) Anti-Christ (2009) Melancholia (2011) Nymphomaniac Vol. I (2013) Nymphomaniac Vol. 2 (2013) The House That Jack Built (2018)

20. 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. ...

Pusher (1996) Bleeder (1999) With Blood On My Hands: Pusher II (2004) I'm The Angel Of Death: Pusher III (2005) Bronson (2008) Valhalla Rising (2009) Drive (2011) Only God Forgives (2013) The Neon Demon (2016)

21. 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) 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 (2023)

22. 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 (2010) Enemy (2013) Prisoners (2013) Sicario (2015) Arrival (2016) Bladerunner 2049 (2017) Dune Part One (2021) Dune Part Two (2024)

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 (1979) Blade Runner (1982) Black Rain (1989) Gladiator (2000) American Gangster (2007) Prometheus (2012) The Martian (2015) Alien Covenant (2017) Napoleon (2023)

24. Steve McQueen

Director | 12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen was born on October 9, 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.

Hunger (2008) Shame (2011) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Widows (2018)

25. 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 Wild Things Are (2009) Her (2013)

26. 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) Blue Velvet (1986) Wild at Heart (1990) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) Lost Highway (1997) Mulholland Drive (2001)

27. 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...

Ivan's Childhood (1962) Andrei Rublev (1966) Solaris (1972) Mirror (1975) Stalker (1979) Nostalgia (1983) The Sacrifice (1986)

28. Martin McDonagh

Writer | In Bruges

Martin McDonagh was born on March 26, 1970 in Camberwell, London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

In Bruges (2008) Seven Psychopaths (2012) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022)

29. John Michael McDonagh

Writer | The Guard

John Michael McDonagh was born in 1967 in London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014) and The Forgiven (2021). He has been married to Elizabeth Eves since 2003.

The Guard (2011) Calvary (2014) War on Everyone (2016) The Forgiven (2021)

30. Jim Jarmusch

Director | Paterson

Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.

Down By Law (1986) Night On Earth (1991) Dead Man (1995) Ghost Dog (1999) Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) Broken Flowers (2005) Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Paterson (2016) The Dead Don't Die (2019)

31. Alex Garland

Writer | Ex Machina

Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).

Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).

He is ...

Ex Machina (2014) Annihilation (2018) Men (2022)

32. 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,...

Dogtooth (2009) Alps (2011) The Lobster (2015) The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017) The Favourite (2018) Poor Things (2023)

33. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) For a Few More Dollars (1965) The Good The Bad and The Ugly (1966) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

34. Ron Fricke

Cinematographer | Samsara

Ron Fricke is known for Samsara (2011), Baraka (1992) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Baraka (1992) Samsara (2011)

35. Cary Joji Fukunaga

Producer | Beasts of No Nation

Cary Joji Fukunaga is a Japanese-American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer from Oakland, California who is known for directing the James Bond film No Time to Die, Kofi, Beasts of No Nation, Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre. He co-wrote the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King ...

Sin Nombre (2009) Beasts Of No Nation (2015) No Time To Die (2020)

36. 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...

Election (1999) About Schmidt (2002) Sideways (2004) The Descendants (2011) Nebraska (2013) Downsizing (2017) The Holdovers (2023)

37. 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.

Ratcatcher (1999) We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) You Were Never Really Here (2017)

38. Shane Meadows

Director | This Is England

Shane Meadows was born on December 26, 1972 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for This Is England (2006), Dead Man's Shoes (2004) and TwentyFourSeven (1997).

Dead Man's Shoes (2004) This Is England (2006)

39. 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 (...

The Seventh Seal (1957) Wild Strawberries (1957) Persona (1966) Cries And Whispers (1972)

40. Jordan Peele

Writer | Nope

Jordan Peele is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning director, writer, actor, producer, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions. Peele's first feature film, "Get Out," was a critically acclaimed blockbuster, recognized with four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film would earn Peele the ...

Get Out (2017) Us (2019) Nope (2022)

41. 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 ...

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004) Children Of Men (2006) Gravity (2013) Roma (2018)

42. 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 ...

Scarface (1983) The Untouchables (1987) Carlito's Way (1993) Mission Impossible (1996)

43. Damien Chazelle

Writer | La La Land

Damien Sayre Chazelle is an American director and screenwriter. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His mother, Celia Sayre (Martin) Chazelle, is an American-Canadian writer and professor of history at The College of New Jersey. His father, Bernard Chazelle, is a French-American Eugene Higgins...

Whiplash (2014) La La Land (2016) First Man (2018)

44. 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 ...

Hellboy (2004) Pan's Labrynth (2006) The Shape Of Water (2017) Nightmare Alley (2021)

45. 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 ...

A Prophet (2009) Rust and Bone (2012) Dheepan (2015) The Sisters Brothers (2018)

46. 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) Avatar (2009) Avatar: The Way Of Water (2022)

47. Gareth Edwards

Visual_effects | Monsters

Gareth James Edwards was born on June 1, 1975 in the English town of Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Growing up, he admired movies such as the 1977 classic "Star Wars", and went on to pursue a film career. He even cites George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as his biggest influences. Edwards studied BA (Hons) ...

Monsters (2010) Godzilla (2014) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

48. Tom Tykwer

Writer | Lola rennt

Director, writer, producer and composer Tom Tykwer was born in 1965 in Wuppertal, Germany. He showed an interest in film-making from childhood, making super 8 films from the age of 11. Among his first jobs was working at a local art-house cinema. Tykwer eventually relocated to Berlin, first working...

Run Lola Run (1998) The International (2009) Cloud Atlas (2012)

49. 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) American Graffiti (1973) 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)

50. 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 (1994) Mallrats (1995) Chasing Amy (1997) Dogma (1999) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) Clerks II (2006) Tusk (2014)

51. 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 ...

Unforgiven (1992) Mystic River (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Flags Of Our Fathers (2006) Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) Changeling (2008) Gran Torino (2008) American Sniper (2014) Sully (2016)

52. Luca Guadagnino

Director | Call Me by Your Name

Luca Guadagnino was born on August 10, 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and producer, known for Call Me by Your Name (2017), Suspiria (2018) and Bones and All (2022).

A Bigger Splash (2015) Call Me By Your Name (2017) Suspiria (2018) Bones And All (2022)

53. Bong Joon Ho

Writer | Snowpiercer

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the ...

Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) Memories Of Murder (2003) The Host (2006) Mother (2009) Snowpiercer (2013) Okja (2017) Parasite (2019)

54. Sidney Lumet

Director | 12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...

Twelve Angry Men (1957) Serpico (1973) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Network (1976)

55. 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 ...

The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006) I, Daniel Blake (2016) Sorry We Missed You (2019) The Old Oak (2023)

56. Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Actor | Tetsuo

Shin'ya Tsukamoto was born on January 1, 1960 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. He is an actor and director, known for Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Vital (2004) and Tokyo Fist (1995).

Tetsuo The Iron Man (1989) Haze (2005)

57. 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...

Rashomon (1950) Seven Samurai (1954) Throne Of Blood (1957) The Hidden Fortress (1958) Yojimbo (1961) Sanjuro (1962) Ran (1985)

58. 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), ...

Nobody Knows (2004) Shoplifters (2018)

59. Dan Gilroy

Writer | Nightcrawler

Dan Gilroy was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Frank D. Gilroy, and sculptor and writer Ruth Dorothy. His brother Tony Gilroy is a screenwriter and director; and his fraternal twin brother, John Gilroy, is a film editor. Through his father, he is of ...

Nightcrawler (2014) Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

60. Jee-woon Kim

Director | Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom

Kim Ji-woon was born in Seoul, South Korea. He began his career as an actor before becoming a stage director with productions such as "Hot Sea" in 1994 and "Movie, Movie" in 1995. He then began scripting for films, his first work, 97's "Wonderful Seasons" won Best Screenplay award at Korea's ...

A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003) A Bittersweet Life (2005) The Good, The Bad and The Weird (2008) I Saw The Devil (2010)

61. 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 ...

Rear Window (1954) Vertigo (1958) North By Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) The Birds (1963)

62. 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 ...

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (1984) Laputa: Castle In The Sky (1986) My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Princess Mononoke (1997) Spirited Away (2001) Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

63. Takashi Miike

Director | Jûsan-nin no shikaku

Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, ...

Audition (1999) Ichi The Killer (2001) Gozu (2003) 13 Assassins (2010)

64. Ben Wheatley

Director | Free Fire

Ben Wheatley was born in May 1972 in Billericay, Essex, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Free Fire (2016), Kill List (2011) and Sightseers (2012).

Kill List (2011) A Field In England (2013) High Rise (2015) Free Fire (2016) In The Earth (2021)

65. Ari Aster

Director | Hereditary

Ari Aster is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for writing and directing the A24 horror films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019). Aster was born into a Jewish family in New York City on July 15, 1986, the son of a poet mother and musician father. He has a ...

Hereditary (2018) Midsommar (2019) Beau Is Afraid (2023)

66. 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 ...

The 400 Blows (1959) Day For Night (1973)

67. 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 ...

Funny Games (1997) The Piano Teacher (2001) Cache (2005) Funny Games (2007) The White Ribbon (2009) Amour (2012)

68. Pawel Pawlikowski

Director | Zimna wojna

A literature and philosophy graduate, with extensive post-graduate work at Oxford on German literature, Polish-born Pawel Pawlikowski started as a documentary filmmaker in British television.

His second feature, Last Resort (2000), earned him international critical acclaim at numerous festivals, ...

Ida (2013) Cold War (2018)

69. 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 (...

A Short Film About Killing (1988) The Double Life Of Veronique (1991) Three Colors: Blue (1993) Three Colors: White (1994) Three Colors: Red (1994)

70. Taika Waititi

Producer | What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi, also known as Taika Cohen, hails from the Raukokore region of the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and is the son of Robin (Cohen), a teacher, and Taika Waititi, an artist and farmer. His father is Maori (Te-Whanau-a-Apanui), and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish...

What We Do In The Shadows (2014) Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016) Thor: Ragnarok (2017) JoJo Rabbit (2019)

71. Peter Greenaway

Director | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Peter Greenaway trained as a painter and began working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information in 1965. Shortly afterwards he started to make his own films. He has produced a wealth of short and feature-length films, but also paintings, novels and other books. He has held several ...

A Zed And Two Noughts (1985) The Belly Of An Architect (1987) Drowning By Numbers (1988) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover (1989)

72. 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 ...

Silence Of The Lambs (1991) Philadelphia (1993)

73. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

Dark Star (1974) Halloween (1978) Escape From New York (1981) The Thing (1982) Big Trouble In Little China (1986) They Live (1988)

74. Mike Leigh

Director | Secrets & Lies

Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre ...

Naked (1993) Secrets & Lies (1996)

75. Benny Safdie

Actor | Good Time

Born and raised in New York City: in both Queens & Manhattan. He attended the school of Communication at Boston University. He often collaborates with his brother Josh Safdie. He is a director, writer, editor and actor known for Daddy Longlegs(2009),Heaven Knows What(2014), Good Time (2017), Uncut ...

Heaven Knows What (2014) Good Time (2017) Uncut Gems (2019)

76. Robert Eggers

Director | The Lighthouse

Robert Houston Eggers is an American filmmaker and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), as well as directing and co-writing the historical fiction epic film The Northman (2022). His films are noted ...

The Witch (2015) The Lighthouse (2019) The Northman (2022)

77. Alejandro Jodorowsky

Writer | El Topo

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in Tocopilla, Chile on February 17, 1929. In 1939 he moved to Santiago where he attended university, was a circus clown and a puppeteer. In 1953 he went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau. He worked with Maurice Chevalier there and made a short film, La ...

El Topo (1970) The Holy Mountain (1973)

78. Pedro Almodóvar

Writer | Hable con ella

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study ...

Talk To Her (2002) The Skin I Live In (2011) Pain And Glory (2019) Parallel Mothers (2021)

79. Alejandro Amenábar

Writer | The Others

Is the son of a Spanish mother and a Chilean father. His family moved back to Spain when he was 1 year old, and he grew up and studied in Madrid. He wrote, produced and directed his first short film La cabeza at the age of 19, and he was 23 when he directed his feature debut Thesis (1996). His film ...

Abre Los Ojos (1997) The Others (2001) The Sea Inside (2004)

80. Panos Cosmatos

Writer | Mandy

Panos Cosmatos is known for Mandy (2018), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) and Tombstone (1993).

Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010) Mandy (2018)

81. Ciro Guerra

Director | El abrazo de la serpiente

Ciro Guerra was born on February 6, 1981 in Río de Oro, Cesar, Colombia. He is a director and writer, known for Embrace of the Serpent (2015), Birds of Passage (2018) and Los viajes del viento (2009). He is married to Cristina Gallego.

Embrace Of The Serpent (2015) Birds Of Passage (2018)

82. Sean Baker

Writer | Red Rocket

Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean's latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021...

Tangerine (2015) The Florida Project (2017) Red Rocket (2021)

83. Trey Edward Shults

Director | Waves

Trey Edward Shults was born on October 6, 1988 in Montgomery, Texas, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Waves (2019), It Comes at Night (2017) and Krisha (2015).

Krisha (2015) It Comes At Night (2017) Waves (2019)

84. Robert Altman

Director | Gosford Park

Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...

Short Cuts (1993) Gosford Park (2001)

85. 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 (2008) Anomalisa (2015) I'm Thinking Of Endings Things (2020)

86. Roman Polanski

Director | Chinatown

Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.

His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...

Repulsion (1965) Rosemary's Baby (1968) Chinatown (1974) The Tenant (1976) The Pianist (2002)

87. Paul Schrader

Writer | First Reformed

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a...

Blue Collar (1978) Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters (1985) First Reformed (2017)

88. 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 ...

Paris, Texas (1984) Wings Of Desire (1987) Pina (2011) Perfect Days (2023)

89. 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...

Scanners (1981) Videodrome (1983) The Fly (1986) Dead Ringers (1988) Naked Lunch (1991) Crash (1996) eXistenZ (1999) A History Of Violence (2005) Eastern Promises (2007) Map To The Stars (2014) Crimes Of The Future (2022)

90. Claire Denis

Director | High Life

The films of Claire Denis frequently explore the fragile connections between people and the ways in which the most seemingly inconsequential relationship can have life-changing effects. At the heart of Denis' cinema is a fascination with the delights and difficulties of belonging and otherness, the...

Beau Travail (1999) High Life (2018)

91. Joachim Trier

Director | Thelma

Joachim Trier is a Norwegian writer and director. He is known for Reprise (2006), Oslo, August 31st (2011), Louder Than Bombs (2015) and Thelma (2017).

Trier also directed three short films, Pietà (2000), Still (2001) and Procter (2002).

His father, Jacob Trier, was the sound technician of The ...

Oslo, 31st August (2011) Thelma (2017) The Worst Person In The World (2021)

92. Ruben Östlund

Director | Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund was born on April 13, 1974 in Styrsö, Västra Götalands län, Sweden. He is a director and editor, known for Triangle of Sadness (2022), Force Majeure (2014) and The Square (2017). He was previously married to Andrea Östlund.

Force Majeure (2014) The Square (2017) Triangle Of Sadness (2022)

93. 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 ...

The Hunt (2012) Another Round (2020)

94. 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) The Beach (2000) 28 Days Later (2002) Sunshine (2007) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Steve Jobs (2015) T2 Trainspotting (2017)

95. 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...

Shaun Of The Dead (2004) Hot Fuzz (2007) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) Baby Driver (2017) Last Night in Soho (2021)

96. Julia Ducournau

Director | Titane

Julia Ducournau is a French film director and screenwriter. She attended film school at La Fémis in Paris, where she studied screenwriting. In 2011, her short film JUNIOR won the Petit Rail d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature, the horror movie Raw (2016), won the coveted ...

Raw (2016) Titane (2021)

97. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Director | Doraibu mai kâ

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Hamaguchi, a graduate of Tokyo University and Tokyo University of Arts, attracted attention in his country with the movie Passion (2008), which he shot for his graduation.

Hamaguchi first gained international recognition with the film ...

Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy (2021) Drive My Car (2021)

98. Dario Argento

Writer | Profondo rosso

Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by his parents and other ...

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970) Deep Red (1975) Suspiria (1977)

99. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

Halloween (1978) Escape From New York (1981) The Thing (1982) Big Trouble In Little China (1986) They Live (1988)

100. Jackie Chan

Actor | Ngo si seoi

Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best-known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success after his start in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry.

Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on April 7, 1954, on Hong Kong's famous ...

Project A (1983) Police Story (1985) Armour Of God (1986) Police Story 2 (1988) Armour Of God II: Operation Condor (1991) Crime Story (1993) The Legend Of The Drunken Master (1994) Who Am I? (1998)