Best Directors - Organised List

1. 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 ...

1956 - The Killing 1957 - Paths Of Glory 1960 - Spartacus 1962 - Lolita 1964 - Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb 1968 - 2001: A Space Odyssey 1971 - A Clockwork Orange 1975 - Barry Lyndon 1980 - The Shining 1987 - Full Metal Jacket 1999 - Eyes Wide Shut

2. 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 ...

1935 - The 39 Steps 1938 - The Lady Vanishes 1940 - Rebecca 1943 - Shadow Of A Doubt 1944 - Lifeboat 1945 - Spellbound 1946 - Notorious 1948 - Rope 1951 - Strangers On A Train 1954 - Dial M For Murder 1954 - Rear Window 1955 - To Catch A Thief 1956 - The Man Who Knew Too Much 1958 - Vertigo 1959 - North By Northwest 1960 - Psycho 1963 - The Birds

3. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

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

1975 - Jaws 1977 - Close Encounters Of The Third Kind 1981 - Raiders Of The Lost Ark 1982 - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 1984 - Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom 1985 - The Color Purple 1987 - Empire Of The Sun 1989 - Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade 1993 - Jurassic Park 1993 - Schindler's List 1998 - Saving Private Ryan 2002 - Minority Report 2002 - Catch Me If You Can 2011 - The Adventures Of Tintin

4. 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...

1950 - Rashomon 1952 - Ikiru 1954 - Seven Samurai 1957 - Throne Of Blood 1958 - The Hidden Fortress 1960 - The Bad Sleep Well 1961 - Yojimbo 1962 - Sanjuro 1963 - High And Low 1965 - Red Beard 1980 - Kagemusha 1985 - Ran

5. Billy Wilder

Writer | The Apartment

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...

1944 - Double Indemnity 1945 - The Lost Weekend 1950 - Sunset Blvd. 1951 - Ace In The Hole 1953 - Stalag 17 1954 - Sabrina 1957 - Witness For The Prosecution 1959 - Some Like It Hot 1960 - The Apartment 1961 - One, Two, Three

6. 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 ...

1998 - Following 2000 - Memento 2002 - Insomnia 2005 - Batman Begins 2006 - The Prestige 2008 - The Dark Knight 2010 - Inception 2012 - The Dark Knight Rises 2014 - Interstellar 2017 - Dunkirk

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 ...

1976 - Taxi Driver 1980 - Raging Bull 1982 - The King Of Comedy 1990 - Goodfellas 1995 - Casino 2002 - Gangs Of New York 2004 - The Aviator 2006 - The Departed 2010 - Shutter Island 2011 - Hugo 2013 - The Wolf Of Wall Street

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...

1992 - Reservoir Dogs 1994 - Pulp Fiction 1997 - Jackie Brown 2003 - Kill Bill: Vol. 1 2004 - Kill Bill: Vol. 2 2007 - Death Proof 2009 - Inglourious Basterds 2012 - Django Unchained 2015 - The Hateful Eight

9. 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 ...

1979 - The Castle Of Cagliostro 1984 - Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind 1986 - Castle In The Sky 1988 - My Neighbor Totoro 1989 - Kiki's Delivery Service 1992 - Porco Rosso 1997 - Princess Mononoke 2001 - Spirited Away 2004 - Howl's Moving Castle 2008 - Ponyo 2013 - The Wind Rises

10. 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 ...

1964 - A Fistful Of Dollars 1965 - For A Few Dollars More 1966 - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly 1968 - Once Upon A Time In The West 1984 - Once Upon A Time In America

11. 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 ...

1972 - The Godfather 1974 - The Conversation 1974 - The Godfather: Part II 1979 - Apocalypse Now 1983 - The Outsiders 1990 - The Godfather: Part III 1992 - Bram Stoker's Dracula

12. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

1921 - The Kid 1925 - The Gold Rush 1931 - City Lights 1936 - Modern Times 1940 - The Great Dictator

13. 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...

1995 - Se7en 1997 - The Game 1999 - Fight Club 2007 - Zodiac 2008 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button 2010 - The Social Network 2011 - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 2014 - Gone Girl

14. David Lean

Director | Lawrence of Arabia

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...

1945 - Brief Encounter 1946 - Great Expectations 1948 - Oliver Twist 1957 - The Bridge On The River Kwai 1962 - Lawrence Of Arabia 1965 - Doctor Zhivago

15. Fritz Lang

Actor | Le mépris

Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...

1927 - Metropolis 1931 - M 1944 - The Woman In The Window 1945 - Scarlet Street 1953 - The Big Heat

16. John Huston

Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...

1941 - The Maltese Falcon 1948 - The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 1948 - Key Largo 1950 - The Asphalt Jungle 1951 - The African Queen 1956 - Moby Dick 1965 - The Night Of The Iguana 1975 - The Man Who Would Be King

17. Howard Hawks

Director | Rio Bravo

What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...

1932 - Scarface 1934 - Twentieth Century 1938 - Bringing Up Baby 1939 - Only Angels Have Wings 1940 - His Girl Friday 1941 - Sergeant York 1941 - Ball Of Fire 1944 - To Have And Have Not 1946 - The Big Sleep 1948 - Red River 1953 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1959 - Rio Bravo 1967 - El Dorado

18. 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 ...

1957 - 12 Angry Men 1962 - Long Day's Journey Into Night 1964 - The Pawnbroker 1964 - Fail-Safe 1965 - The Hill 1973 - Serpico 1974 - Murder On The Orient Express 1975 - Dog Day Afternoon 1976 - Network 1982 - The Verdict

19. Frank Capra

Director | It's a Wonderful Life

One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...

1934 - It Happened One Night 1939 - Mr. Smith Goes To Washington 1944 - Arsenic And Old Lace 1946 - It's A Wonderful Life

20. 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 ...

1976 - The Outlaw Josey Wales 1992 - Unforgiven 2003 - Mystic River 2004 - Million Dollar Baby 2008 - Changeling 2008 - Gran Torino

21. 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 ...

1962 - Knife In The Water 1965 - Repulsion 1968 - Rosemary's Baby 1974 - Chinatown 1976 - The Tenant 2002 - The Pianist

22. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

1941 - Citizen Kane 1958 - Touch Of Evil 1962 - The Trial 1965 - Chimes At Midnight

23. 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 (...

1966 - Persona 1957 - The Seventh Seal 1957 - Wild Strawberries 1982 - Fanny And Alexander

24. 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 ...

1979 - Alien 1982 - Blade Runner 1991 - Thelma & Louise 2000 - Gladiator 2001 - Black Hawk Down 2007 - American Gangster 2015 - The Martian

25. 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 ...

1984 - The Terminator 1986 - Aliens 1989 - The Abyss 1991 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1994 - True Lies 1997 - Titanic 2009 - Avatar

26. 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 ...

... and Ethan Coen:

1996 - Fargo 1998 - The Big Lebowsky 2000 - O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2007 - No Country For Old Men 2010 - True Grit

27. 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 ...

1998 - Pi 2000 - Requiem For A Dream 2008 - The Wrestler 2010 - Black Swan

28. 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 ...

1985 - Back To The Future 1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1994 - Forrest Gump 2000 - Cast Away

29. 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 ...

1984 - This Is Spinal Tap 1986 - Stand By Me 1987 - The Princess Bride 1989 - When Harry Met Sally... 1990 - Misery 1992 - A Few Good Men

30. 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 ...

1977 - Eraserhead 1980 - The Elephant Man 1986 - Blue Velvet 2001 - Mulholland Dr.

31. 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...

1997 - Boogie Nights 1999 - Magnolia 2007 - There Will Be Blood 2017 - Phantom Thread

32. 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/...

1991 - Delicatessen 1995 - The City Of Lost Children 2001 - Amélie 2004 - A Very Long Engagement

33. F.W. Murnau

Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air ...

1922 - Nosferatu 1924 - The Last Laugh 1926 - Faust 1927 - Sunrise 1930 - City Girl 1931 - Tabu: A Story Of The South Seas

34. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

1923 - Our Hospitality 1924 - Sherlock Jr. 1924 - The Navigator 1925 - Seven Chances 1926 - The General

35. Federico Fellini

Writer | Le notti di Cabiria

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

1953 - I Vitelloni 1954 - La Strada 1957 - Le Notti Di Cabiria 1960 - La Dolce Vita 1963 - 8½ 1973 - Amarcord

36. 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.

2000 - Joint Security Area 2002 - Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance 2003 - Oldboy 2005 - Lady Vengeance 2016 - The Handmaiden

37. 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 ...

1994 - The Shawshank Redemption 1999 - The Green Mile

38. Milos Forman

Director | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman was born Jan Tomas Forman in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, to Anna (Svabova), who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. During World War II, his parents were taken away by the Nazis, after being accused of participating in the underground resistance. His father died in ...

1975 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest 1984 - Amadeus

39. 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 ...

1994 - Heavenly Creatures 2001 - The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring 2002 - The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers 2003 - The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

40. William Wyler

Director | The Best Years of Our Lives

William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...

1946 - The Best Years Of Our Lives 1953 - Roman Holiday 1959 - Ben-Hur

41. George Roy Hill

Director | The Sting

George Roy Hill was never able to 'hit it off' with the critics despite the fact that 2 of his films - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and The Sting (1973) - had remained among the top 10 box office hits by 1976. His work was frequently derided as 'impersonal' or lacking in stylistic ...

1969 - Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid 1973 - The Sting

42. Elia Kazan

Director | On the Waterfront

Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...

1951 - A Streetcar Named Desire 1954 - On The Waterfront 1955 - East Of Eden

43. 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 ...

2001 - The Devil's Backbone 2002 - Blade II 2004 - Hellboy 2006 - Pan's Labyrinth 2008 - Hellboy II: The Golden Army 2013 - Pacific Rim 2017 - The Shape Of Water

44. 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 ...

1988 - Beetlejuice 1989 - Batman 1990 - Edward Scissorhands 1992 - Batman Returns 1994 - Ed Wood 1999 - Sleepy Hollow 2003 - Big Fish 2005 - Corpse Bride 2007 - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

45. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

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

1967 - The Producers 1974 - Blazing Saddles 1974 - Young Frankenstein 1987 - Spaceballs

46. 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 ...

1975 - Monty Python And The Holy Grail 1985 - Brazil 1995 - Twelve Monkeys 1998 - Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

47. 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 ...

1978 - Halloween 1981 - Escape From New York 1982 - The Thing 1986 - Big Trouble In Little China

48. 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 ...

1976 - Carrie 1983 - Scarface 1987 - The Untouchables 1996 - Mission: Impossible

49. 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 ...

1996 - Trainspotting 2002 - 28 Days Later... 2008 - Slumdog Millionaire 2010 - 127 Hours

50. 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 ...

1995 - Braveheart 2006 - Apocalypto 2016 - Hacksaw Ridge

51. Peter Weir

Director | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Peter Weir was born on August 21, 1944 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Way Back (2010) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Wendy Stites since 1966. They have two children.

1985 - Witness 1989 - Dead Poets Society 1998 - The Truman Show

52. 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...

1999 - Spaced [TV Series] 2004 - Shaun Of The Dead 2007 - Hot Fuzz 2010 - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World 2013 - The World's End 2017 - Baby Driver

53. 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 ...

2007 - Stardust 2010 - Kick-Ass 2011 - X-Men: First Class 2014 - Kingsman: The Secret Service

54. 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 ...

1998 - Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels 2000 - Snatch. 2009 - Sherlock Holmes

55. 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 ...

1998 - Rushmore 2001 - The Royal Tenenbaums 2009 - Fantastic Mr. Fox 2012 - Moonrise Kingdom 2014 - The Grand Budapest Hotel 2018 - Isle Of Dogs

56. 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...

1984 - Sixteen Candles 1985 - The Breakfast Club 1985 - Weird Science 1986 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1987 - Planes, Trains & Automobiles

57. 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), ...

2010 - Incendies 2013 - Prisoners 2015 - Sicario 2016 - Arrival 2017 - Blade Runner 2049

58. 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 ...

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

59. 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 ...

2001 - Y Tu Mamá También 2004 - Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban 2006 - Children Of Men 2013 - Gravity

60. 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 ...

1988 - Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown 1989 - Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! 1999 - All About My Mother 2002 - Talk To Her 2006 - To Return 2011 - The Skin I Live In

61. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

1977 - Annie Hall 1979 - Manhattan 1986 - Hannah And Her Sisters 2011 - Midnight In Paris

62. Brad Bird

Writer | The Incredibles

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films. Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in...

1999 - The Iron Giant 2004 - The Incredibles 2007 - Ratatouille 2011 - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

63. John McTiernan

Director | Die Hard

John McTiernan was born on January 8, 1951 in Albany, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Die Hard (1988), Rollerball (2002) and Last Action Hero (1993). He has been married to Gail Sistrunk since 2012. He was previously married to Kate Harrington, Donna Dubrow and Carol Land.

1987 - Predator 1988 - Die Hard 1990 - The Hunt For Red October 1995 - Die Hard With A Vengeance

64. Ang Lee

Director | Xi yan

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, ...

2000 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2005 - Brokeback Mountain 2007 - Lust, Caution 2012 - Life Of Pi

65. 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 ...

1986 - Platoon 1987 - Wall Street 1991 - JFK

66. 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 ...

1990 - La Femme Nikita 1994 - Léon: The Professional 1997 - The Fifth Element

67. 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-...

1999 - American Beauty 2002 - Road To Perdition 2012 - Skyfall

68. 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...

1983 - Videodrome 1986 - The Fly 2005 - A History Of Violence 2007 - Eastern Promises

69. Paul Verhoeven

Director | RoboCop

Paul Verhoeven graduated from the University of Leiden, with a degree in math and physics. He entered the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he began his film career by making documentaries for the Navy and later for TV. In 1969, he directed the popular Dutch TV series, Floris (1969), about a medieval ...

1987 - RoboCop 1990 - Total Recall 1992 - Basic Instinct 1997 - Starship Troopers

70. 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. ...

1993 - Dazed And Confused 1995 - Before Sunrise 2004 - Before Sunset 2013 - Before Midnight 2014 - Boyhood

71. Don Bluth

Director | Anastasia

Don Bluth was one of the chief animators at Disney to come to the mantle after the great one's death. He eventually became the animation director for such films as The Rescuers (1977) and Pete's Dragon (1977). Unfortunately, the quality of animation that Disney was producing at this point was not ...

1982 - The Secret Of NIMH 1986 - An American Tail 1988 - The Land Before Time 1997 - Anastasia

72. 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...

2014 - Whiplash 2016 - La La Land

73. 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).

2008 - In Bruges 2017 - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

74. 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 ...

2000 - Traffic 2001 - Ocean's Eleven

75. James Wan

Writer | Saw

James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet. Wan has also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010)...

2004 - Saw 2013 - The Conjuring

76. Stephen Chow

Actor | Kung fu

Stephen Chow was the only boy of his family, and has grown up as a Bruce Lee fan and a martial arts addict. His career started on TV, where he presented a children show ( "430 Space Shuttle" (1983)) and started becoming popular. He got some supporting roles, after that, and won the Taiwanese Golden...

2004 - Kung Fu Hustle