My 50-ish Favorite Directors
by Kim_Kobusch_Simonsen | created - 14 Jun 2018 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicI consider the best directors to be daring and experimentel craftsmen and their films to challenge and stay with me.
The score is the sum of points (12, 4, 1) divided by the square root of titles watched. The score is used for ranking and sum for qualification to the list.
1. 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 (...
FANTASTIC
Persona (1966)
Höstsonaten (1978)
Smultronstället (1957)
Viskningar och rop (1972)
GREAT
Vargtimmen (1968)
Fanny och Alexander (1982)
Tystnaden (1963)
Det sjunde inseglet (1957)
Såsom i en spegel (1961)
Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973)
Nattvardsgästerna (1963)
Jungfrukällan (1960)
En passion (1969)
GOOD
Skammen (1968)
Sommarlek (1951)
Aus dem Leben der Marionetten (1980)
Ansiktet (1958)
Titles Watched: 18
Sum: 88
Score: 20.7
2. Andrei Tarkovsky
Writer | Offret
The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...
FANTASTIC
Solyaris (1972)
Zerkalo (1975)
Stalker (1979)
GREAT
Andrey Rublyov (1966)
Offret (1986)
Nostalghia (1983)
Ivanovo detstvo (1962)
Titles Watched: 10
Sum: 52
Score: 16.4
3. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The Shining (1980)
GREAT
Barry Lyndon (1975)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Killing (1956)
GOOD
Spartacus (1960)
Lolita (1962)
Titles Watched: 11
Sum: 52
Score: 15.7
4. 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), ...
FANTASTIC
Arrival (2016)
Incendies (2010)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
GREAT
Prisoners (2013)
Sicario (2015)
Enemy (2013)
Maelström (2000)
Dune (2021)
GOOD
Polytechnique (2009)
Next Floor (2008)
Titles Watched: 14
Sum: 58
Score: 15.5
5. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Writer | Trois couleurs: Bleu
Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (...
FANTASTIC
Krótki film o zabijaniu (1988)
La double vie de Véronique (1991)
GREAT
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
Bez konca (1985)
Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994)
Krótki film o milosci (1988)
GOOD
Przypadek (1987)
Titles Watched: 9
Sum: 45
Score: 15.0
I still haven't decided on how to count The Dekalog
6. Alain Resnais
Director | Hiroshima mon amour
Alain Resnais was born on June 3, 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on March 1, 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...
FASNTASTIC
L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)
Nuit et brouillard (1956)
GREAT
Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980)
GOOD
Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 29
Score: 14.5
7. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
GREAT
The Godfather (1972)
The Conversation (1974)
Titles Watched: 5
Sum: 32
Score: 14.3
8. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Vertigo (1958)
Rope (1948)
GREAT
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Rear Window (1954)
Psycho (1960)
Rebecca (1940)
The Birds (1963)
GOOD
Notorious (1946)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Spellbound (1945)
North by Northwest (1959)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Marnie (1964)
Titles Watched: 14
Sum: 50
Score: 13.4
9. Michelangelo Antonioni
Writer | Blow-Up
Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...
FANTASTIC
L'avventura (1960)
GREAT
L'eclisse (1962)
Il deserto rosso (1964)
Blow-Up (1966)
La notte (1961)
GOOD
Professione: reporter (1975)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 29
Score: 11.8
10. Luis Buñuel
Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...
FANTASTIC
Un chien andalou (1929)
GREAT
Cet obscur objet du désir (1977)
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972)
L'âge d'or (1930)
Belle de jour (1967)
GOOD
Tristana (1970)
Le fantôme de la liberté (1974)
Titles Watched: 7
Sum: 30
Score: 11.3
11. Victor Sjöström
Actor | Smultronstället
Victor Sjöström was born on September 20, 1879, and is the undisputed father of Swedish film, ranking as one of the masters of world cinema. His influence lives on in the work of Ingmar Bergman and all those directors, both Swedish and international, influenced by his work and the works of ...
FANTASTIC
Körkarlen (1921)
GREAT
Ingeborg Holm (1913)
Titles Watched: 2
Sum: 16
Score: 11.3
12. Ron Fricke
Cinematographer | Samsara
Ron Fricke is known for Samsara (2011), Baraka (1992) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).
FANTASTIC
Samsara (2011)
GREAT
Baraka (1992)
Titles Watched: 2
Sum: 16
Score: 11.3
13. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
The Zone of Interest (2023)
GREAT
Under the Skin (2013)
Titles Watched: 2
Sum: 16
Score: 11.3
14. 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.
FANTASTIC
Shame (2011)
GREAT
Hunger (2008)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Education (2020)
Lovers Rock (2020)
GOOD
Mangrove (2020)
Widows (2018)
Red, White and Blue (2020)
Alex Wheatle (2020)
Titles Watched: 9
Sum: 33
Score: 11.0
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. ...
FANTASTIC
Metropolis (1927)
GREAT
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Der müde Tod (1921)
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)
GOOD
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922)
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)+Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (1924)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 26
Score: 10.6
16. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
The Prestige (2006)
GREAT
The Dark Knight (2008)
Inception (2010)
Oppenheimer (2023)
Dunkirk (2017)
Memento (2000)
GOOD
Tenet (2020)
Interstellar (2014)
Batman Begins (2005)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Titles Watched: 12
Sum: 36
Score: 10.4
17. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
GREAT
Inland Empire (2006)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Twin Peaks (1990)
Blue Velvet (1986)
GOOD
Eraserhead (1977)
Lost Highway (1997)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Titles Watched: 9
Sum: 31
Score: 10.3
18. 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...
FANTASTIC
Pulp Fiction (1994)
GREAT
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Django Unchained (2012)
GOOD
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)+Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Titles Watched: 9
Sum: 31
Score: 10.3
19. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Babel (2006)
GREAT
The Revenant (2015)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades (2022)
GOOD
Biutiful (2010)
21 Grams (2003)
Amores perros (2000)
Titles Watched: 7
Sum: 27
Score: 10.2
20. 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, ...
FANTASTIC
Schindler's List (1993)
GREAT
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Lincoln (2012)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
GOOD
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Minority Report (2002)
Jurassic Park (1993)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
The Post (2017)
Titles Watched: 24
Sum: 49
Score: 10.0
21. Michael Haneke
Writer | Caché
A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...
22. 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...
FANTASTIC
La La Land (2016)
GREAT
Whiplash (2014)
First Man (2018)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 20
Score: 10
23. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
GREAT
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Double Indemnity (1944)
GOOD
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
The Apartment (1960)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 23
Score: 9.4
24. Hiroshi Teshigahara
Director | Suna no onna
Hiroshi Teshigahara was born the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (flower arrangement). In 1950, he graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Centre and took a ...
FANTASTIC
Suna no onna (1964)
GOOD
Tanin no kao (1966)
Titles Watched: 2
Sum: 13
Score: 9.2
25. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Amadeus (1984)
GOOD
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Titles Watched: 2
Sum: 13
Score: 9.2
26. Sergei Eisenstein
Director | Ivan Groznyy
The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and ...
FANTASTIC
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)
GREAT
Stachka (1925)
GOOD
Oktyabr (1927)
Ivan Groznyy (1944)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 18
Score: 9.0
27. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
GREAT
Brief Encounter (1945)
GOOD
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 18
Score: 9.0
28. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Jagten (2012)
GREAT
Festen (1998)
Druk (2020)
Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
GOOD
Submarino (2010)
Titles Watched: 8
Sum: 25
Score: 8.8
29. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
GREAT
Ordet (1955)
Gertrud (1964)
Vampyr (1932)
GOOD
Vredens dag (1943)
Blade af Satans bog (1920)
Die Gezeichneten (1922)
Titles Watched: 11
Sum: 27
Score: 8.1
30. Chris Marker
Writer | Twelve Monkeys
Chris Marker was born on July 29, 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and director, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Sans Soleil (1983) and Third Side of the Coin (1960). He died on July 29, 2012 in Paris, France.
FANTASTIC
Sans soleil (1983)
GREAT
La jetée (1962)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 16
Score: 8.0
31. Ciro Guerra
Director | El abrazo de la serpiente
Ciro Guerra was born on February 6, 1981 in Río de Oro, Cesar, Colombia. He is a director and writer, known for Embrace of the Serpent (2015), Birds of Passage (2018) and Los viajes del viento (2009). He is married to Cristina Gallego.
Somtimes collaborating with Christina Gallego
FANTASTIC
El abrazo de la serpiente (2015)
GREAT
Pájaros de verano (2018)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 16
Score: 8.0
32. 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 ...
GREAT
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Abyss (1989)
Titanic (1997)
Aliens (1986)
GOOD
The Terminator (1984)
Titles Watched: 5
Sum: 17
Score: 7.6
33. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
GOOD
It Happened One Night (1934)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Titles Watched: 4
Sum: 15
Score: 7.5
34. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Blade Runner (1982)
Alien (1979)
GOOD
American Gangster (2007)
The Martian (2015)
Gladiator (2000)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
The Last Duel (2021)
Prometheus (2012)
Titles Watched: 18
Sum: 31
Score: 7.3
35. 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 ...
GREAT
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966)
Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)
C'era una volta il West (1968)
Per un pugno di dollari (1964)
Titles Watched: 5
Sum: 16
Score: 7.2
36. 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 ...
GREAT
Hable con ella (2002)
Dolor y gloria (2019)
Julieta (2016)
Volver (2006)
GOOD
Matador (1986)
La piel que habito (2011)
Todo sobre mi madre (1999)
Los abrazos rotos (2009)
Carne trémula (1997)
Titles Watched: 10
Sum: 21
Score: 6.6
37. Robert Wise
Director | West Side Story
Robert Earl Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Olive R. (Longenecker) and Earl Waldo Wise, a meat packer. His parents were both of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. At age nineteen, the avid moviegoer came into the film business through an ...
FANTASTIC
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
GREAT
The Sound of Music (1965)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 16
Score: 6.5
38. 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...
GREAT
Phantom Thread (2017)
Magnolia (1999)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
GOOD
The Master (2012)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Anima (2019)
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Inherent Vice (2014)
Titles Watched: 8
Sum: 18
Score: 6.4
39. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Director | Nelyubov
Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...
GREAT
Loveless (2017)
Leviathan (2014)
Die Verbannung (2007)
GOOD
Die Rückkehr (2003)
Elena (2011)
Titles Watched: 5
Sum: 14
Score: 6.3
40. 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 ...
GREAT
Children of Men (2006)
Roma (2018)
Gravity (2013)
GOOD
Y tu mamá también (2001)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
A Little Princess (1995)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 15
Score: 6.1
41. 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 ...
The Coen Brothers (DUH)
GREAT
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Barton Fink (1991)
Fargo (1996)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
GOOD
Burn After Reading (2008)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Blood Simple (1984)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
Titles Watched: 13
Sum: 25
Score: 6.9
42. 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...
GREAT
Ikiru (1952)
Dersu Uzala (1975)
Yume (1990)
GOOD
Shichinin no samurai (1954)
Rashômon (1950)
Ran (1985)
Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962)
Kumonosu-jô (1957)
Yôjinbô (1961)
Kagemusha (1980)
Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (1958)
Titles Watched: 11
Sum: 20
Score: 6.0
43. 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 ...
GREAT
Der letzte Mann (1924)
Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
GOOD
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
Titles Watched: 5
Sum: 13
Score: 5.8
44. J.A. Bayona
Director | La sociedad de la nieve
Juan Antonio García Bayona is a Spanish film director. He directed the 2007 horror film The Orphanage, the 2012 drama film The Impossible, and the 2016 fantasy drama film A Monster Calls. Bayona's latest film is the 2018 science fiction adventure film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth ...
GREAT
Lo imposible (2012)
La sociedad de la nieve (2023)
A Monster Calls (2016)
GOOD
El orfanato (2007)
Titles Watched: 5
Sum: 13
Score: 5.8
45. 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 ...
GREAT
Citizen Kane (1941)
F for Fake (1973)
Touch of Evil (1958)
GOOD
The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
Campanadas a medianoche (1965)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 14
Score: 5.7
46. Lars von Trier
Writer | Dancer in the Dark
Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly ...
GREAT
Antichrist (2009)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Melancholia (2011)
GOOD
Dogville (2003)
Riget (1994)
Idioterne (1998)
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)+Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
Titles Watched: 13
Sum: 20
Score: 5.5
47. 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 ...
GREAT
La Vénus à la fourrure (2013)
Le locataire (1976)
Chinatown (1974)
GOOD
The Pianist (2002)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
The Ghost Writer (2010)
Repulsion (1965)
J'accuse (2019)
Titles Watched: 12
Sum: 19
Score: 5.5
48. 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 ...
GREAT
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Departed (2006)
The Aviator (2004)
Silence (2016)
GOOD
Raging Bull (1980)
The Irishman (2019)
Goodfellas (1990)
Shutter Island (2010)
Hugo (2011)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Titles Watched: 18
Sum: 22
Score: 5.2
49. 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 ...
GREAT
Da hong denglong gaogao gua (1991)
Ying xiong (2002)
Shi mian mai fu (2004)
GOOD
Ju Dou (1990)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 13
Score: 5.3
50. 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.
GREAT
Ah-ga-ssi (2016)
Bakjwi (2009)
Oldeuboi (2003)
GOOD
Heojil kyolshim (2022)
Titles Watched: 6
Sum: 13
Score: 5.3
51. 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 ...
GREAT
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
GOOD
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
Isle of Dogs (2018)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Titles Watched: 8
Sum: 15
Score: 5.3
52. 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 ...
GREAT
Pierrot le fou (1965)
Le mépris (1963)
À bout de souffle (1960)
GOOD
Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962)
Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)
Titles Watched: 7
Sum: 14
Score: 5.3
53. 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 ...
GREAT
Black Swan (2010)
Mother! (2017)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
GOOD
The Fountain (2006)
Pi (1998)
Titles Watched: 7
Sum: 14
Score: 5.3
54. 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 ...
GREAT
The Great Dictator (1940)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Kid (1921)
GOOD
The Gold Rush (1925)
Titles Watched: 11
Sum: 17
Score: 5.1
55. 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 ...
56. 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 ...
FANTASTIC
Pans labyrint (2006)
GOOD
The Shape of Water (2017)
Titles Wached: 8
Sum: 14
Score: 4.9
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