Ranking my favorite directors
by JoeBeducci | created - 24 Sep 2013 | updated - 24 Feb 2016 | PublicAlso check out my top 100 list: [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls050202701/[/link]
101. 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...
01. Whiplash 8.0/10
Watchlist:
01. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
02. La La Land
102. Gene Kelly
Soundtrack | Singin' in the Rain
Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third son of Harriet Catherine (Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Irish and German ancestry.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in...
& Stanley Donen
01. Singin' in the Rain 8.0/10
Watchlist:
01. On the Town
103. Robert Mulligan
Director | To Kill a Mockingbird
Robert Mulligan was born on August 23, 1925 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Summer of '42 (1971) and The Other (1972). He was married to Sandy Levy and Jane Sutherland. He died on December 20, 2008 in Lyme, ...
01. To Kill a Mockingbird 8.0/10
104. Barry Levinson
Director | Rain Man
Barry Lee Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Violet (Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who worked in furniture and appliance. He is of Russian Jewish descent. Levinson graduated from high school in 1960, attended college at American University in Washington, DC. He did well, but decided he ...
01. Rain Man 8.0/10
105. 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 ...
01. Carné tremula 7.5/10
02. Los abrazos rotos 7.5/10
03. La piel que habito 7.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Todo sobre mi madre
02. Hable con ella
03. Mujeres al borde de un ataque de "nervios"
04. Volver
05. La mala educación
06. Silencio
106. 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 ...
01. Silver Linings Playbook 7.5/10
02. The Fighter 7.5/10
03. American Hustle 7.0/10
04. Joy 5.5/10
Watchlist:
01. I Heart Huckabees
02. Three Kings
107. 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 ...
Aka. Dogme95
01. Festen 7.5/10
02. Jagten 7.5/10
03. Submarino 7.0/10
Watchlist:
01. Far from the Madding Crowd
108. J.C. Chandor
Producer | A Most Violent Year
J.C. Chandor is known for A Most Violent Year (2014), Margin Call (2011) and All Is Lost (2013). He has been married to Mary Cameron Goodyear since 2004. They have two children.
01. A Most Violent Year 7.5/10 02. Margin Call 7.5/10 03. All is Lost 6.5/10
109. 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 ...
01. Titanic 7.5/10
02. Avatar 7.0/10
03. The Abyss 6.0/10
04. Aliens 6.0/10
Watchlist:
01. The Terminator
02. The Terminator 2: Judgment Day
03. True Lies
04. Avatar 2,3,4..
110. 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...
01. Videodrome 7.5/10
02. eXistenZ 7.0/10
03. Eastern Promises 6.0/10
04. The Fly 6.0/10
05. Maps to the Stars 5.0/10
Watchlist:
01. The Dead Zone
02. Dead Ringers
03. Crash
04. A History of Violence
111. 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 ...
01. Snatch 7.5/10 02. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 7.0/10 03. Sherlock Holmes 6.0/10 04. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 6.0/10
112. 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 ...
01. The Village 7.5/10
02. The Sixth Sense 7.0/10
03. The Happening 4.0/10
Watchlist:
01. Unbreakable
113. Anton Corbijn
Director | Control
Anton Corbijn was born on May 20, 1955 in Strijen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. He is a director and actor, known for Control (2007), A Most Wanted Man (2014) and The American (2010).
01. The American 7.5/10
02. Life 5.0/10
Watchlist:
01. A Most Wanted Man
02. Control
114. John Ford
Director | The Quiet Man
John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...
01. Stagecoach 7.5/10
Watchlist:
01. The Searchers
02. The Man Who Shot Libery Valance
03. My Darling Clementine
04. The Grapes of Wrath
05. The Quiet Man
06. How Green was my Valley
07. Wagon Master
08. Young Mr. Lincoln
09. They Were Expendable
10. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
11. The Sun Shines Bright
12. Seven Women
13. Fort Apache
14. The Wings of Eagles
15. The Informer
115. 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 ...
01. Another Year 7.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Naked
02. Secrets & Lies
03. Topsy-Turvy
04. Happy-Go-Lucky
05. Mr. Turner
06. Vera Drake
07. Life Is Sweet
08. High Hopes
09. Peterloo
116. Aleksandr Sokurov
Director | Russkiy kovcheg
He was born with a disability because of an anatomic defect of his leg, in 1951 in Podorvikha village in Siberian Russia. His father was a Red Army veteran of WW2. One of most important contemporary filmmakers, Sokurov worked extensively in television and later graduated from the prestigious film ...
01. Francofonia 7.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Russkiy kovcheg
02. Mat i syn
03. Solntse
04. Aleksandra
05. Faust
117. Patricio Guzmán
Director | Nostalgia de la luz
Patricio Guzmán was born on August 11, 1941 in Santiago, Chile. He is a director and writer, known for Nostalgia for the Light (2010), The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975) and The Southern Cross (1991).
01. El botón de nacár 7.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Nostalghia de la luz
02. Salvador Allende
03. La batalla de Chile: La lucha de un pueblo sin armas I II III
118. Jonathan Glazer
Director | Under the Skin
Jonathan first found fame for his revolutionary work on Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' and Jamiroquai's multi-MTV award winning 'Virtual Insanity' video.
In 1999 he directed the ground-breaking Guinness 'Surfer', which picked up 2 D&AD Black Pencils and the top spot at most of the other awards ...
01. Under The Skin 7.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Birth
02. Sexy Beast
119. 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 ...
01. Collateral 7.0/10
02. Ali 7.0/10
03. Heat 6.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Last of the Mohicans
02. The Insider
03. Miami Vice
04. Blackhat
05. Public Enemies
06. Manhunter
07. Thief
120. 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), ...
01. Enemy 7.0/10
02. Incendies 7.0/10
03. Prisoners 6.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Sicaro
02. Story of Your Life
03. Polytechnique
04. Maelström
121. 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 ...
01. Oceans Eleven 7.0/10
02. Traffic 7.0/10
03. Side Effects 6.0/10
04. Oceans Twelve 5.5/10
Watchlist:
01. Erin Bronkovich
02. Solaris
03. Magic Mike
04. Che
05. Contagion
06. The Informant!
07. The Girlfriend Experience
122. 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, ...
01. Wo hu cang long 7.0/10
02. Life of Pi 6.5/10
03. Hulk 4.5/10
Watchlist:
01. The Ice Storm
02. Brokeback Mountain
03. Sense and Sensibility
04. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
123. 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 ...
01. Star Wars 7.0/10
02. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 6.0/10
03. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones 5.5/10
04. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 5.5/10
Watchlist:
01. American Graffiti
02. THX 1138
124. William Friedkin
Director | To Live and Die in L.A.
Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with ...
01. The Exorcist 7.0/10
Watchlist:
01. The French Connection
02. Bug
03. Killer Joe
125. 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 ...
01. Dheepan 7.0/10
Watchlist:
01. Un prophète
02. De rouille et d'os
126. Jean-Luc Godard
Director | Bande à part
Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...
Watchlist: 01. Breathless 02. Contempt 03. Pierrot Le Fou 04. Histoire(s) de Cinéma 05. Vivre sa Vie 06. Two or Three Things I Know About Her 07. Week-end 08. Alphaville 09. Nouvelle Vague 10. Passion 11. Numéro deux 12. Masculin Feminin 13. Bandè a part 14. Une femme est une femme 15. Sauve qui peut (la vie) 16. Tout va bien
127. 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...
01. Seven Samurai 02. Rashomon 03. Ikiru 04. Ran 05. Throne of Blood 06. High and Low 07. Dersu Uzala 08. Yojimbo 09. Kagemusha 10. Dodes'Ka-Den 11. Red Beard
128. 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 ...
Watchlist: 01. The 400 Blows 02. Jules et Jim 03. Shoot the Piano Player 04. Day for Night 05. The Wild Child 06. The Woman Next Door 07. Two English Girls
129. 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 ...
Watchlist: 01. Lawrence of Arabia 02. Brief Encounter 03. The Bridge on the River Kwai 04. Doctor Zhivago 05. Great Expectations
130. 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 ...
Watchlist: 01. Sunrise 02. Nosferatu 03. The Last Laugh 04. Tabu 05. Faust
131. Carl Theodor Dreyer
Writer | Gertrud
The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the ...
Watchlist: 01. The Passion of Joan of Arc 02. Ordet 03. Gertrud 04. Vampyr 05. Day of Wrath
132. 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 ...
Watchlist: 01. On The Waterfront 02. Splendor in the Grass 03. A Streetcar Named Desire 04. East of Eden 05. America, America
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