Best Directors Working Today
by whitwarren95 | created - 21 Jul 2020 | updated - 21 Jul 2020 | PublicA list of the best filmmakers in the business today
1. 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 ...
TDK series, Memento, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, etc
2. 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), ...
Prisoners, Enemy, BR:2049, Sicario. 1 Oscar nom (for directing), 3 BAFTA noms (2 for directing)
3. 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 ...
The Irishman, incredible rockumentaries like Geoge Harrison: Living in the Material World or The Last Waltz, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed, Shutter Island, and the classics (Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull). 1 Oscar win for directing, 14 total noms. 4 Globe wins (3 for directing), 11 noms (9 for directing).
4. 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...
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained and of course the classics (Pulp, Resevoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vols 1-2). 2 Oscar wins, 8 noms (3 for directing). 3 Globe wins, 9 noms (4 for directing)
5. 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 ...
Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and of course the classics (The Life Aquatic, Rushmore, Fantastic Mr Fox, etc). 7 Oscar noms, 1 for directing. 2 Globe noms, 1 for directing
6. 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 ...
Parasite, Okja, Snowpiecer, Mother. 3 Oscar wins, one for directing. 2 Globe noms, one for directing.
7. 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, ...
The Post, Bridge of Spies, Lincoln. 3 Oscar wins (3 for directing), 18 noms (7 for directing). 14 Globe noms, 12 for directing.
8. 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 ...
Inside Llewyn Davis, True Grit, A Serious Man and of course the classics (Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, etc etc). 4 Oscar wins (1 for directing) 15 noms (2 for directing). 1 Globe win, 6 noms (2 for directing)
9. 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...
See Joel Coen's notes above
10. 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. ...
Everybody Wants Some!!, Boyhood, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Before Midnight. 5 Oscar noms, 1 for directing. 1 Globe win, for directing, 2 total Globe noms.
11. 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 ...
The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, Pacific Rim. 2 Oscar wins (1 for directing), 4 noms. 1 Globe win (for directing), 2 noms.
12. Terrence Malick
Writer | Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.
A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...
A Hidden Life, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder. 3 Oscar noms (2 for directing). 1 Globe nom for directing.
13. 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 ...
14. 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...
15. 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 ...
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