directors - IMDb

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 ...

The Killing (1956) Spartacus (1960) Dr. Strangelove (1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) The Shining (1980) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

2. 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 ...

Citizen Kane (1941) The Lady from Shanghai (1947) Touch of Evil (1958)

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 ...

The Elephant Man (1980) Blue Velvet (1986) Twin Peaks (1990-1991) Mulholland Dr. (2001)

4. 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...

Se7en (1995) The Game (1997) Fight Club (1999) Panic Room (2002) Zodiac (2007) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) The Social Network (2010) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Gone Girl (2014) Mindhunter (2017)

5. 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 ...

What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) All About My Mother (1999) Volver (2006) Broken Embraces (2009) The Skin I Live In (2011) Julieta (2016)

6. Jim Jarmusch

Director | Paterson

Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.

Stranger Than Paradise (1984) Dead Man (1995) Broken Flowers (2005) Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Paterson (2016)

7. 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.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Oldeuboi (2003) Thirst (209) The Handmaiden (2016)

8. 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...

Rashômon (1950) Ikiru (1952) Shichinin no samurai (1954)

9. Howard Hawks

Director | Red River

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...

Bringing Up Baby (1938) His Girl Friday (1940) To Have and Have Not (1944) The Big Sleep (1946) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

10. 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,...

The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Key Largo (1948) The African Queen (1951) The Misfits (1961)

11. 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...

Mrs. Miniver (1942) Roman Holiday (1953) Ben-Hur (1959)

12. 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 ...

Rebecca (1940) Notorious (1946) Rear Window (1954) Vertigo (1958) Psycho (1960) The Birds (1963)

13. 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 ...

Double Indemnity (1944) Sabrina (1954) The Seven Year Itch (1955) Some Like It Hot (1959) The Apartment (1960)

14. 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 (1957) Serpico (1973) Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

15. Sydney Pollack

Director | Tootsie

Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist...

The Way We Were (1973) Bobby Deerfield (1977) Tootsie (1982) Sabrina (1995)

16. 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 ...

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) On the Waterfront (1954) East of Eden (1955)

17. John Cassavetes

Actor | Rosemary's Baby

John Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer of American independent film, as he often financed his own films.

Cassavetes was born in New York City in 1929 to Nicholas John Cassavetes (1893-1979) and his wife, Katherine Demetre (1906-1983). ...

A Woman Under the Influence (1974) The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Opening Night (1977)

18. Nick Cassavetes

Actor | Face/Off

Nick Cassavetes was born in New York City, the son of actress Gena Rowlands and Greek-American actor and film director John Cassavetes. As a child, he appeared in two of his father's films: Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974). After spending so much of his youth surrounded by the...

John Q (2002) The Notebook (2004)

19. 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 ...

The Nights of Cabiria (1957) La Dolce Vita (1960) 8½ (1963)

20. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...

Shoeshine (1946) Bicycle Thieves (1948) Ieri oggi domani (1963)

21. 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 ...

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

22. 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 ...

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) For a Few Dollars More (1965) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

23. 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 ...

The Godfather (1972) The Conversation (1974) The Godfather: Part II (1974) Apocalypse Now (1979) The Godfather: Part III (1990) Dracula (1992)

24. 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 Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Amadeus (1984)

25. 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 ...

Scarface (1983) The Untouchables (1987) Carlito's Way (1993) Mission: Impossible (1996) Femme Fatale (2002) The Black Dahlia (2006)

26. 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 ...

Alien (1979) Blade Runner (1982) Thelma & Louise (1991) G.I. Jane (1997) Gladiator (2000) Hannibal (2001) Matchstick Men (2003) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) Prometheus (2012) All the Money in the World (2017)

27. Tony Scott

Producer | Domino

Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British...

Top Gun (1986) True Romance (1993) Enemy of the State (1998) Man on Fire (2004) Deja Vu (2006) The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) Unstoppable (2010)

28. 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 (1975) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Twilight Zone: The Movie (segment "Kick the Can") (1983) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Hook (1991) Schindler's List (1993) Jurassic Park (1993) The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Catch Me If You Can (2002) The Terminal (2004) War of the Worlds (2005) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) The Adventures of Tintin (2011) War Horse (2011) Lincoln (2012)

29. 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 ...

Taxi Driver (1976) New York, New York (1977) The Color of Money (1986) Goodfellas (1990) Cape Fear (1991) The Age of Innocence (1993) Casino (1995) Gangs of New York (2002) The Aviator (2004) The Departed (2006) Shutter Island (2010) Hugo (2011) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Silence (2016)

30. 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 ...

Memento (2000) Insomnia (2002) Batman Begins (2005) The Dark Knight (2008) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) The Prestige (2006) Inception (2010) Interstellar (2014) Dunkirk (2017) Tenet (2020)

31. 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 ...

Beetlejuice (1988) Batman (1989) Batman Returns (1992) Edward Scissorhands (1990) Sleepy Hollow (1999) Big Fish (2003) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Alice in Wonderland (2010) Dark Shadows (2012) Frankenweenie (2012) Big Eyes (2014) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

32. 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...

Reservoir Dogs (1992) Pulp Fiction (1994) Four Rooms (1995) (1 segment) Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2014) Death Proof (2007) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Django Unchained (2012) The Hateful Eight (2015) Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

33. 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 ...

The Princess Bride (1987) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) Misery (1990) A Few Good Men (1992) The Bucket List (2007) Flipped (2010)

34. 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 ...

Rosemary's Baby (1968) Chinatown (1974) The Ninth Gate (1999) The Pianist (2002) The Ghost Writer (2010) Venus in Fur (2013)

35. 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 ...

Dancer in the Dark (2000) Dogville (2003) Antichrist (2009) Melancholia (2011) Nymphomaniac (2013) The House That Jack Built (2018)

36. 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 ...

Léon: The Professional (1994) The Fifth Element (1997) The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) Arthur et les Minimoys (2006) Arthur et la vengeance de Maltazard (2009) The Lady (2011) The Family (2013)

37. 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 ...

Turks fruit (1973) The 4th Man (1983) RoboCop (1987) Total Recall (1990) Basic Instinct (1992) Showgirls (1995) Starship Troopers (1997) Elle (2016)

38. 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 (1998) Snatch (2000) Revolver (2005) RocknRolla (2008) Sherlock Holmes (2009) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) The Gentlemen (2019)

39. 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 (1996) 28 Days Later... (2002) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 127 Hours (2010) Trance (2013) T2 Trainspotting (2017)

40. 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. ...

Dazed and Confused (1993) Before Sunrise (1995) Before Sunset (2004) Before Midnight (2013) Boyhood (2014)

41. 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 (2013) Sicario (2015) Arrival (2016) Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

42. 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 ...

Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) No Country for Old Men (2007) Burn After Reading (2008) True Grit (2010) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

43. 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...

Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) No Country for Old Men (2007) Burn After Reading (2008) True Grit (2010) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

44. 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...

Magnolia (1999) There Will Be Blood (2007) The Master (2012)

45. Jean-Marc Vallée

Director | C.R.A.Z.Y.

Jean-Marc Vallée was a Canadian filmmaker, editor and screenwriter from Montreal. He directed Black List, C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria, Wild, Dallas Buyers Club, Los Locos, Loser Love and Café de Flore. He also created the HBO shows Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. He was married to Chantal ...

The Young Victoria (2009) Dallas Buyers Club (2013) Big Little Lies (2017) Sharp Objects (2018)

46. 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).

In Bruges (2008) Seven Psychopaths (2012) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

47. Martin Brest

Director | Scent of a Woman

Martin Brest was born on August 8, 1951 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Scent of a Woman (1992), Midnight Run (1988) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984).

Midnight Run (1988) Scent of a Woman (1992) Meet Joe Black (1998)

48. 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 ...

Requiem for a Dream (2000) Black Swan (2010) Mother! (2017)

49. 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 ...

Romancing the Stone (1984) Back to the Future (1985) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Back to the Future Part II (1989) Back to the Future Part III (1990) Death Becomes Her (1992) Forrest Gump (1994) The Polar Express (2004) A Christmas Carol (2009) Flight (2012)

50. Bryan Singer

Director | X-Men

Bryan Singer is an American film director and producer who got his start writing and co-directing the short film Lions Den with his classmates while he attended USC. He was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men, which helped kick-start the superhero renaissance. He later directed three sequels....

The Usual Suspects (1995) X-Men (2000) X2 (2003) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

51. Jon Favreau

Producer | Chef

Initially an indie film favorite, actor Jon Favreau has progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium and, after nearly two decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as well as earning notice as a writer/producer/director.

The amiable, husky-framed actor with the ...

Iron Man (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Cowboys & Aliens (2011) Chef (2014) The Jungle Book (2016)

52. 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 ...

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

53. 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 Devil's Backbone (2001) Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Crimson Peak (2015) The Shape of Water (2017)

54. Alejandro Amenábar

Writer | The Others

Is the son of a Spanish mother and a Chilean father. His family moved back to Spain when he was 1 year old, and he grew up and studied in Madrid. He wrote, produced and directed his first short film La cabeza at the age of 19, and he was 23 when he directed his feature debut Thesis (1996). His film ...

Open Your Eyes (1997) The Others (2001) The Sea Inside (2004) Agora (2009)

55. 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 ...

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Gravity (2013) Roma (2018)

56. 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 ...

The Terminator (1984) Aliens (1986) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Titanic (1997) Avatar (2009)

57. Cameron Crowe

Writer | Almost Famous

Certainly idiosyncratic as a writer, Cameron Crowe has created a series of scripts that, while liked by the critics, were considered offbeat and difficult to market.

Cameron Bruce Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California, to Alice Marie Crowe (née George), a teacher and activist, and James A. ...

Say Anything... (1989) Jerry Maguire (1996) Vanilla Sky (2001)

58. 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 (1986) Wall Street (1987) JFK (1991) Alexander (2004) Savages (2012)

59. 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 ...

The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Heat (1995) Collateral (2004) Public Enemies (2009)

60. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clinton Eastwood Jr. 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 Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...

Mystic River (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Changeling (2008)

61. 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 ...

Rain Man (1988) Disclosure (1994) Sleepers (1996) Sphere (1998)

62. Gregory Hoblit

Producer | Hill Street Blues

Gregory Hoblit was born in Texas but moved to Northern California at a young age because of his father's job in law enforcement, a hint at what might have attracted the mystery/courtroom plots of his movie/TV credits. After graduating from UCLA, he worked as a TV co-producer with Steven Bochco ...

Primal Fear (1996) Fallen (1998) Fracture (2007)

63. Paul Haggis

Writer | Crash

Paul Haggis established himself over twenty years with an extensive career in television, before his big break into features arrived when he became the first screenwriter to garner two Best Film Academy Awards back-to-back for his scripts: "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, ...

Crash (2004) In the Valley of Elah (2007) The Next Three Days (2010)

64. 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...

A History of Violence (2005) Eastern Promises (2007) A Dangerous Method (2011)

65. 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 ...

Erin Brockovich (2000) Traffic (2000) Ocean's Eleven (2001) Ocean's Twelve (2004) Ocean's Thirteen (2007) Contagion (2011) Magic Mike (2012) Side Effects (2013) The Knick (2014–2015)

66. Mikael Håfström

Writer | Ondskan

Mikael Håfström was born on July 1, 1960 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden. He is a writer and director, known for Evil (2003), 1408 (2007) and The Rite (2011).

Derailed (2005) 1408 (2007) The Rite (2011) Escape Plan (2013)

67. 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 ...

American Graffiti (1973) Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

68. 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 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) King Kong (2005) The Lovely Bones (2009) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

69. 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...

Bad Boys (1995) Armageddon (1998) Pearl Harbor (2001) Bad Boys II (2003) The Island (2005) Transformers (2007) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

70. 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)....

Mission: Impossible III (2006) Star Trek (2009) Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

71. Gore Verbinski

Director | Rango

Gore Verbinski, one of American cinema's most inventive directors who was a punk-rock guitarist as a teenager and had to sell his guitar to buy his first camera, is now the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) which made the industry record for highest opening weekend of ...

The Ring (2002) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) Rango (2011) The Lone Ranger (2013)

72. Francis Lawrence

Director | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Francis Lawrence is an American filmmaker. He started directing over sixty music videos before he directed the cult classic Keanu Reeves film Constantine, I Am Legend and Water for Elephants. He also directed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, and Red ...

Constantine (2005) I Am Legend (2007) Water for Elephants (2011) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) Red Sparrow (2018)

73. 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 ...

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) A Beautiful Mind (2001) The Da Vinci Code (2006) Angels & Demons (2009) Rush (2013)

74. 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 ...

The Fighter (2010) Silver Linings Playbook (2012) American Hustle (2013)

75. Tom Hooper

Director | Cats

Tom Hooper was educated at one of England's most prestigious schools, Westminster. His first film, Runaway Dog, was made when he was 13 years old and shot on a Clockwork 16mm Bolex camera, using 100 feet of film. At age 18, he wrote, directed and produced the short film Painted Faces (1992), which ...

The King's Speech (2010) Les Misérables (2012) The Danish Girl (2015)

76. Anthony Minghella

Writer | The Talented Mr. Ripley

Anthony Minghella was the son of immigrants from Italy, who own an ice-cream factory on the Isle of Wight, where Anthony was born on January 6, 1954. He and his two siblings, Edana Minghella and Dominic Minghella, grew up there, a popular British holiday spot. After graduating from the University of...

The English Patient (1996) The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Cold Mountain (2003)

77. 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 (1999) Road to Perdition (2002) Revolutionary Road (2008) Skyfall (2012) 007: Спектр (2015) 1917 (2019)

78. 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, ...

Sense and Sensibility (1995) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Hulk (2003) Brokeback Mountain (2005) Lust, Caution (2007) Life of Pi (2012)

79. Mike Newell

Director | Four Weddings and a Funeral

Mike Newell was born on March 28, 1942 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Donnie Brasco (1997). He is married to Bernice Stegers. They have three children.

Donnie Brasco (1997) Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

80. 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 ...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Brazil (1985) The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) Twelve Monkeys (1995) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

81. Shane Black

Actor | Predator

Considered one of the pioneer screenwriters of the action genre, Black made his mark with his Lethal Weapon (1987) screenplay. He also collaborated on the story of the sequel, Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). Each successive script he turned in had a higher price attached it, from The Last Boy Scout (1991) ...

Lethal Weapon 1-4 writer Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) Iron Man Three (2013) The Nice Guys (2016)

82. Joss Whedon

Producer | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon is the middle of five brothers - his younger brothers are Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. Both his father, Tom Whedon and his grandfather, John Whedon were successful television writers. Joss' mother, Lee Stearns, was a history teacher and she also wrote novels as Lee Whedon. Whedon was ...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996–2003) creator Firefly (2002–2003) creator Serenity (2005) The Avengers (2012) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

83. 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 ...

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) The Green Mile (1999) The Mist (2007)

84. James Mangold

Producer | Logan

James Mangold is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Films he has directed include Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005), which he also co-wrote, the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Wolverine (2013), and Logan (2017).

Mangold also wrote and directed Cop...

Girl, Interrupted (1999) Kate & Leopold (2001) Identity (2003) The Wolverine (2013) Logan (2017) Ford v Ferrari (2019)

85. Jon Turteltaub

Director | Cool Runnings

Jon Turteltaub was born on August 8, 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Cool Runnings (1993), While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Phenomenon (1996). He has been married to Amy Eldon since July 6, 2006. They have three children.

While You Were Sleeping (1995) National Treasure (2004) National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) Last Vegas (2013)

86. Joe Johnston

Director | Captain America: The First Avenger

Joseph Eggleston Johnston II is an American film director from Texas who is known for directing the cult classic film The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Wolfman, October Sky, The Pagemaster, Jurassic Park III and Captain America: The First Avenger. He was an art director for ...

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Jumanji (1995) October Sky (1999) Jurassic Park III (2001) The Wolfman (2010) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

87. Martin Campbell

Director | Casino Royale

Martin Campbell knows how to entertain an audience when he steps behind the camera. When he directed The Mask of Zorro (1998), the movie earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and launched the international careers of Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Next, when he helmed ...

The Mask of Zorro (1998) Vertical Limit (2000) The Legend of Zorro (2005) Green Lantern (2011)

88. Bernardo Bertolucci

Writer | Il conformista

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (...

The Conformist (1970) Last Tango in Paris (1972) The Dreamers (2003)

89. Adrian Lyne

Director | Jacob's Ladder

Adrian Lyne (Director/Writer/Producer) is the creative force behind some of the most talked-about movies of our time, among them, Fatal Attraction (1987), 9½ Weeks (1986) and Indecent Proposal (1993).

Born in Peterborough, England and raised in London, Lyne attended the Highgate school, where...

9½ Weeks (1986) Fatal Attraction (1987) Lolita (1997) Unfaithful (2002)

90. Chris Columbus

Producer | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, Chris Columbus was first inspired to make movies after seeing "The Godfather" at age 15. After enrolling at NYU film school, he sold his first screenplay (never produced) while a sophomore there. After graduation Columbus tried to sell his fourth script, "...

Home Alone (1990) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) Bicentennial Man (1999) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

91. 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 ...

Annie Hall (1977) Bullets Over Broadway (1994) Match Point (2005) Scoop (2006) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) Midnight in Paris (2011) Blue Jasmine (2013)

92. Joe Wright

Director | Pride & Prejudice

Joe Wright is an English film director. He is best known for Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), and Darkest Hour (2017).

Wright always had an interest in the arts, especially painting. He would also make films on his Super 8 camera as well as spend time in the evenings...

Pride & Prejudice (2005) Atonement (2007) The Soloist (2009) Anna Karenina (2012) Darkest Hour (2017)

93. Nora Ephron

Writer | Julie & Julia

Nora Ephron was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She was an acclaimed essayist (Crazy Salad 1975), novelist (Heartburn 1983), and had written screenplays for several popular films, all featuring strong female characters, such as anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood (Silkwood (1983), ...

When Harry Met Sally... (1989) writer Sleepless in Seattle (1993) You've Got Mail (1998) Julie & Julia (2009)

94. 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...

Sixteen Candles (1984) The Breakfast Club (1985) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Curly Sue (1991)

95. Garry Marshall

Actor | A League of Their Own

Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 - July 19, 2016) was an American actor and filmmaker. He started his career in the 1960s writing for The Lucy Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show before he developed Neil Simon's 1965 play The Odd Couple for television in 1970. He gained fame for creating Happy ...

Pretty Woman (1990) The Princess Diaries (2001) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) Georgia Rule (2007) Valentine's Day (2010) New Year's Eve (2011)

96. Edward Zwick

Producer | The Last Samurai

Zwick moves deftly between the roles of writer, director and producer. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the 1989 critically acclaimed Civil War drama, Glory. He received his second Golden Globe nomination as a director for Legends of the Fall. Zwick received an Academy Award...

Legends of the Fall (1994) The Siege (1998) The Last Samurai (2003) Blood Diamond (2006) Love & Other Drugs (2010)

97. Nancy Meyers

Writer | It's Complicated

Nancy Jane Meyers is an American filmmaker. She has written, produced, and directed many critically and commercially successful films including Private Benjamin (1980), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), The Parent ...

The Parent Trap (1998) What Women Want (2000) Something's Gotta Give (2003) The Holiday (2006) The Intern (2015)

98. Lasse Hallström

Director | What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Lasse Hallström inherited his enthusiasm for film from his father, who was an amateur filmmaker. In high school he made his first short film, which was released on Swedish television. Hallström then began working as a director, cameraman and editor for Swedish television. He also made music videos ...

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) Chocolat (2000) Casanova (2005) Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) Dear John (2010) Safe Haven (2013)

99. Donald Petrie

Director | How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Donald Petrie was born on April 2, 1954 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and actor, known for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Miss Congeniality (2000) and Grumpy Old Men (1993).

Miss Congeniality (2000) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) Just My Luck (2006)

100. Baz Luhrmann

Writer | Moulin Rouge!

Baz Luhrmann is an Australian writer, director and producer with projects spanning film, television, opera, theater, music and recording industries. He is regarded by many as a contemporary example of an auteur for his distinctly recognizable style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, ...

Romeo + Juliet (1996) Мулен Руж (2001) Австралiя (2008) The Great Gatsby (2013)