Greatest Directors Ranked by Number of Great Movies

1. Martin Scorsese

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 ...

14 Movies: 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon, 2019 The Irishman, 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street, 2006 The Departed, 1995 Casino, 1993 The Age of Innocence, 1991 Cape Fear, 1990 Goodfellas, 1985 After Hours, 1982 The King of Comedy, 1980 Raging Bull, 1976 Taxi Driver, 1974 Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, 1973 Mean Streets.

2. 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 ...

12 Movies: 2010 True Grit, 2009 A Serious Man, 2008 Burn After Reading, 2007 No Country for Old Men, 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There, 1998 The Big Lebowski, 1996 Fargo, 1994 The Hudsucker Proxy, 1991 Barton Fink, 1990 Miller's Crossing, 1987 Raising Arizona, 1984 Blood Simple.

3. 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...

12 Movies: 2010 True Grit, 2009 A Serious Man, 2008 Burn After Reading, 2007 No Country for Old Men, 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There, 1998 The Big Lebowski, 1996 Fargo, 1994 The Hudsucker Proxy, 1991 Barton Fink, 1990 Miller's Crossing, 1987 Raising Arizona, 1984 Blood Simple.

4. 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 ...

12 Movies: 2013 Blue Jasmine, 2005 Match Point, 1999 Sweet and Lowdown, 1994 Bullets Over Broadway, 1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1987 Radio Days, 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters, 1979 Manhattan, 1977 Annie Hall, 1975 Love and Death, 1971 Bananas, 1969 Take the Money and Run.

5. 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 ...

11 Movies: 1960 Psycho, 1959 North by Northwest, 1958 Vertigo, 1956 The Wrong Man, 1954 Rear Window, 1951 Strangers on a Train, 1948 Rope, 1946 Notorious, 1943 Shadow of a Doubt, 1940 Rebecca, 1935 The 39 Steps.

6. 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 (...

11 Movies: 1982 Fanny and Alexander, 1978 Autumn Sonata, 1974 Scenes from a Marriage, 1972 Cries & Whispers, 1968 Hour of the Wolf, 1966 Persona, 1963 The Silence, 1963 Winter Light, 1961 Through a Glass Darkly, 1957 Wild Strawberries, 1957 The Seventh Seal.

7. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

10 Movies: 1998 Saving Private Ryan, 1993 Schindler's List, 1993 Jurassic Park, 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1976 Jaws, 1971 Duel.

8. 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 ...

9 Movies: 1999 Eyes Wide Shut, 1987 Full Metal Jacket, 1980 The Shining, 1975 Barry Lyndon, 1971 A Clockwork Orange, 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1964 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1957 Paths of Glory, 1956 The Killing.

9. Howard Hawks

Director | Rio Bravo

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...

8 Movies: 1959 Rio Bravo, 1948 Red River, 1946 The Big Sleep, 1944 To Have and Have Not, 1941 Ball of Fire, 1940 His Girl Friday, 1938 Bringing Up Baby, 1932 Scarface.

10. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director | Punch-Drunk Love

Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...

8 Movies: 2021 Licorice Pizza, 2017 Phantom Thread, 2014 Inherent Vice, 2007 There Will Be Blood, 2002 Punch-Drunk Love, 1999 Magnolia, 1997 Boogie Nights, 1996 Hard Eight.

11. 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...

8 Movies: 2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 2012 Django Unchained, 2009 Inglourious Basterds, 2004 Kill Bill: Vol. 2, 2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 1997 Jackie Brown, 1994 Pulp Fiction, 1992 Reservoir Dogs.

12. 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 ...

7 Movies: 1960 The Apartment, 1959 Some Like It Hot, 1957 Witness for the Prosecution, 1951 Ace in the Hole, 1950 Sunset Boulevard, 1945 The Lost Weekend, 1944 Double Indemnity.

13. 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 ...

7 Movies: 2001 Mulholland Drive, 1999 The Straight Story, 1997 Lost Highway, 1990 Wild at Heart, 1986 Blue Velvet, 1980 The Elephant Man, 1977 Eraserhead.

14. 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 ...

7 Movies: 1947 Monsieur Verdoux, 1940 The Great Dictator, 1936 Modern Times, 1931 City Lights, 1928 The Circus, 1925 The Gold Rush, 1921 The Kid.

15. 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 ...

7 Movies: 2002 The Pianist, 1994 Death and the Maiden, 1976 The Tenant, 1974 Chinatown, 1968 Rosemary's Baby, 1965 Repulsion, 1962 Knife in the Water.

16. 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...

6 Movies: 1985 Ran, 1961 Yojimbo, 1957 Throne of Blood, 1954 Seven Samurai, 1952 Ikiru, 1950 Rashomon.

17. 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 ...

6 Movies: 1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 1967 Belle de Jour, 1965 Simon of the Desert, 1962 The Exterminating Angel, 1950 The Young and the Damned, 1929 Un Chien Andalou.

18. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

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

6 Movies: 2008 Gran Torino, 2004 Million Dollar Baby, 2003 Mystic River, 1993 A Perfect World, 1992 Unforgiven, 1973 High Plains Drifter.

19. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

6 Movies: 1928 The Cameraman, 1928 Steamboat Bill, Jr., 1926 The General, 1924 The Navigator, 1924 Sherlock Jr., 1923 Our Hospitality.

20. 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...

6 Movies: 2005 A History of Violence, 1999 eXistenZ, 1991 Naked Lunch, 1988 Dead Ringers, 1986 The Fly, 1983 Videodrome.

21. 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 ...

6 Movies: 1973 Amarcord, 1963 8½, 1960 La Dolce Vita, 1957 Nights of Cabiria, 1954 La Strada, 1953 I Vitelloni.

22. Alexander Payne

Director | Nebraska

Director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Peggy (Constantine) and George Payne, ran a Greek restaurant. His father is of Greek and German ancestry, and his mother is of Greek descent; the family name was originally Papadopoulos. He is the youngest...

6 Movies: 2023 The Holdovers, 2013 Nebraska, 2011 The Descendants, 2004 Sideways, 2002 About Schmidt, 1999 Election.

23. 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.

5 Movies: 2005 Broken Flowers, 1999 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, 1995 Dead Man, 1986 Down by Law, 1984 Stranger Than Paradise.

24. 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-...

5 Movies: 2012 Skyfall, 2008 Revolutionary Road, 2005 Jarhead, 2002 Road to Perdition, 1999 American Beauty.

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 ...

5 Movies: 1993 Carlito's Way, 1987 The Untouchables, 1983 Scarface, 1981 Blow Out, 1976 Carrie.

26. 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 ...

5 Movies: 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2012 Moonrise Kingdom, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 1998 Rushmore.

27. 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 ...

5 Movies: 2000 Cast Away, 1994 Forrest Gump, 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1985 Back to the Future, 1984 Romancing the Stone.

28. 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...

5 Movies: 1993 Short Cuts, 1992 The Player, 1975 Nashville, 1973 The Long Goodbye, 1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

29. 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 ...

5 Movies: 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1995 Twelve Monkeys, 1991 The Fisher King, 1985 Brazil, 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail .

30. 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 ...

5 Movies: 2015 The Revenant, 2014 Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), 2006 Babel, 2003 21 Grams, 2000 Amores Perros.

31. 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 ...

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

32. 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 ...

5 Movies: 2013 American Hustle, 2010 The Fighter, 2004 I Heart Huckabees, 1999 Three Kings, 1996 Flirting with Disaster.

33. 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 ...

5 Movies: 2023 Oppenheimer, 2010 Inception, 2008 The Dark Knight, 2002 Insomnia, 2000 Memento.

34. Preston Sturges

Writer | Sullivan's Travels

Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti). He served in the U.S....

4 Movies: 1944 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, 1942 The Palm Beach Story, 1941 Sullivan's Travels, 1941 The Lady Eve.

35. 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 ...

5 Movies: 1946 It's a Wonderful Life, 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace, 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1936 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, 1934 It Happened One Night.

36. 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, ...

5 Movies: 1962 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1956 The Searchers, 1946 My Darling Clementine, 1940 The Grapes of Wrath, 1939 Stagecoach

37. 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 ...

5 Movies: 1990 Misery, 1989 When Harry Met Sally..., 1987 The Princess Bride, 1986 Stand by Me, 1984 This Is Spinal Tap.

38. 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. ...

5 Movies: 2013 Before Midnight, 2004 Before Sunset, 2001 Waking Life, 1995 Before Sunrise, 1993 Dazed and Confused.

39. John Landis

Director | The Blues Brothers

John Landis began his career in the mail room of 20th Century-Fox. A high-school dropout, 18-year-old Landis made his way to Yugoslavia to work as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes (1970). Remaining in Europe, Landis found work as an actor, extra and stuntman in many of the Spanish/Italian "...

5 Movies: 1986 ¡Three Amigos!, 1983 Trading Places, 1981 An American Werewolf in London, 1980 The Blues Brothers, 1978 Animal House.

40. Jim Abrahams

Writer | Airplane!

Jim Abrahams was born on May 10, 1944 in Shorewood, Wisconsin, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984) and Hot Shots! (1991). He is married to Nancy Cocuzzo.

5 Movies: 1993 Hot Shots! Part Deux, 1991 Hot Shots!, 1986 Ruthless People, 1984 Top Secret!, 1980 Airplane!.

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), ...

5 Movies: 2021 Dune, 2017 Blade Runner 2049, 2016 Arrival, 2013 Enemy, 2013 Prisoners.

42. 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 ...

4 Movies: 2004 Howl's Moving Castle, 2001 Spirited Away, 1997 Princess Mononoke, 1988 My Neighbor Totoro.

43. David Zucker

Writer | Airplane!

Born on October 16, 1947 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, director/writer/producer David Zucker, along with brother Jerry (Ghost, 1990) Zucker and longtime friend, Jim (Hot Shots, 1991) Abrahams, has established himself among Hollywood's (or at least Wisconsin's) most successful filmmakers.

Starting ...

5 Movies: 1991 The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, 1988 The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, 1986 Ruthless People, 1984 Top Secret!, 1980 Airplane!.

44. Ernst Lubitsch

Director | To Be or Not to Be

From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...

4 Movies: 1942 To Be or Not to Be, 1940 The Shop Around the Corner, 1939 Ninotchka, 1932 Trouble in Paradise.

45. 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...

4 Movies: 1979 Stalker, 1975 The Mirror, 1972 Solaris, 1966 Andrei Rublev.

46. 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...

4 Movies: 2014 Gone Girl, 1999 Fight Club, 1997 The Game, 1995 Se7en.

47. 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 ...

4 Movies: 2010 Black Swan, 2008 The Wrestler, 2000 Requiem for a Dream, 1998 Pi.

48. Adam McKay

Producer | Don't Look Up

Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. McKay has a comedy partnership with Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Ferrell and McKay also founded their comedy website Funny or Die through ...

4 Movies: 2015 The Big Short, 2010 The Other Guys, 2008 Step Brothers, 2004 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

49. Aki Kaurismäki

Producer | Le Havre

Aki Kaurismäki did a wide variety of jobs including postman, dish-washer and film critic, before forming a production and distribution company, Villealfa (in homage to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)) with his older brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a film-maker. Both Aki and Mika are prolific ...

4 Movies: 2002 The Man Without a Past, 1990 The Match Factory Girl, 1989 Leningrad Cowboys Go America, 1988 Ariel.

50. Jean-Pierre Melville

Writer | Le Samouraï

The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...

4 Movies: 1970 Le Cercle Rouge, 1969 The Army of Shadows, 1967 Le Samouraï, 1956 Bob le Flambeur.

51. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

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

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

4 Movies: 2011 The Tree of Life, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1978 Days of Heaven, 1973 Badlands.

52. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1997 U Turn, 1994 Natural Born Killers, 1991 JFK, 1986 Platoon.

53. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1955 Ordet, 1943 Day of Wrath, 1932 Vampyr, 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc.

54. George Cukor

Director | My Fair Lady

George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.

In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of...

4 Movies: 1950 Born Yesterday, 1949 Adam's Rib, 1940 The Philadelphia Story, 1938 Holiday.

55. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1988 They Live, 1982 The Thing, 1981 Escape from New York, 1978 Halloween.

56. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1976 Network, 1975 Dog Day Afternoon, 1964 Fail-Safe, 1957 12 Angry Men.

57. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1977 High Anxiety, 1974 Young Frankenstein, 1974 Blazing Saddles, 1967 The Producers.

58. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1979 Apocalypse Now, 1974 The Godfather: Part II, 1974 The Conversation, 1972 The Godfather.

59. 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 ...

4 Movies: 1966 Au Hasard Balthazar, 1959 Pickpocket, 1956 A Man Escaped, 1951 Diary of a Country Priest.

60. 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. ...

4 Movies: 1953 The Big Heat, 1945 Scarlet Street, 1931 M, 1927 Metropolis.

61. 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 ...

3 Movies: 1994 Ed Wood, 1990 Edward Scissorhands, 1985 Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

62. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

3 Movies: 2009 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, 1977 Stroszek, 1972 Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

63. 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 ...

3 Movies: 1927 Sunrise, 1924 The Last Laugh, 1922 Nosferatu.

64. 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 ...

3 Movies: 1956 Baby Doll, 1954 On the Waterfront, 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire.

65. James Whale

Director | Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his four classic horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He also directed films in other genres, including what is ...

3 Movies: 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein, 1933 The Invisible Man, 1931 Frankenstein.

66. Leo McCarey

Director | An Affair to Remember

Leo McCarey was born on October 3, 1896 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for An Affair to Remember (1957), Going My Way (1944) and Love Affair (1939). He was married to Virginia Stella Martin. He died on July 5, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

3 Movies: 1937 The Awful Truth, 1937 Make Way for Tomorrow, 1933 Duck Soup.

67. 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 ...

3 Movies: 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1945 Brief Encounter.

68. Nicholas Ray

Director | Rebel Without a Cause

Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in 1911, in small-town Galesville, Wisconsin, to Lena (Toppen) and Raymond Joseph Kienzle, a contractor and builder. He was of German and Norwegian descent. Ray's early experience with film came with some radio broadcasting in high school. He left the ...

3 Movies: 1955 Rebel Without a Cause, 1954 Johnny Guitar, 1950 In a Lonely Place.

69. Nick Park

Writer | Chicken Run

Nick Park was born on December 6, 1958 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Chicken Run (2000), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993).

3 Movies: 2005 The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, 1993 The Wrong Trousers, 1989 A Grand Day Out.

70. George Miller

Producer | Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max ...

3 Movies: 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road, 1981 Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1979 Mad Max.

71. 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 ...

3 Movies: 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1986 Aliens, 1984 The Terminator.

72. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2019 Parasite, 2009 Mother, 2003 Memories of Murder.

73. Spike Jonze

Producer | Her

Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...

3 Movies: 2013 Her, 2002 Adaptation., 1999 Being John Malkovich.

74. Jay Roach

Director | Trumbo

Jay Roach was born on June 14, 1957 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Trumbo (2015), Bombshell (2019) and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997). He has been married to Susanna Hoffs since April 17, 1993. They have two children.

3 Movies: 2012 The Campaign, 2000 Meet the Parents, 1997 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

75. 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...

2 Movies: 2007 Ratatouille, 1999 The Iron Giant.

76. Alan J. Pakula

Producer | Sophie's Choice

Alan J. Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Best Director for All the President's Men (1976) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sophie's Choice (1982).

He also directed Presumed Innocent (...

3 Movies: 1976 All the President's Men, 1974 The Parallax View, 1971 Klute.

77. 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).

3 Movies: 2012 Killing Them Softly, 2007 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2000 Chopper.

78. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2001 Ocean's Eleven, 2000 Traffic, 1998 Out of Sight.

79. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

80. Gus Van Sant

Director | Elephant

Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American filmmaker, painter, screenwriter, photographer and musician from Louisville, Kentucky who is known for directing films such as Good Will Hunting, the 1998 remake of Psycho, Gerry, Elephant, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Milk, Last Days, Finding Forrester, ...

3 Movies: 2003 Elephant, 1997 Good Will Hunting, 1989 Drugstore Cowboy.

81. 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 ...

4 Movies: 2018 Roma, 2013 Gravity, 2006 Children of Men, 2001 Y Tu Mamá Tambien.

82. Mike Nichols

Director | The Graduate

He, along with the other members of the "Compass Players" including Elaine May, Paul Sills, Byrne Piven, Joyce Hiller Piven and Edward Asner helped start the famed "Second City Improv" company. They used the games taught to them by fellow cast mate, Paul Sills 's mother, Viola Spolin. He later ...

3 Movies: 2004 Closer, 1967 The Graduate, 1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

83. Jacques Tati

Writer | Playtime

The comic genius Jacques Tati was born Taticheff, descended from a noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a well-to-do picture framer who ...

3 Movies: 1967 Playtime, 1958 Mon Oncle, 1953 Monsieur Hulot's Holiday.

84. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2006 Bug, 1973 The Exorcist, 1971 The French Connection.

85. Todd Solondz

Director | Welcome to the Dollhouse

Todd Solondz was born in Newark, New Jersey. One of his earliest jobs in the film industry was when, as a young man, he worked as a messenger for the Writers' Guild of America. During this time, he wrote several screenplays.

Solondz's first color film with sync sound was the short "Schatt's Last ...

3 Movies: 2001 Storytelling, 1998 Happiness, 1995 Welcome to the Dollhouse.

86. 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...

3 Movies: 1942 Casablanca, 1938 Angels with Dirty Faces, 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood.

87. John McTiernan

Director | Die Hard

John McTiernan was born on January 8, 1951 in Albany, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Die Hard (1988), Rollerball (2002) and Last Action Hero (1993). He has been married to Gail Sistrunk since 2012. He was previously married to Kate Harrington, Donna Dubrow and Carol Land.

3 Movies: 1995 Die Hard with a Vengeance, 1988 Die Hard, 1987 Predator.

88. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2010 127 Hours, 2002 28 Days Later..., 1996 Trainspotting.

89. Bobby Farrelly

Producer | There's Something About Mary

Bobby Farrelly was born on June 17, 1958 in Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA. He is a producer and director, known for There's Something About Mary (1998), Osmosis Jones (2001) and Me, Myself & Irene (2000). He has been married to Nancy Farrelly since 1990. They have two children.

4 Movies: 2000 Me, Myself & Irene, 1998 There's Something About Mary, 1996 Kingpin, 1994 Dumb & Dumber.

90. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2013 Rush, 2001 A Beautiful Mind, 1989 Parenthood.

91. 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...

3 Movies: 1989 Uncle Buck, 1987 Planes, Trains & Automobiles, 1985 The Breakfast Club.

92. 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...

3 Movies: 2018 First Man, 2016 La La Land, 2014 Whiplash.

93. Louis Malle

Director | Au revoir les enfants

Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...

3 Movies: 1987 Au Revoir Les Enfants, 1980 Atlantic City, 1958 Elevator to the Gallows.

94. Don Siegel

Director | Dirty Harry

Don Siegel was educated at Cambridge University, England. In Hollywood from the mid-'30s, he began his career as an editor and second unit director. In 1945 he directed two shorts (Hitler Lives (1945) and Star in the Night (1945)) which both won Academy Awards. His first feature as a director was ...

3 Movies: 1979 Escape from Alcatraz, 1971 Dirty Harry, 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

95. Hal Ashby

Editor | In the Heat of the Night

Hal Ashby was born the fourth and youngest child in a Mormon household, in Ogden, Utah, to Eileen Ireta (Hetzler) and James Thomas Ashby, on September 2, 1929. His father was a dairy farmer. After a rough childhood that included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, his dropping out of ...

3 Movies: 1979 Being There, 1973 The Last Detail, 1971 Harold and Maude.

96. 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 ...

3 Movies: 2012 This Is 40, 2007 Knocked Up, 2005 The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

97. Harold Ramis

Writer | Ghostbusters

Born on November 21, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, Harold Allen Ramis got his start in comedy as Playboy magazine's joke editor and reviewer. In 1969, he joined Chicago's Second City's Improvisational Theatre Troupe before moving to New York to help write and perform in "The National Lampoon Show" ...

3 Movies: Groundhog Day, 1983 National Lampoon's Vacation, 1980 Caddyshack.

98. Ivan Reitman

Producer | Up in the Air

Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which ...

3 Movies: 1984 Ghostbusters, 1981 Stripes, 1979 Meatballs.

99. 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 ...

3 Movies: 1962 The Trial, 1958 Touch of Evil, 1941 Citizen Kane.

100. Franklin J. Schaffner

Director | Planet of the Apes

Franklin J. Schaffner was one of the most innovative creative minds in the early days of American network television, utilizing a moving camera in the days when most television directors kept the camera static. His eye for visuals was developed in the dozens of live television programs he directed ...

3 Movies: 1973 Papillon, 1970 Patton, 1968 Planet of the Apes.