Directors (Alphabetical order)

1. Ben Affleck

Producer | Argo

Benjamin Géza "Ben" Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to mother Chris Anne (Boldt), a school teacher, and father Timothy Byers "Tim" Affleck, a social worker. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975...

1. The Town 2. Argo

2. Alexandre Aja

Director | Haute tension

Alexandre Aja was born on August 7, 1978 in Paris, France. He is a producer and director, known for High Tension (2003), The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Piranha 3D (2010). He is married to Laïla Marrakchi.

1. Crawl 2. Haute Tension 3. The Hills Have Eyes 4. Piranha 3D 5. Horns

3. 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 ...

1. Annie Hall 2. Husbands and Wives 3. Manhattan 4. Match Point 5. Another Woman 6. Hannah and Her Sisters 7. Crimes and Misdemeanors 8. Deconstructing Harry 9. Stardust Memories 10. Wonder Wheel 11. Everyone Says I Love You 12. Interiors 13. Broadway Danny Rose 14. Bullets Over Broadway 15. Radio Days 16. Zelig 17. Blue Jasmine 18. To Rome With Love 19. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask 20. Manhattan Murder Mystery 21. Whatever Works 22. Scoop 23. Vicky Cristina Barcelona 24. Sweet and Lowdown 25. Irrational Man 26. Alice 27. Melinda and Melinda 28. Sleeper 29. Midnight in Paris 30. Cafe Society 31. Bananas 32. Magic in the Moonlight 33. Love and Death 34. The Purple Rose of Cairo 35. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

4. 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 ...

1. Volver 2. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! 3. Talk to Her

5. Robert Altman

Director | Gosford Park

Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...

1. Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean 2. The Player 3. Streamers 4. Vincent and Theo (mini-series) 5. Gosford Park 6. Cookie's Fortune 7. Dr. T & the Women 8. Secret Honor 9. MASH 10. California Split 11. 3 Women 12. McCabe and Mrs. Miller 13. The Long Goodbye 14. Short Cuts 15. A Prairie Home Companion 16. Popeye 17. Nashville 18. Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

6. Rick Alverson

Director | The Mountain

Rick Alverson (born June 25, 1971, Spokane, Washington) is an American filmmaker and musician living in Richmond, Virginia. His feature films include The Mountain (2018), Entertainment (2015) and The Comedy (2012). His work has screened in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film ...

1. Entertainment 2. The Mountain

7. Lindsay Anderson

Director | If....

Lindsay was born in Bangalore, India but educated in England at Cheltenham College and Wadham College, Oxford where he was a classical scholar. He then spent 3 years war time service in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. His career in the theatre started at the Royal Court in the late 1950's where he was...

1. If.... 2. O Lucky Man! 3. Britannia Hospital

8. 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...

1. There Will Be Blood 2. Punch-Drunk Love 3. Magnolia 4. The Master 5. Boogie Nights 6. Hard Eight 7. Phantom Thread 8. Inherent Vice

9. 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 ...

1. Rushmore 2. The Royal Tenenbaums 3. The Darjeeling Limited 4. Bottle Rocket 5. The French Dispatch 6. The Grand Budapest Hotel 7. Fantastic Mr. Fox 8. Isle of Dogs 9. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 10. Moonrise Kingdom

10. Kenneth Anger

Director | Fireworks

Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) , at age 14.

Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His ...

1. Invocation of My Demon Brother 2. Kustom Kar Kommandos 3. Lucifer Rising 4. Scorpio Rising 5. Rabbit's Moon

11. 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 ...

1. La Notte 2. Zabriskie Point 3. L'Eclisse 4. Blow-Up 5. The Passenger 6. Identification of a Woman

12. Judd Apatow

Producer | Girls

Judd Apatow is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He directed The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This is 40, Funny People, Trainwreck and The King of Staten Island. He also developed the television shows Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Girls, Love and Crashing. He is ...

1. Funny People 2. The 40 Year Old Virgin 3. Knocked Up

13. Andrea Arnold

Director | American Honey

Andrea Arnold was born on April 5, 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for American Honey (2016), Fish Tank (2009) and Red Road (2006).

1. Fish Tank 2. Red Road

14. 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 ...

1. mother! 2. The Wrestler 3. Pi 4. Requiem for a Dream 5. Noah 6. Black Swan

15. Ari Aster

Director | Hereditary

Ari Aster is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for writing and directing the A24 horror films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019). Aster was born into a Jewish family in New York City on July 15, 1986, the son of a poet mother and musician father. He has a ...

1. Hereditary 2. Midsommar

16. Ramin Bahrani

Producer | 99 Homes

Ramin Bahrani was born on March 20, 1975 in North Carolina, USA. He is a producer and director, known for 99 Homes (2014), The White Tiger (2021) and Fahrenheit 451 (2018).

1. Man Push Cart 2. 99 Homes

17. Sean Baker

Writer | Red Rocket

Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean's latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021...

1. The Florida Project 2. Tangerine

18. Bob Balaban

Actor | Gosford Park

Bob Balaban was born on August 16, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Gosford Park (2001), A Mighty Wind (2003) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). He has been married to Lynn Grossman since April 1, 1977. They have two children.

1. My Boyfriend's Back 2. Parents

19. Noah Baumbach

Writer | The Squid and the Whale

Born in Brooklyn in 1969 Noah Baumbach is the son of two film critics, Georgia Brown and Jonathan Baumbach (also a writer). His studies at Vassar College were the subject of his first film (made as he was 26 years old), Kicking and Screaming (1995). His second major picture, made ten years later, ...

1. The Squid and the Whale 2. Meyerowitz Stories 3. Marriage Story 4. Margot at the Wedding 5. Frances Ha 6. While We're Young 7. Greenberg 8. Mistress America

20. Mario Bava

Cinematographer | Ecologia del delitto

Italian director Mario Bava was born on July 31, 1914 in the coastal northern Italian town of Sanremo. His father, Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), was a cinematographer in the early days of the Italian film industry. Bava was trained as a painter, and when he eventually followed his father into film ...

1. Black Sabbath 2. Black Sunday

21. Warren Beatty

Actor | Reds

Since starring in his first film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), Warren Beatty has been said to have demonstrated a greater longevity in movies than any actor of his generation. Few people have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of the production of films as producer, director, writer, ...

1. Reds 2. Heaven Can Wait 3. Bulworth 4. Dick Tracy

22. 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 (...

1. Wild Strawberries 2. Fanny and Alexander 3. The Seventh Seal 4. Autumn Sonata 5. The Virgin Spring 6. Persona 7. Through a Glass Darkly 8. Summer with Monika 9. The Magician 10. Cries and Whispers 11. Winter Light 12. The Silence

23. Joe Berlinger

Producer | Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

Academy Award, eight-time Emmy nominated, and Peabody, DGA, and Sundance winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger has been a pioneering force in nonfiction filmmaking for over three decades. In a recent Bloomberg profile, Berlinger was described as a "true crime hit factory" for Netflix, whose work has "...

1. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (with Bruce Sinofsky) 2. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (with Bruce Sinofsky) 3. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (with Bruce Sinofsky)

24. 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 (...

1. Last Tango in Paris 2. The Last Emperor 3. 1900

25. Kathryn Bigelow

Director | Zero Dark Thirty

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 ...

1. Zero Dark Thirty 2. Near Dark 3. The Hurt Locker

26. Brad Bird

Writer | The Incredibles

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films. Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in...

1. Ratatouille 2. The Iron Giant 3. The Incredibles 4. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

27. 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) ...

1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2. The Nice Guys

28. Les Blank

Cinematographer | Burden of Dreams

Born in 1935 in Tampa, Florida, Les Blank attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received a B.A. in English literature and an M.F.A. in theatre. In 1967, after two years in the Ph.D. film program at the University of Southern California, and five years of freelancing in Los Angeles, he...

1. Sprout Wings and Fly 2. Always for Pleasure 3. Spend it All 4. Burden of Dreams 5. A Well-Spent Life 6. The Maestro: King of Cowboy Artists 7. Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers 8. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe 9. God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance 10. Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella

29. Peter Bogdanovich

Director | The Last Picture Show

Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter ...

1. The Last Picture Show 2. Paper Moon 3. What's Up, Doc?

30. Bong Joon Ho

Writer | Snowpiercer

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the ...

1. Memories of Murder 2. Parasite 3. Barking Dogs Never Bite 4. Snowpiercer

31. 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 ...

1. 127 Hours 2. Trainspotting 3. Steve Jobs 4. Slumdog Millionaire 5. 28 Days Later 6. Shallow Grave 7. The Beach 8. T2 Trainspotting

32. Robert Bresson

Writer | Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson trained as a painter before moving into films as a screenwriter, making a short film (atypically a comedy), Public Affairs (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Angels of Sin (1943) in 1943. His next film, The ...

1. Au Hasard Balthazar 2. A Man Escaped 3. Pickpocket 4. L'Argent

33. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...

1. The Producers 2. Young Frankenstein 3. Silent Movie 4. Blazing Saddles 5. Spaceballs 6. Robin Hood: Men in Tights

34. Andrew Bujalski

Director | Computer Chess

Andrew Bujalski, born in Boston in 1977, is the son of an artist-turned-businesswoman, Sheila Dubman, and a businessman, Edmund Bujalski. Andrew studied film at Harvard's Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, where the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman was his thesis advisor.

He shot his ...

1. Funny Ha Ha 2. Computer Chess

35. 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 ...

1. Belle de Jour 2. Los Olvidados 3. Viridiana 4. Susana 5. Un Chien Andalou (with Salvador Dali) 6. Diary of a Chambermaid 7. Tristana 8. The Exterminating Angel 9. L'age D'or 10. Simon of the Desert 11. Gran Casino 12. Robinson Crusoe

36. Charles Burnett

Director | Killer of Sheep

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on April 13, 1944, Charles Burnett moved with his family to the Watts area of Los Angeles at an early age. He describes the community of having a robust mythical connection with the South as a result of having so many Southern transplants, an atmosphere which has ...

1. Killer of Sheep 2. To Sleep With Anger

37. 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 ...

1. Ed Wood 2. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 3. Batman 4. Edward Scissorhands 5. Batman Returns 6. Big Fish 7. Corpse Bride 8. Frankenweenie (short) 9. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 10. Sleepy Hollow 11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 12. Mars Attacks 13. Alice in Wonderland 14. Planet of the Apes

38. 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 ...

1. The Terminator 2. Titanic 3. Terminator 2: Judgement Day 4. Avatar

39. 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 ...

1. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 2. It's a Wonderful Life 3. It Happened One Night 4. Prelude to War

40. 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 ...

1. The Thing 2. Halloween 3. Escape From New York 4. Big Trouble in Little China 5. Escape From LA 6. They Live 7. The Fog 8. Assault on Precinct 13 9. Ghosts of Mars 10. In the Mouth of Madness 11. Village of the Damned

41. Shane Carruth

Composer | Upstream Color

Writer-director Shane Carruth, a former software engineer, burst onto the independent movie scene with his extremely low-budget science-fiction film Primer (2004) in 2004. Carruth also played one of the two leads in the film and composed its music. "Primer" won the Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P...

1. Upstream Color 2. Primer

42. 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). ...

1. A Woman Under the Influence 2. Faces 3. Opening Night 4. Shadows 5. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

43. Jackie Chan

Actor | Ngo si seoi

Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best-known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success after his start in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry.

Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on April 7, 1954, on Hong Kong's famous ...

1. Police Story 2. Police Story 2

44. J.C. Chandor

Producer | A Most Violent Year

J.C. Chandor is known for A Most Violent Year (2014), Margin Call (2011) and All Is Lost (2013). He has been married to Mary Cameron Goodyear since 2004. They have two children.

1. All is Lost 2. Triple Frontier

45. 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 ...

1. Modern Times 2. City Lights 3. Limelight 4. The Kid 5. Monsieur Verdoux 6. The Great Dictator 7. The Gold Rush 8. The Circus

46. 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...

1. Whiplash 2. First Man 3. La La Land

47. Michael Cimino

Director | The Deer Hunter

Michael Cimino studied architecture and dramatic arts; later he filmed advertisements and documentaries and also wrote scripts until the actor, producer and director Clint Eastwood gave him the opportunity to direct the thriller Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). But his biggest success was The Deer...

1. The Deer Hunter 2. Heaven's Gate

48. Larry Clark

Director | Bully

Was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1943). Son of Frances Clark (baby photographer) and Lewis Clark. Graduated from Central High school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Attended Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Studied under Walter Sheffer and Gerard Bakker. Film debut was the movie Kids (1995). He was ...

1. Kids 2. Another Day in Paradise

49. George Clooney

Actor | The Ides of March

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nina Bruce (née Warren), a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and television host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). He has Irish, English, and German ancestry. Clooney ...

1. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 2. Suburbicon

50. Jean Cocteau

Writer | La Belle et la Bête

Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei...

1. Beauty and the Beast 2. The Blood of a Poet 3. Orpheus

51. 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 ...

(with Ethan Coen) 1. No Country For Old Men 2. A Serious Man 3. Barton Fink 4. Miller's Crossing 5. Blood Simple 6. The Big Lebowski 7. Fargo 8. Inside Llewyn Davis 9. The Man Who Wasn't There 10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 11. Raising Arizona 12. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? 13. The Hudsucker Proxy 14. True Grit 15. The Ladykillers 16. Burn After Reading 17. Intolerable Cruelty 18. Hail, Caesar!

52. 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 ...

1. The Godfather 2. Apocalypse Now 3. The Godfather: Part II 4. The Conversation 5. The Cotton Club 6. Rumble Fish 7. Tucker: The Man and His Dream 8. Dracula 9. Tetro 10. The Rainmaker 11. Twixt 12. The Godfather: Part III 13. Life Without Zoe (segment from New York Stories)

53. Sofia Coppola

Actress | The Godfather Part III

Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and ...

1. Lost in Translation 2. The Virgin Suicides 3. Marie Antoinette 4. Somewhere 5. The Beguiled

54. Don Coscarelli

Writer | Bubba Ho-Tep

In much the same way that director George A. Romero creative output has been primarily centered around the highly successful "Dead" series of zombie films, then fellow fantasy director Don Coscarelli has for over two decades seen his universe swirling around the lesser successful, but equally cult,...

1. Bubba Ho-Tep 2. John Dies At the End 3. Phantasm 4. Phantasm II

55. Alex Cox

Director | Repo Man

Throughout his years in the industry, Alex Cox, an English writer-director, has not only proven his loyalty and integrity to cult cinema, but also his love for it. This all began in 1977, when Cox dropped out of Oxford University to study Radio, Film & TV at Bristol until graduating in 1977. Seeing...

1. Walker 2. Sid and Nancy 3. Repo Man

56. Wes Craven

Writer | A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold vision.

Wesley Earl Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Caroline (Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He had a midwestern suburban upbringing. His first feature film was The Last House on ...

1. The Hills Have Eyes 2. The Last House on the Left 3. New Nightmare 4. Scream 5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 6. Red Eye 7. The People Under the Stairs 8. Scream 2 9. The Serpent and the Rainbow

57. 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...

1. Cosmopolis 2. Maps to the Stars 3. Spider 4. Eastern Promises 5. The Brood 6. The Fly 7. A History of Violence 8. Videodrome 9. Scanners 10. The Dead Zone 11. A Dangerous Method 12. eXistenZ 13. Dead Ringers 14. Naked Lunch 15. Crash

58. Michael Curtiz

Director | Casablanca

Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner...

1. Yankee Doodle Dandy 2. The Adventures of Robin Hood 3. Casablanca

59. 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 ...

1. Pan's Labyrinth 2. The Devil's Backbone 3. The Shape of Water 4. Hellboy

60. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme was born on February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on April 26, 2017 in ...

1. Rachel Getting Married 2. I'm Carolyn Parker 3. Man From Plains 4. Something Wild 5. Stop Making Sense 6. Swimming to Cambodia 7. The Silence of the Lambs 8. Philadelphia 9. Married to the Mob

61. 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 ...

1. Scarface 2. Blow Out 3. Raising Cain 4. Snake Eyes 5. Carrie 6. Mission Impossible 7. Dressed to Kill 8. Obsession 9. Sisters 10. The Untouchables 11. Casualties of War 12. Body Double

62. Tom DiCillo

Director | Delirious

Tom DiCillo is an American director, cinematographer, writer and (sometimes) actor born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina, and who studied film at New York University. During his early career he began working with director Jim Jarmusch as a cinematographer on films that include Stranger Than Paradise...

1. Living in Oblivion 2. Johnny Suede 3. Box of Moonlight

63. Ernest R. Dickerson

Director | Juice

Ernest Roscoe Dickerson A.S.C., aka. Ernest R. Dickerson, is an American film director and cinematographer. As a cinematographer, he is known for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee. As a director, he is known for films such as Juice (1992), Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Bones (...

1. Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight 2. Juice

64. Pete Docter

Writer | Up

Pete Docter is the Oscar®-winning director of "Monsters, Inc.," "Up," and "Inside Out," and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. He is currently directing Pixar's feature film "Soul" with producer Dana Murray, which is set to release June 19, 2020.

Starting at Pixar in 1990 as the ...

1. Up 2. Inside Out 3. Soul 4. Monsters Inc. 5. Mike's New Car (short)

65. Andrew Dominik

Director | Chopper

Andrew Dominik was born on October 7, 1967 in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a director and writer, known for Chopper (2000), Blonde (2022) and Killing Them Softly (2012).

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2. Killing Them Softly

66. Michael Dougherty

Writer | Krampus

Michael Patrick Dougherty is a writer, director, animator, and producer known for his work in a variety of genre films, both big and small. Beginning his career as an animator and illustrator, Dougherty's animated work was featured on MTV, Nickelodeon, and a line of twisted greeting cards published...

1. Trick 'r Treat 2. Krampus

67. 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 ...

1. Ordet 2. Gertrud 3. The Passion of Joan of Arc 4. Vampyr

68. Mark Duplass

Actor | Safety Not Guaranteed

Mark Duplass was born on December 7, 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Creep (2014) and The One I Love (2014). He has been married to Katie Aselton since August 26, 2006. They have two children.

(with Jay Duplass) 1. Cyrus 2. The Puffy Chair 3. Jeff Who Lives at Home

69. 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 ...

1. Unforgiven 2. Mystic River 3. The Rookie 4. The Outlaw Josey Wales 5. Letters From Iwo Jima 6. American Sniper 7. Million Dollar Baby 8. Play Misty for Me 9. Absolute Power

70. Robert Eggers

Director | The Lighthouse

Robert Houston Eggers is an American filmmaker and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), as well as directing and co-writing the historical fiction epic film The Northman (2022). His films are noted ...

1. The Witch 2. The Lighthouse

71. 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 ...

1. Strike 2. Battleship Potemkin

72. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writer | Faustrecht der Freiheit

Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Openly homosexual, he married twice; one of his wives acted in his films and the other served as his editor. Accused variously by detractors of being anticommunist, male chauvinist, antiSemitic and...

1. Satan's Brew 2. Querelle 3. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant 4. The Marriage of Maria Braun 5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 6. Martha 7. Love is Colder Than Death 8. Lola 9. Veronika Voss

73. 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 ...

1. The Jungle Book 2. Iron Man 3. Made 4. Elf

74. 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 ...

1. La Dolce Vita 2. La Strada 3. 8 1/2 4. Fellini Satyricon 5. I Vitelloni 6. Amarcord 7. Juliet of the Spirits

75. Abel Ferrara

Director | Bad Lieutenant

Born in the Bronx, Ferrara started making amateur films on Super 8 in his teens before making his debut with violent exploitation films such as 'Driller Killer' and 'Ms.45'. Good reviews for the latter helped create his cult reputation, leading to larger budgets, studio funding and 'name' actors (...

1. Ms. 45 2. Bad Lieutenant 3. King of New York

76. 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...

1. The Social Network 2. Fight Club 3. Zodiac 4. Seven 5. Gone Girl 6. Panic Room 7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 8. The Game 9. Mank

77. 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 ...

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 2. Amadeus 3. Man on the Moon 4. The People vs. Larry Flynt

78. John Ford

Director | The Quiet Man

John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...

1. Stagecoach 2. How Green Was My Valley 3. The Grapes of Wrath 4. The Searchers 5. The Iron Horse 6. The Battle of Midway (short)

79. Bob Fosse

Director | Cabaret

Bob Fosse was born on June 23, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Cabaret (1972), All That Jazz (1979) and Lenny (1974). He was married to Gwen Verdon, Joan McCracken and Mary Ann Niles. He died on September 23, 1987 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

1. Lenny 2. All That Jazz 3. Cabaret

80. William Friedkin

Director | To Live and Die in L.A.

Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with ...

1. The French Connection 2. The Exorcist 3. Sorcerer 4. To Live and Die in LA 5. Bug 6. Killer Joe 7. Cruising 8. The Guardian

81. John Frankenheimer

Director | The Manchurian Candidate

Born in New York and raised in Queens, John Frankenheimer wanted to become a professional tennis player. He loved movies and his favorite actor was Robert Mitchum. He decided he wanted to be an actor but then he applied for and was accepted in the Motion Picture Squadron of the Air Force where he ...

1. Seconds 2. The Train 3. The Manchurian Candidate 4. Ronin

82. Ron Fricke

Cinematographer | Samsara

Ron Fricke is known for Samsara (2011), Baraka (1992) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

1. Baraka 2. Samsara

83. Samuel Fuller

Writer | Shock Corridor

At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also ...

1. The Naked Kiss 2. Pickup on South Street 3. Shock Corridor 4. White Dog 5. The Steel Helmet 6. I Shot Jesse James 8. Underworld U.S.A. 9. Park Row 10. The Big Red One 11. The Crimson Kimono

84. Greta Gerwig

Writer | Barbie

Greta Gerwig is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director. She has collaborated with Noah Baumbach on several films, including Greenberg (2010), Frances Ha (2012), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination, and Mistress America (2015). Gerwig made her solo directorial debut ...

1. Lady Bird 2. Little Women

85. 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 ...

1. Brazil 2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 3. 12 Monkeys 4. The Zero Theorem 5. Tideland 6. The Fisher King 7. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Python movies under Terry Jones)

86. 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 ...

1. Contempt 2. Les Caribiniers 3. Vivre Sa Vie 4. La Chinoise 5. A Woman is a Woman 6. Week-End 7. Breathless 8. Hail Mary 9. Goodbye to Language 10. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her

87. Stuart Gordon

Writer | Re-Animator

Stuart Gordon started his film directing career in 1985. After graduating from Lane Technical High School, Gordon worked as a commercial artist apprentice prior to enrolling at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Unable to get into the film classes, he enrolled in an acting class and ended up ...

1. Stuck 2. From Beyond 3. Re-Animator 4. Dolls

88. Edmund Goulding

Director | Grand Hotel

London-born Edmund Goulding was an actor/playwright/director on the London stage, and entered the British army when WWI broke out. Mustered out of the service because of wounds suffered in battle, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1921. He obtained assignments as a screenwriter in Hollywood, wrote a ...

1. Nightmare Alley 2. Grand Hotel

89. Bobcat Goldthwait

Director | God Bless America

Robert Francis 'Bobcat' Goldthwait, born May 26, 1962, is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, and star of films and television shows. He is most widely known for his at times screechy voice and scattergun delivery during his standup comedy performances and some film roles.

He was born ...

1. World's Greatest Dad 2. Sleeping Dogs Lie 3. God Bless America 4. Call Me Lucky 5. Shakes the Clown

90. David Gordon Green

Producer | Halloween Kills

David Gordon Green was born on April 9, 1975 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Halloween Kills (2021), Halloween (2018) and Prince Avalanche (2013).

1. George Washington 2. Undertow 3. Manglehorn 4. Prince Avalanche 5. Stronger 6. Pineapple Express 7. Joe 8. Halloween

91. James Gray

Director | The Immigrant

Writer/director James Gray made his first film Little Odessa (1994) at the age of twenty-five. The film, which starred Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell, received critical acclaim and was the winner of the Venice Film Festival's prestigious Silver Lion Award in 1994.

...

1. The Lost City of Z 2. We Own the Night 3. Ad Astra

92. Christopher Guest

Actor | This Is Spinal Tap

U.S.-born actor, director, writer, musician, and composer best known for his mockumentaries, poking fun at heavy metal music, small town theatre, dog shows, folk music and film-making itself, Christopher Haden-Guest was born February fifth, 1948, in New York City. His mother, Jean Pauline (Hindes),...

1. Best in Show 2. A Mighty Wind

93. 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...

1. Bringing Up Baby 2. The Big Sleep 3. Only Angels Have Wings 4. Scarface 5. Rio Bravo 6. Red River 7. To Have and Have Not 8. His Girl Friday

94. Catherine Hardwicke

Director | Twilight

Hardwicke's first film as a director was the Sundance winner THIRTEEN which explored the transition into teenage years with an authenticity that still captures young audiences (1.3 billion Tik Tok engagements.) Hardwicke directed LORDS OF DOGTOWN before she became best known as the director of ...

1. Thirteen 2. Miss Bala

95. Amy Heckerling

Writer | Clueless

Amy Heckerling studied Film and TV at New York University and got a Masters Degree in Film from The American Film Institute. Despite this education she couldn't get a break in Hollywood. However, in 1982, she made Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and people started to take notice. In 1985, ...

1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High 2. Clueless

96. James Gunn

Writer | Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, to Leota and James Francis Gunn. He is from a large Catholic family, with Irish and Czech ancestry. His father and his uncles were all lawyers. He has been writing and performing as long as he can remember. He began making 8mm films at the age ...

1. Super 2. Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 4. Slither

97. Jim Henson

Soundtrack | The Muppet Show

Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The vehicle that achieved it was Sam and Friends (1955), a late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington DC. It proved to be very popular and ...

1. The Dark Crystal 2. Labyrinth

98. Frank Henenlotter

Director | Bad Biology

Writer/director Frank Henenlotter was born August 29, 1950, in New York City. He gleefully "misspent" his youth watching a large array of blithely cheap'n'cheesy low-budget exploitation flicks in various seedy grindhouse theaters on Mahattan's 42nd St. He began making 8mm films as a teenager. His ...

1. Basket Case 2. Frankenhooker 3. Brain Damage

99. Todd Haynes

Director | Far from Heaven

Todd Haynes was always interested in art, and made amateur movies and painted while he was still a child. He attended Brown university and majored in art and semiotics. After he graduated he moved to New York City and made the controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). ...

1. Far From Heaven 2. Dark Waters 3. Velvet Goldmine 4. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (short) 5. Safe 6. I'm Not There. 7. Carol

100. Monte Hellman

Director | Iguana

Monte Hellman was born on July 12, 1929, in New York City, where his parents were visiting, but he grew up in Los Angeles. He studied drama at Stanford University--on an NBC scholarship--and film at UCLA. After a few years directing in summer theater, Hellman hooked up with legendary "B" movie ...

1. The Shooting 2. Ride in the Whirlwind 3. Two-Lane Blacktop