50 Best Film Writers of ALL TIME

1. Asghar Farhadi

Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelors in Theater from University of Tehran's School of...

Must Read: Beautiful City (2004) Fireworks Wednesday (2006) About Elly (2009) A Separation (2011) The Past (2013) The Salesman (2016) Everybody Knows (2018)

2. Eric Roth

Writer | Dune

Mr. Roth won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump & has been nominated for his screenplays of The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born, & Dune. He wrote Mr. Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, & Best Picture Nominee, Extremely ...

Must Read: Dune (2020) A Star Is Born (2018) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) Munich (2005) The Insider (1999) Forest Gump (1994)

3. Aaron Sorkin

Writer | The West Wing

Aaron Sorkin grew up in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City where he was very involved in his high school drama and theater club. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater, Sorkin intended to pursue a career in acting. It took him only a short time to ...

***Best for based on true events***

Must Read: Steve Jobs (2015) Moneyball (2011) Molly Game (2017) The Social Network (2010) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

+TV The Newsroom (2012-2015) The West Wing (1999-2006)

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 ...

Must Read: Annie Hall (1977) Manhathan (1979) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Match Point (2005) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) Blue Jasmine (2013)

5. Lee Chang-dong

Writer | Beoning

Lee Chang-Dong was born in 1954 in Daegu, which some consider the most right-wing city in South Korea. Lee is a former high-school teacher and an acclaimed novelist. He turned to cinema when he was over 40 years old. His debut film "Green Fish" (1997) brought immediate success and critical acclaim....

Must Read: Poetry (2010) Peppermint Candy (1999) Burning (2018) Secret Sunshine (2007)

6. 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. ...

Must Read: Waking Life (2001) Before Sunrise (1995) Before Sunset (2005) Before Midnight (2013) Boyhood (2014) Bernie (2011) Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019) Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

7. 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 ...

Must Read: The Idiots (1998) Dogville (2003) Melancholia (2011) Nymphomaniac Vol I & II (2013)

8. 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...

Must Read: Reservoir Dogs (1992) Pulp Fiction (1994) Jackie Brown (1997) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Death Proof (2007) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Django Unchained (2012) Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

9. Sion Sono

Director | Ai no mukidashi

Shion Sono is a Japanese director, writer and poet. Born in Aichi Perfecture in 1961 he started his career working as a poet before taking his first steps in film directing. As a student he shot a series of short films in Super 8 and managed to make his first feature films in the late 80s and early...

Must Read: Hazard (2005) Strange Circus (2005) Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) Guilty of Romance (2010) Cold Fish (2010) Tag (2015) Forest of Love (2019)

10. Kenneth Lonergan

Writer | Manchester by the Sea

Kenneth Lonergan is a playwright, screenwriter and director. His film, You Can Count on Me (2000), which he wrote and directed, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, won the Sundance 2000 Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the NY Film Critics Circle, LA Film ...

Must Read: Analyze This (1999) You Can Count on Me (2000) Margaret (2011) Manchester by the Sea (2016)

11. 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 ...

Must Read: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Strange Days (1995) Titanic (1996) Avatar (2009) Avatar 2 (2021)

12. 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 (...

Must Read: Scenes from a Marriage (1974) The Seventh Seal (1957) Wild Strawberries (1957) Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Autumn Sonata (1978) Fanny And Alexander (1982) The Best Intentions (1992)

13. 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 ...

Must Read: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) The Shining (1980) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

14. Tom McCarthy

Writer | The Station Agent

Tom McCarthy is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best known for direct and write The Station Agent (2003), The Visitor (2007), Win Win (2011), and Spotlight (2015), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Director.

McCarthy...

Must Read: Station Agent (2003) The Visitor (2007) Spotlight (2015)

15. Charlie Kaufman

Writer | I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Avid reader Charlie Kaufman wrote plays and made short films as a young student. He moved from Massapequa, New York to West Hartford, Connecticut in 1972 where he attended high school. As a comedic actor, he performed in school plays and, after graduation, he enrolled at Boston University but soon ...

Must Read: Being John Malkovich (1999) Adaptation (2002) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Synecdoche, New York (2008) Chaos Walking (2021)

16. Sarah Polley

Actress | My Life Without Me

Sarah Polley is an actress and director renowned in her native Canada for her political activism. Blessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts, Polley has become a favorite of critics for her ...

Must Read: Stories We Tell (2012) Take This Waltz (2011) Away from Her (2006)

17. 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 ...

Must Read: Open Your Eyes (1997) Vanilla Sky (2001) The Others (2001) The Sea Inside (2004)

18. 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, ...

Must Read: Crash (2005) The Last Kiss (2006) The Next Three Days (2010)

19. Gaspar Noé

Director | Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé is an Argentinian filmmaker and screenwriter who lives in France. He is the son of Luis Felipe Noé, an Argentinian artist. He directed I Stand Alone, Irréversible, Enter the Void, Love, Climax, Carne, Lux Æterna, Sodomites and Vortex. His films are known for having a sensory overload ...

Must Read: Seul au monde (1998) Enter the Void (2009) Irreversible (2002) Climax (2015) Love (2018) Lux Æterna (2019)

*Although he is arguably a better director than writer, Gaspar has a flair for writing anti-conformist themes into challenging pictures

20. Guillermo Arriaga

Writer | The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Guillermo Arriaga was born on March 13, 1958 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He is a writer and producer, known for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), 21 Grams (2003) and Amores Perros (2000).

Must Read: Amores perros (2000) 21 Grams (2003) Babel (2006) From Afar (2015)

21. Rian Johnson

Producer | Knives Out

Rian Johnson was born in Maryland and at a young age his family moved to San Clemente, California, where he was raised. After graduating from high school, he went on to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His first feature film, Brick (2005), was released in 2005 ...

Must Read: Knives Out (2019) Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) Looper (2012)

22. Andrew Niccol

Writer | GATTACA

New Zealand-born screenwriter-director Andrew Niccol began his career in London, successfully directing TV commercials before moving to Los Angeles in order to make films "longer than 60 seconds." He interested high-powered producer Scott Rudin in his The Truman Show (1998) script, but Rudin was not...

Must Read: Gattaca (1997) The Truman Show (1998) S1m0ne (2002) Lord of War (2005)

23. Alan Ball

Producer | American Beauty

Alan Ball is an American writer, director, and producer who is known for writing the acclaimed film American Beauty and creating the HBO series True Blood starring Anna Paquin. He also wrote the films Towelhead and Uncle Frank. He also created Here and Now, Six Feet Under, and Banshee. He won ...

Must Read: American Beauty (1999) Towelhead (2007)

+ TV Six Feet Under (2001-2005)

24. 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...

Must Read: Miller's Crossing (1990) Fargo (1996) The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) Burn After Reading (2008) A Serious Man (2009)

25. 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 ...

Must Read: Miller's Crossing (1990) Fargo (1996) The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) Burn After Reading (2008) A Serious Man (2009)

26. Tobias Lindholm

Writer | Druk

Tobias Lindholm was born on July 5, 1977 in Næstved, Denmark. He is a writer and director, known for Another Round (2020), The Hunt (2012) and A Hijacking (2012).

Must Read: The Hunt (2012) A Hijacking (2012) A War (2015) Submarino (2010)

+TV Borgen (2010-2011)

27. 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 ...

Must Read: Parasite (2019) Snowpiercer (2013) Mother (2009) Memories of Murder (2003)

28. Andrey Zvyagintsev

Director | Nelyubov

Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...

Must Read: Leviathan Loveless Elena

29. 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...

Must Read: The Descendants (2011) Sideways (2004) Nebraska (2013) Election (1999)

30. 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...

Must Read: Babylon (2021) Whiplash (2014) La La Land (2016)

31. 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 ...

Must Read: Silver Lining Playbook (2012) American Hustle (2013)

32. Peter Morgan

Writer | Frost/Nixon

Peter Morgan was born on April 10, 1963 in London, England, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Frost/Nixon (2008), The Last King of Scotland (2006) and The Crown (2016).

Must Read: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Rush (2013) Frost/Nixon (2008) The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) The Last King of Scotland (2006) The Queen (2006)

33. Ronald Harwood

Writer | The Pianist

Born in Cape Town, Union of South Africa in 1934, Ronald Harwood moved to London in 1951 to pursue a career in the theatre. After attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he joined the Shakespeare Company of Sir Donald Wolfit, one of the last 'actor-manager' of Great-Britain. From 1953 to 1958...

Must Read: The Pianist (2002) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

34. 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...

Must Read: Boogie Nights (1997) Magnolia (1999) There Will Be Blood (2007)

35. 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.

Must Read: Broken Flowers (2007) Paterson (2016)

36. Shinobu Hashimoto

Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

Shinobu Hashimoto was born on April 18, 1918 in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for The Hidden Fortress (1958), Harakiri (1962) and Ikiru (1952). He died on July 19, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.

Must Read: Harakiri (1962) Samurai Rebellion (1967) Rashomon (1950) Ikiru (1952)

*celebrated 100th birthday in April 2018 before death in July. R.I.P.

37. Wallace Shawn

Actor | My Dinner with Andre

American character actor and playwright Wallace Shawn has one of those fun, delightfully mischievously gnomish faces made for entertaining. Though he got out of the acting starting gate rather late, he quickly excelled film and TV while managing to turn himself into comedy egghead or loser types. ...

Must See: My Dinner with Andre (1980) A Master Builder (2013)

38. 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 ...

Must Read: The Ides of March (2011) Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

39. 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...

Must Read: Goodwill Hunting (1997) Gone Baby Gone (2007)

40. Robin Campillo

Writer | Eastern Boys

Robin Campillo was born on August 16, 1962 in Mohammédia, Morocco. He is a writer and editor, known for Eastern Boys (2013), 120 BPM (2017) and The Class (2008).

Must Read: Entre les murs (2008) L'emploi du temps (2001)

41. Mike Mills

Director | Beginners

Mike Mills was born in 1966, Berkeley, California. He graduated from Cooper Union, 1989.

He works as a filmmaker, graphic designer and artist. As a filmmaker, Mike has completed a number of music videos, commercials, short films, documentaries, and the feature film Thumbsucker (2005). Architecture ...

Must Read: Beginners (2010) 20th Century Women (2016)

42. Kelly Masterson

Writer | Snowpiercer

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is the debut original screenplay of playwright/ screenwriter, Kelly Masterson.

Kelly is a former Franciscan Brother who left the seminary just short of his ordination in order to pursue a career in the theater. His award winning play, Touch, was produced off ...

Must Read: Snowpiercer (2013) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

43. David Benioff

Producer | Game of Thrones

David Benioff was born on September 25, 1970 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Game of Thrones (2011), The Kite Runner (2007) and 25th Hour (2002). He has been married to Amanda Peet since September 30, 2006. They have three children.

Must Read: 25th Hour (2002) - adapted his own novel The Kite Runner (2007)

+ TV Game of Thrones (2011-2018)

44. Mateo Gil

Writer | Agora

Mateo Gil was born on September 23, 1972 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. He is a writer and director, known for Agora (2009), Open Your Eyes (1997) and The Sea Inside (2004).

Must Read: [co-wrote with Alejandro Amenábar] Open Your Eyes (1997) & The Sea Inside (2004)

45. Josh Singer

Producer | Spotlight

Josh Singer is known for Spotlight (2015), The Post (2017) and Maestro (2023).

Must Read: First Man (2018) Spotlight (2015) Bernstein (2021)

46. Stephen Chbosky

Writer | The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky was born on January 25, 1970 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Wonder (2017) and Rent (2005). He has been married to Liz Maccie since September 18, 2010. They have two children.

Must Read: Wonder (2017) Beauty and the Beast (2017) The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

47. Scott Z. Burns

Writer | The Report

Scott Z. Burns is known for The Report (2019), Side Effects (2013) and Contagion (2011).

Must Read: The Laundromat (2019) The Informant! (2009)

48. 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, ...

Must Read: Marriage Story (2019) The Squid and the Whale (2005) While We're Young (2014)

49. Kim Ki-duk

Writer | Bin-jip

He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for Best Screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with "A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death". After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile (1996) ("Crocodile"). Then he ...

Must Read: Moebius The Isle Samaritain Girl Pieta

50. Steven Knight

Writer | Locke

Steven Knight is a British screenwriter and film director. He is best known for screenplays he wrote for the films Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and Eastern Promises (2007), and also directed as well as written the film Locke (2013).

Knight is also one of three creators of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...

Must Read: Locked Down (2021) Allied (2016) Locke (2013)

51. 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 ...

Must Read: Don't Look Up (2021) Vice (2018) The Big Short (2015)

52. Tracy Letts

Actor | Lady Bird

Tracy Letts is the son of actor Dennis Letts and best-selling author Billie Letts, of "Where The Heart Is" and "The Honk And Holler Opening Soon" fame. Tracy is also the author of the stage play "Killer Joe", which ran off-Broadway in 1998 for nine months and starred Scott Glenn, Amanda Plummer, ...

Must Read: The Woman in the Window (2020) Killer Joe (2011) - play and screenplay August: Osage County (2013) - play and screenplay