All directors I like

1. Paul Thomas Anderson

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)

2. Kar-Wai Wong

Director | Yi dai zong shi

Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong ...

As Tears Go By (1988)
Days of Being Wild (1990)
Chungking Express (1994)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Happy Together (1997)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
2046 (2004)
The Hand (2004)
The Grandmaster (2013)

3. 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)
Four Rooms (1995)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Death Proof (2007)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Django Unchained (2012)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

4. 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)
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 Gentlemen (2019)
Wrath of Man (2021)

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...

Alien 3 (1992)
Se7en (1995)
The Game (1997)
Fight Club (1999)
Zodiac (2007)
The Social Network (2010)
Gone Girl (2014)
Mank (2020)

6. 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)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Minority Report (2002)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Terminal (2004)
Munich (2005)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Lincoln (2012)
Bridge of Spies (2015)
The Post (2017)
Ready Player One (2018)
West Side Story (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 ...

Mean Streets (1973)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The King of Comedy (1982)
After Hours (1985)
The Color of Money (1986)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Goodfellas (1990)
Cape Fear (1991)
Casino (1995)
Gangs of New York (2002)
The Aviator (2004)
The Departed (2006)
Shutter Island (2010)
Hugo (2011)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011)
The Wolf of Wallstreet (2013)
Silence (2016)
The Irishman (2019)

8. Tony Scott

Producer | Domino

Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British...

Top Gun (1986)
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
True Romance (1993)
Unstoppable (2010)

9. 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 Duellists (1977)
Alien (1979)
Blade Runner (1982)
Legend (1985)
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 (2011)
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
The Martian (2015)
All the Money in the World (2017)
Alien Covenant (2017)
The Last Duel (2021)

10. 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)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

11. 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)
The World's End (2013)
Baby Driver (2017)

12. Michael Mann

Producer | The Insider

As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...

Thief (1981)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Heat (1995)
The Insider (1999)
Collateral (2004)
Miami Vice (2006)
Public Enemies (2009)

13. 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 II (1974)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Godfather: Part III (1990)
Dracula (1992)

14. 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)
7 Psychopaths (2012)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)

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 ...

The Fighter (2010)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
American Hustle (2013)
Joy (2015)

16. George Miller

Producer | Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max ...

Mad Max (1979)
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Mad max: Fury Road (2015)

17. 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 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 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)
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)

18. 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)
Prisoners (2013)
Enemy (2013)
Sicario (2015)
Arrival (2016)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Dune (2021)

19. 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 ...

Braveheart (1995)
Apocalypto (2006)
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

20. 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)
The Village (2004)
The Happening (2008)
The Last Airbender (2010)
After Earth (2013)
Split (2016)
Glass (2019)

21. 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)

22. 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 (2000)
Insomnia (2002)
Batman Begins (2005)
The Prestige (2006)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Inception (2010)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Interstellar (2014)
Dunkirk (2017)
Tenet (2020)

23. 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 ...

Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Cast Away (2000)
Allied (2016)

24. 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 ...

12 Angry Men (1957)
Fail Safe (1964)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

25. 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,...

The Lobster (2015)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
The Favourite (2018)

26. Luc Besson

Writer | Le Cinquième Élément

Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in ...

Léon (1994)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Lucy (2014)
Valerian (2017)

27. 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)

28. 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 ...

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Children of Men (2006)
Gravity (2013)
Roma (2018)

29. 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 ...

21 Grams (2003)
Babel (2006)
Birdman (2014)
The Revenant (2015)

30. Ron Howard

Producer | Arrested Development

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.

Howard ...

Willow (1988)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Angels & Demons (2009)
Rush (2013)
In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
Inferno (2016)
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

31. 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 ...

The Ninth Gate (1999)
The Pianist (2002)
The Ghost Writer (2010)
An Officer and a Spy (2019)

32. S. Craig Zahler

Writer | Bone Tomahawk

S. Craig Zahler was born on January 23, 1973 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Bone Tomahawk (2015), Dragged Across Concrete (2018) and Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017).

Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)

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 Dollars More (1965)
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Duck, You Sucker (1971)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

34. 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)
Ikiru (1952)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Yojimbo (1961)
Sanjuro (1962)
High and Low (1963)
Red Beard (1965)
Dersu Uzala (1975)
Kagemusha (1980)
Ran (1985)

35. Dexter Fletcher

Actor | Ghosted

Two-time BAFTA-nominated director Dexter Fletcher is an English actor-turned-filmmaker whose movies and TV work include the Academy Award-winning Elton John biopic Rocketman. Fletcher started his career in front of the camera at the age of 6; three years later he played "Baby Face" in Alan Parker's...

Eddie the Eagle (2015)
Rocketman (2019)

36. Chad Stahelski

Producer | John Wick: Chapter 4

He came from a kick-boxing background; he entered the film field as a stunt performer at the age of 24. Before that, he worked as an instructor at the Inosanto Martial Arts Academy in California, teaching Jeet Kune Do/Jun Fan. After doing numerous roles in low budget martial art movies like Mission...

John Wick (2014)
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

37. Ryan Coogler

Director | Black Panther

Ryan Kyle Coogler is an African-American filmmaker and producer who is from Oakland, California. He is known for directing the Black Panther film series, Creed, a Rocky spin-off and Fruitvale Station. He frequently casts Michael B. Jordan in his works. He produced the Creed sequels, Judas and the ...

Fruitvale Station (2013)
Creed (2015)
Black Panther (2018)

38. Jeremy Saulnier

Cinematographer | Blue Ruin

Jeremy Saulnier has slyly defined a unique cinematic aesthetic that complements his idiosyncratic narrative premises. His sophomore feature, Blue Ruin (2013) a quirky, crime drama set in a pretty, but grimier part of suburban America was a festival darling and supplanted his name within the ...

Blue Ruin (2013)
Green Room (2015)
Hold the Dark (2018)

39. Edward Zwick

Producer | The Last Samurai

Zwick moves deftly between the roles of writer, director and producer. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the 1989 critically acclaimed Civil War drama, Glory. He received his second Golden Globe nomination as a director for Legends of the Fall. Zwick received an Academy Award...

Glory (1989)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
The Last Samurai (2003)
Blood Diamond (2006)
Defiance (2008)
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

40. 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 ...

High Plains Drifter (1973)
Unforgiven (1992)
Mystic River (2003)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Gran Torino (2008)
American Sniper (2014)
Sully (2016)
The Mule (2018)
Richard Jewell (2019)

41. Kathryn Bigelow

Director | Zero Dark Thirty

A very talented painter, Kathryn spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She was given a studio in a former Offtrack Betting building, literally in an old bank vault, where she made art and waited to be ...

The Hurt Locker (2008)
Detroit (2017)

42. 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)
The Fog (1980)
Escape from New York (1981)
The Thing (1982)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

43. 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)
Skyfall (2012)
Spectre (2015)
1917 (2019)

44. 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)
Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Isle of Dogs (2018)
The French Dispatch (2021)

45. 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)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
True Lies (1994)
Titanic (1997)
Avatar (2009)

46. Matthew Vaughn

Producer | Kick-Ass

Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director. He is known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) and for directing the crime thriller, Layer Cake (2004), the fantasy epic, Stardust (2007), the superhero comedy, Kick-Ass (2010), and the ...

Layer Cake (2004)
Stardust (2007)
Kick-Ass (2010)
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

47. Shane Black

Actor | Predator

Considered one of the pioneer screenwriters of the action genre, Black made his mark with his Lethal Weapon (1987) screenplay. He also collaborated on the story of the sequel, Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). Each successive script he turned in had a higher price attached it, from The Last Boy Scout (1991) ...

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
The Nice Guys (2016)
The Predator (2018)

48. 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 ...

Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Contagion (2011)
Logan Lucky (2017)
Unsane (2018)
High Flying Bird (2019)
No Sudden Move (2021)

49. Ethan Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...

Blood Simple (1984)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
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)
True Grit (2010)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

50. 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)
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)
True Grit (2010)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

51. 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)

52. Joel Schumacher

Director | The Phantom of the Opera

Joel Schumacher was an American film director, film producer, screenwriter and fashion designer from New York City. He rose to fame in the 1980s for directing the coming-of-age drama "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985), and the vampire-themed horror film "The Lost Boys" (1987). In the 1990s, he worked on two ...

Falling Down (1993)
Batman Forever (1995)
A Time to Kill (1996)
Batman & Robin (1997)
8MM (1999)
Tigerland (2000)

53. 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 ...

Blade II (2002)
Hellboy (2004)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
Pacific Rim (2013)
The Shape of Water (2017)
Nightmare Alley (2021)

54. 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)
Legend 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)
Army of the Dead (2021)
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

55. 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 ...

Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Birdy (1984)
Angel Heart (1987)
Mississippi Burning (1988)
The Commitments (1991)
The Life of David Ghale (2003)

56. 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)

57. 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 ...

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Rope (1948)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Rear Window (1954)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
The Wrong Man (1956)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
North By Northwest (1959)
Psycho (1960)
The Birds (1963)
Torn Curtain (1966)
Topaz (1969)

58. Wolfgang Petersen

Director | Das Boot

A controversial film maker, Wolfgang Petersen has at once been lauded for his professionalism and attention to detail and decried for turning out a string of standard commercial Hollywood blockbusters. The son of a naval officer, Petersen held a lifelong fascination with the sea and naval subjects....

Das Boot (1981)
Troy (2004)
Four Against the Bank (2016)

59. David Mackenzie

Director | Starred Up

David Mackenzie was born on May 10, 1966 in Corbridge, Northumberland, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Starred Up (2013), Perfect Sense (2011) and Hell or High Water (2016).

Perfect Sense (2011)
Hell or High Water (2016)
Outlaw King (2018)

60. 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)
The Doors (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Alexander (2004)
Savages (2012)
Snowden (2016)

61. Todd Phillips

Producer | Joker

Todd Phillips is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Growing up on Long Island, New York, Todd Phillips fell in love with feature film teen comedies made in the 1980s, and claims they were his biggest influence in becoming a filmmaker. While studying film at New York University, ...

The Hangover (2009)
The Hangover Part II (2011)
The Hangover Part III (2013)
War Dogs (2016)
Joker (2019)

62. James Mangold

Producer | Logan

James Mangold is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Films he has directed include Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005), which he also co-wrote, the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Wolverine (2013), and Logan (2017).

Mangold also wrote and directed Cop...

Cop Land (1997)
Walk the Line (2005)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
The Wolverine (2013)
Logan (2017)
Ford v Ferrari (2019)

63. 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)
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (short) (1988)
Twin Peaks (1990)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Lost Highway (1997)
The Straight Story (1999)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Inland Empire (2006)
Twin Peaks (2017)
What Did Jack Do? (short) (2017)

64. David Michôd

Writer | The King

David Michôd is known for The King (2019), Animal Kingdom (2010) and The Rover (2014). He is married to Mirrah Foulkes.

Animal Kingdom (2010)
The Rover (2014)
War Machine (2017)
The King (2019)

65. 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 ...

Beetlejuice (1988)
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns (1992)
Ed Wood (1994)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Alice in Wonderland (2010)

66. Rian Johnson

Producer | Knives Out

Rian Johnson was born in Maryland and at a young age his family moved to San Clemente, California, where he was raised. After graduating from high school, he went on to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His first feature film, Brick (2005), was released in 2005 ...

Looper (2012)
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Knives Out (2019)

67. 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)

68. 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 ...

The Killing (1956)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Spartacus (1960)
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)

69. Noah Baumbach

Writer | The Squid and the Whale

Born in Brooklyn in 1969 Noah Baumbach is the son of two film critics, Georgia Brown and Jonathan Baumbach (also a writer). His studies at Vassar College were the subject of his first film (made as he was 26 years old), Kicking and Screaming (1995). His second major picture, made ten years later, ...

Frances Ha (2012)
While We're Young (2014)
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)
Marriage Story (2019)

70. Greta Gerwig

Writer | Barbie

Greta Gerwig is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director. She has collaborated with Noah Baumbach on several films, including Greenberg (2010), Frances Ha (2012), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination, and Mistress America (2015). Gerwig made her solo directorial debut ...

Lady Bird (2017)
Little Women (2019)

71. 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)
Four Rooms (1995)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Sin City (2005)
Planet Terror (2007)
Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

72. Josh Safdie

Director | Uncut Gems

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 Benny Safdie. The brothers have both cited early experiences in front of their father's camera as the reasons for their pursing ...

And Benny Safdie

Good Time (2017)
Uncut Gems (2019)

73. 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.

Mystery Train (1989)
Night on Earth (1991)
Dead Man (1995)
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Coffee & Cigarettes (2003)
Paterson (2016)

74. 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)

75. Jon Favreau

Producer | Chef

Initially an indie film favorite, actor Jon Favreau has progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium and, after nearly two decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as well as earning notice as a writer/producer/director.

The amiable, husky-framed actor with the ...

Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Chef (2014)
The Jungle Book (2016)
The Lion King (2019)

76. 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...

The Breakfast Club (1985)
Weird Science (1985)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

77. Doug Liman

Producer | Edge of Tomorrow

Douglas Eric Liman is a Jewish-American filmmaker and producer who directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Chaos Walking, Jumper, Go, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Fair Game, Locked Down, Edge of Tomorrow, The Wall and American Made. He executive produced the Bourne sequels except The Bourne Legacy, The ...

Swingers (1996)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Jumper (2008)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
American Made (2017)
Chaos Walking (2021)

78. 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)

79. Barry Jenkins

Producer | If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins was born on November 19, 1979 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is a producer and director, known for If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Moonlight (2016) and Aftersun (2022).

Moonlight (2016)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

80. 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 (1994)
The Green Mile (1999)
The Mist (2007)

81. 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)
Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)
Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski (1999)
Queen of the Desert (2015)
Into the Inferno (2016)

82. Masaki Kobayashi

Director | Seppuku

Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
The Human Condition II: The Road to Eternity (1959)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Harakiri (1962)
Kwaidan (1964)
Samurai Rebellion (1967)

83. 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 ...

The American Friend (1977)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)

84. 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 ...

Do the Right Thing (1989)
Inside Man (2006)
Blackkklansman (2018)

85. 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)
Misery (1990)
A Few Good Men (1992)

86. Jacques Tati

Writer | Playtime

The comic genius Jacques Tati was born Taticheff, descended from a noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a well-to-do picture framer who ...

Jour de fête (1949)
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Mon Oncle (1958)
Playtime (1967)
Trafic (1971)
Parade (1974)

87. Edward Yang

Writer | Yi yi

Born on November 6, 1947 in Shanghai, China, Edward Yang has become one of the most talented international filmmakers of his generation. Along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang, Yang ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave, and one of the world's most brilliant auteurs. ...

A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Mahjong (1996)
Yi Yi (2000)

88. Jean-Pierre Melville

Writer | Le samouraï

The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...

Le Samourai (1967)
Army of Shadows (1969)
Le cercle rouge (1970)

89. 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)
Sunshine (2007)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
127 Hours (2010)
T2 Trainspotting (2017)
Yesterday (2019)

90. John Woo

Director | Ying hung boon sik

Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow ...

The Killer (1989)
Bullet in the Head (1990)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Red Cliff (2008)
Reign of Assassins (2010)

91. 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, ...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Lust, Caution (2007)
Life of Pi (2012)
Gemini Man (2019)

92. 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 ...

The Quiet Family (1998)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
A Bittersweet Life (2005)
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)
I Saw The Devil (2010)
The Last Stand (2013)
The Age of Assassins (2016)

93. 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.

JSA - Joint Security Area (2000)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Oldboy (2003)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (2006)
Thirst (2009)
Stoker (2013)
The Handmaiden (2016)

94. 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.

12 Years A Slave (2013)
Small Axe (2020)

95. Kihachi Okamoto

Director | Nikudan

Okamoto belonged to what one colleague called "the generation where most of them got killed": the leagues of university graduates who were drafted into and sacrificed to the last years of Japan's war in the South Pacific. Okamoto was drafted during the very worst of it, in 1943, but almost alone ...

The Sword of Doom (1966)
The Age of Assassins (1967)
Kill! (1969)

96. 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 ...

Fando y Lis (1968)
El Topo (1970)
The Holy Mountain (1973)
Santa Sangre (1989)
The Dance of Reality (2013)

97. 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)
Pusher II (2004)
Pusher III (2005)
Bronson (2008)
Drive (2011)

98. James Gunn

Writer | Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, to Leota and James Francis Gunn. He is from a large Catholic family, with Irish and Czech ancestry. His father and his uncles were all lawyers. He has been writing and performing as long as he can remember. He began making 8mm films at the age ...

Super (2010)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
The Suicide Squad (2021)

99. Yimou Zhang

Director | Ying xiong

Yimou Zhang was born on November 14, 1951 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. He is a director and writer, known for Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He has been married to Ting Chen since December 2011. They have three children. He was previously married to ...

Ju Dou (1990)
Hero (2002)
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
The Flowers of War (2011)
The Great Wall (2016)

100. Zhangke Jia

Producer | Jiang hu er nü

Zhangke Jia was born on May 24, 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. He is a producer and director, known for Jiang hu er nü (2018), A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015). He has been married to Tao Zhao since January 7, 2012.

Pickpocket (1998)
A Touch of Sin (2013)