Directors and their movies rated

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 ...

A Clockwork Orange - 10 2001 a Space Odyssey - 10 The Shining - 10 Full Metal Jacket - 9.5 The Killing - 9.5 Dr. Strangelove - 9.5 Eyes Wide Shut - 9

2. 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 ...

The Good The Bad and The Ugly - 10 Fistfull of Dollars - 10 For a Few Dollars More - 10

3. 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 ...

Blue Velvet - 10 Mullholland Drive - 10 Twin Peaks Pilot - 9.5 Eraserhead - 9.5 Wild At Heart - 9 Lost Highway - 9 Dune - 9 Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me - 7.5

4. Alfred Hitchcock

Director | Psycho

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...

Rear Window - 10 North By Northwest - 10 Vertigo - 10 Rope - 9 Psycho - 9 The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) - 9 The Birds - 9 Strangers on a Train - 7.5

5. 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...

Pulp Fiction - 9.5 Inglorious Basterds - 9.5 Kill Bill Vol. 1 - 9.5 Reservoir Dogs - 9.5 Django Unchained - 9.5 Death Proof - 9 Kill Bill Vol. 2 - 9 Jackie Brown - 8

Four Rooms (The Man From Hollywood) - 7

6. 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 ...

Raging Bull - 9.5 Wolf of Wall Street - 9 Mean Streets - 9 Shutter Island - 9 Casino - 9 The Departed - 9 Taxi Driver - 9 Goodfellas - 9 Hugo - 8.5 Gangs of New York - 7 Bringing Out The Dead - 7 Aviator - 7

7. 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. ...

Boyhood - 10 Dazed and Confused - 10 Before Sunrise - 9.5 Before Sunset - 9.5 Me and Orson Welles -9 Waking Life - 8 School of Rock - 8 A Scanner Darkly - 7.5 The Newton Boys - 7 Bernie - 6

8. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

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

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

Badlands - 10 The Tree of Life - 9.5 The Thin Red Line - 9.5 The New World - 8 Days of Heaven - 7.5

9. 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 ...

Apocalypse Now - 10 The Godfather - 9 The Godfather Part 2 - 8.5 The Outsiders - 7 The Godfather Part 3 - 7 Twixt - 6

10. 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...

There Will Be Blood - 9.5 Boogie Nights - 8.5 The Master - 8 Punch Drunk Love - 8

11. 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. ...

Only God Forgives - 9.5 Drive - 9.5 Bronson - 9

12. 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 ...

Ethan Coen included...

A Serious Man - 9.5 The Big Lebowski - 9 Burn After Reading - 9 No Country For Old Men - 9 True Grit - 8 Raising Arizona - 8 Fargo - 7

13. 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 ...

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - 9 The Darjeeling Limited - 8.5 Fantastic Mr. Fox - 8.5 The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8 The Royal Tenenbaums - 8 Moonrise Kingdom - 8 Bottle Rocket - 8

14. 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 ...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - 9.5 The Fisher King - 9 Monty Python and The Holy Grail - 9 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - 8 The Zero Theorum - 7

15. 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 ...

Midnight In Paris - 9.5 To Rome With Love - 9 Annie Hall - 9 Vicky Christina Barcelona - 8 Blue Jasmine - 7

16. 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 ...

Blade Runner - 9.5 Prometheus - 9 Gladiator - 9 Alien - 9 Hannibal - 8 American Gangster - 8 Body of Lies - 8 Legend - 7 Matchstick Men - 6 Black Hawk Down - 6

17. 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...

Fight Club - 9 Se7en - 8.5 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 8 The Social Network - 8 Zodiac - 8 The Game - 8 Panic Room - 8 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 7

18. 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 - 9 Catch Me If You Can - 9 Raiders of the Lost Ark - 9 The Last Crusade - 9 Schindler's List - 8.5 E.T. - 8.5 The Terminal - 8 Saving Private Ryan - 8 The Adventures of Tintin - 7.5 Munich - 7.5 Temple of Doom - 7.5 Jurassic Park - 7.5 Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 7.5 War of the Worlds - 7 Hook - 7 Minority Report - 7 Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 6.5

19. 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 - 9 Dog Day Afternoon - 9 Network - 7.5 Serpico - 7

20. 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 ...

Children of Men - 9.5 Graviy - 9 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 6

21. 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 ...

Casualties of War - 9.5 Carrie - 9 The Untouchables - 8 Dressed to Kill - 8 Mission Impossible - 8 Scarface - 7 The Black Dahlia - 7 Passion - 7

22. 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.

Shame - 9.5 12 Years a Slave - 9

23. 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 - 9 127 Hours - 8.5 Slumdog Millionaire - 8.5 A Life Less Ordinary - 8 Sunshine - 7.5 Trance - 7

24. 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 ...

Interstellar - 9 The Prestige - 9 Memento - 9 Inception - 7.5 Batman Begins - 7.5 The Dark Knight - 7.5 Following - 7.5 Insomnia - 7 The Dark Knight Rises - 6.5

25. 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 ...

The Fountain - 9 Black Swan - 9 The Wrestler - 8 Pi - 7.5

26. 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 ...

One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest - 9 Man On The Moon - 8.5 Amadeus - 7.5

27. Derek Cianfrance

Writer | Blue Valentine

Derek Cianfrance began making movies at age 13. He later attended The University of Colorado where he studied under avant-garde film legends Stan Brakhage and Phil Solomon. His first three films, 'Five O'clock Shadow', 'Raw Footage', and Brother Tied (1998), won consecutive Goldfarb Awards for best...

Place Beyond The Pines - 9 Blue Valentine - 8

28. 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 - 9 Snatch - 8.5 Sherlock Holmes - 6.5 RocknRolla - 6 Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows - 6

29. 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 - 8 Skyfall - 7.5 Jarhead - 7 Road to Perdition - 7 Away We Go - 6

30. 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 Return of The King - 9 The Fellowship of The Ring - 9 The Two Towers - 9 The Frighteners - 7 Dead Alive - 7 King Kong - 6.5

31. 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 ...

Avatar - 8 The Abyss - 7.5 The Terminator - 7.5 Titanic - 7.5 Aliens - 7

32. 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 - 9 Natural Born Killers - 7 Wall Street - 7 The Doors -7 JFK - 7 World Trade Center - 6.5 Wall Street Money Never Sleeps - 5.5

33. John Milius

Writer | Conan the Barbarian

John Milius is a screenwriter and director who came to prominence in the 1970s, when he was associated with Francis Ford Coppola and the pre-Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) George Lucas. Born on April 11, 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri, Milius was one of the first movie industry ...

The Big Wednesday - 9 Conan - 8.5 Red Dawn - 7.5 The Wind and The Lion - 6

34. 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...

Videodrome - 8.5 A Dangerous Method - 7.5 Eastern Promises - 7 Cosmopolis - 6.5 A History of Violence - 6

35. 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 - 8 Forest Gump - 8 Back to the Future 3 - 7.5 Back to the Future 2 - 8 Flight - 7.5 Contact - 7 Polar Express - 7 Cast Away - 7

36. 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 ...

Miami Vice - 7.5 The Insider - 7 Ali - 7 Heat - 7 The Keep - 7 Public Enemies - 7 The Last of The Mohicans - 6.5 Collateral - 6.5

37. Jonathan Levine

Director | 50/50

Jonathan Levine was born on June 18, 1976. He is a producer and director, known for 50/50 (2011), The Wackness (2008) and Warm Bodies (2013).

50/50 - 8.5 Warm Bodies - 8 The Wackness - 7

38. Harmony Korine

Director | Gummo

Harmony Korine was born in 1973 in Bolinas, California. His family moved to the east coast of the United States when he was five, and he spent his early years in Nashville, Tennessee, and New York. At the age of nineteen, he wrote the critically acclaimed screenplay Kids (1995) for director Larry ...

Spring Breakers - 8.5 Gummo - 7.5

39. 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 - 9 The Thing - 8.5 Christine - 7 Big Trouble in Little China - 7 Escape From L.A. - 6

40. Kathryn Bigelow

Director | The Hurt Locker

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 ...

Point Break - 9 The Hurt Locker - 8 Zero Dark Thirty - 8

41. 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 ...

Traffic - 7.5 Out of Sight - 7.5 Magic Mike - 7 Ocean's Eleven - 7 Side Effects - 7 Ocean's Thirteen - 6.5 Ocean's Twelve - 6.5 Contagion - 6

42. 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 ...

Big Fish - 7 Batman Returns - 6.5 Batman - 6.5 Beetlejuice - 6.5 Edward Scissorhands - 6.5 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 6

43. 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 ...

Leon the Professional - 7 Taken - 7 The Fifth Element - 6.5 Lucy - 6.5 The Family - 5.5

44. J.J. Abrams

Producer | Lost

Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990)....

Super 8 - 7 Star Trek into Darkness - 7 Star Trek - 6.5 Mission Impossible 3 - 6.5

45. 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 ...

A Beautiful Mind - 8 Apollo 13 - 7 The Da Vinci Code - 7 Cinderella Man - 7 How the Grinch Stole Christmas - 7 Angels and Demons - 7 The Dilemma - 4.5

46. Ruben Fleischer

Director | Zombieland

Ruben Fleischer was born on October 31, 1974 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Zombieland (2009), Gangster Squad (2013) and Venom (2018). He has been married to Holly Shakoor Fleischer since November 10, 2012.

Zombieland - 7 30 Minutes or Less - 6.5 Gangster Squad - 5.5

47. Michael Bay

Producer | Armageddon

A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won...

Pain and Gain - 6.5 Bad Boys - 6.5 Transformers - 6.5 The Rock - 6 Transformers 2 - 5.5 Bad Boys 2 - 5.5