Directors Watching

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 ...

Who's That Knocking at My Door 1967 Boxcar Bertha 1972 Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1974 1973 Mean Streets 1976 Taxi Driver New York, New York 1977 1980 Raging Bull 1985 After Hours 1986 The Color of Money 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ 1990 Goodfellas 1991 Cape Fear The Age of Innocence 1993 1995 Casino 1997 Kundun 1999 Bringing Out the Dead Gangs of New York 2002 2004 The aviator 2006 The departed 2010 Shutter Island Hugo 2011 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street 2016 Silence 2019 The Irishman

2. 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 ...

1972 The Godfather 1974 The Godfather Part II 1974 The Conversation 1979 Apocalypse Now 1983 Rumble Fish 1983 The Outsiders 1986 Peggy Sue Got Married 1990 The Godfather Part III 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula 2007 Youth Without Youth 2009 Tetro

3. Paul Schrader

Writer | First Reformed

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a...

1978 Blue Collar 1979 Hardcore 1980 American Gigolo 1992 Light Sleeper 1997 Affliction 2017 First Reformed 2021 The Card Counter

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 ...

1977 Annie Hall 1979 Manhattan 1983 Zelig 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters 1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors 1990 Alice 1992 Husbands and Wives 1993 Manhattan Murder Mystery 1995 Mighty Aphrodite 1996 Everyone Says I Love You 1997 Deconstructing Harry 1998 Celebrity 1999 Sweet and Lowdown 2000 Small Time Crooks 2003 Anything Else 2005 Match Point 2008 Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2012 To Rome With Love 2013 Blue Jasmine 2019 A Rainy Day in New York

5. 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 (...

1981 Ms .45 1990 King of New York 1992 Bad Lieutenant 1995 The Addiction 1997 The Blackout 1998 New Rose Hotel 2001 R Xmas

6. 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 ...

1972 Sisters 1974 Phantom of the Paradise 1976 Carrie 1980 Dressed to Kill 1981 Blow Out 1983 Scarface 1989 Casualties of War 1992 Raising Cain 1993 Carlito's Way 2002 Femme Fatale

7. John Huston

Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...

1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1950 The Asphalt Jungle 1972 Fat City 1979 Wise Blood 1981 Escape to Victory

8. 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 ...

1971 The French Connection 1973 The Exorcist 1977 Sorcerer 1985 To Live and Die in L.A. 2003 The Hunted 2011 Killer Joe

9. 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 (...

1957 The Seventh Seal 1960 The Virgin Spring 1966 Persona 1968 Hour of the Wolf

Autumn Sonata The Magic Flute Cries & Whispers Wild Strawberries Through a Glass Darkly Winter Light The Silence Scenes from a Marriage Smiles of a Summer Night Fanny and Alexander The Making of Fanny and Alexander Sawdust and Tinsel The Magician Summer Interlude Summer with Monika Crisis Port of Call To Joy

10. 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...

1954 Seven Samurai

High and Low Yojimbo Sanjuro The Hidden Fortress Rashomon Red Beard Throne of Blood Ikiru Stray Dog The Lower Depths Kagemusha Ran The Bad Sleep Well The Drunken Angel Dodes'ka-den Dreams

11. 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 ...

1958 Elevator to the Gallows

Murmur of the Heart Lacombe, Lucien Au Revoir Les Enfants The Lovers The Fire Within My Dinner with Andre Zazie dans le metro Black Moon Vanya on 42nd Street Vive le tour Humain, trop humain Place de la République Phantom India Calcutta God's Country ...And the Pursuit of Happiness

12. Yasujirô Ozu

Writer | Tôkyô monogatari

Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...

1953 Tokyo Story 1962 An Autumn Afternoon

Good Morning A Story of Floating Weeds Early Summer Late Spring The Only Son There Was a Father Early Spring Tôkyô boshoku Equinox Flower Akibiyori The End of Summer

13. 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 ...

1960 Breathless 1962 Vivre sa vie 1965 Pierrot le fou 1967 Week-end 1967

Alphaville Contempt A Woman Is a Woman Tout va bien Masculin Féminin Made in U.S.A. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her My Life to Live Every Man for Himself

14. 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 ...

1954 La Strada 1960 La Dolce Vita 1963 8 1⁄2

Amarcord The Nights of Cabiria And The Ship Sails On Variety Lights Juliet of the Spirits The White Sheik I Vitelloni Fellini's Satyricon Roma

15. Jean Renoir

Writer | La règle du jeu

Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...

1951 The River

La Grande Illusion The Rules of the Game The Lower Depths The Golden Coach French Cancan Elena and Her Men Bondu Saved from Drowning La Bête Humaine A Day in the Country La Chienne

16. Kenji Misumi

Director | Shogun Assassin

Kenji Misumi was born on March 2, 1921 in Kyoto, Japan. Misumi was the illegitimate child of a geisha mother and originally wanted to be a painter, but his father disapproved. Kenji attended Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. During this time Misumi met future Daiei studio head Kan Kikuchi, ...

The Tale of Zatoichi Fight, Zatoichi, Fight Zatoichi and the Chess Expert Zatoichi Challenged Samaritan Zatoichi Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons

17. Michael Powell

Director | Peeping Tom

The son of Thomas William Powell and Mabel (nee Corbett). Michael Powell was always a self-confessed movie addict. He was brought up partly in Canterbury ("The Garden of England") and partly in the south of France (where his parents ran a hotel). Educated at Kings School, Canterbury and Dulwich ...

The Red Shoes Peeping Tom Black Narcissus 'I Know Where I'm Going!' The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Tales of Hoffmann A Canterbury Tale 49th Parallel The Thief of Bagdad Hour of Glory

18. 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 ...

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Diary of a Chambermaid That Obscure Object of Desire The Phantom of Liberty Viridiana The Milky Way The Exterminating Angel Simon of the Desert Belle de Jour

19. 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...

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul The Marriage of Maria Braun Veronika Voss Lola Berlin Alexanderplatz World on a Wire The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant The Merchant of Four Seasons Fox and His Friends

20. 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 ...

1956 Bob le flambeur 1962 Le Doulos 1967 Le Samouraï

Le Cercle Rouge Army of Shadows Les Enfants Terribles Le Deuxieme Souffle Léon Morin, Priest Le Silence de la Mer

21. Roberto Rossellini

Writer | Roma città aperta

The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American ...

The Flowers of St. Francis The Rise of Louis XIV General Della Rovere Rome, Open City Paisan Germany Year Zero Stromboli Europe '51 Journey to Italy

22. François Truffaut

Writer | La nuit américaine

French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...

The 400 Blows Stolen Kisses Bed & Board Love on the Run Jules and Jim Shoot the Piano Player The Last Metro The Soft Skin Day for Night

23. 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 ...

1935 The 39 Steps 1936 Sabotage 1940 Rebecca 1941 Suspicion 1946 Notorious 1948 Rope 1951 Strangers on a Train 1954 Dial M for Murder 1954 Rear Window 1958 Vertigo 1959 North by Northwest 1960 Psycho 1963 The Birds 1972 Frenzy

The Lady Vanishes Spellbound The Man Who Knew Too Much Foreign Correspondent The Lodger

24. 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 ...

Summertime Great Expectations Oliver Twist Brief Encounter Hobson's Choice In Which We Serve This Happy Breed Blithe Spirit

25. Wim Wenders

Director | Der Himmel über Berlin

Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until ...

1994 Lisbon Story 1984 Paris, Texas 1987 Wings of Desire

Pina The American Friend Alice in the Cities Wrong Move Kings of the Road Buena Vista Social Club

26. 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...

1993 Short Cuts

3 Women Secret Honor Tanner '88 Nashville The Player McCabe and Mrs. Miller

27. 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 ...

1996 Bottle Rocket 1998 Rushmore 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Royal Tenenbaums The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou The Darjeeling Limited Fantastic Mr. Fox Moonrise Kingdom

28. 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 ...

1966 Blow-Up

L'Avventura L'Eclisse Red Desert Identification of a Woman La Notte Le Amiche

29. 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 ...

Angels of Sin 1943 The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne 1945 1951 Diary of a Country Priest 1956 A Man Escaped 1959 Pickpocket The Trial of Joan of Arc 1962 Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 Mouchette 1967 A Gentle Woman 1969 Four Nights of a Dreamer 1971 Lancelot du Lac 1974 The Devil Probably 1977 1983 L'Argent

30. 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 ...

Modern Times The Great Dictator The Gold Rush Monsieur Verdoux City Lights Limelight The Kid

31. Emeric Pressburger

Writer | The Red Shoes

Educated at the Universities of Prague and Stuttgart, Emeric Pressburger worked as a journalist in Hungary and Germany and an author and scriptwriter in Berlin and Paris. He was a Hungarian Jew, chased around Europe (he worked on films for UFA in Berlin and Paris) before World War II, finally ...

The Red Shoes Black Narcissus 'I Know Where I'm Going!' The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Tales of Hoffmann A Canterbury Tale Hour of Glory

32. Satyajit Ray

Writer | Pather Panchali

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father, Late Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University, he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie ...

The Music Room The Big City Charulata Pather Panchali Aparajito The World of Apu The Hero

33. 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 ...

1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape 1998 Out of Sight 1999 The Limey 2000 Traffic 2000 Erin Brockovich 2001 Ocean's Eleven 2004 Ocean's Twelve 2007 Ocean's Thirteen 2009 The Girlfriend Experience 2009 The informant! 2011 Contagion 2013 Side Effects 2017 Logan Lucky 2018 Unsane

Schizopolis Che: Part One Che: Part Two And Everything is Going Fine Gray's Anatomy King of the Hill

34. 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). ...

1958 Shadows 1971 Minnie and Moskowitz 1974 A Woman Under the Influence 1976 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Faces Opening Night Love Streams

35. Jacques Demy

Soundtrack | Les parapluies de Cherbourg

Jacques Demy was born on June 5, 1931 in Pontchâteau, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and A Room in Town (1982). He was married to Agnès Varda. He died on October 27, 1990 in Paris, France.

Lola Bay of Angels The Umbrellas of Cherbourg The Young Girls of Rochefort Donkey Skin Une Chambre en Ville

36. 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 ...

1955 Ordet

The Passion of Joan of Arc Day of Wrath Gertrud Vampyr Master of the House

37. Krzysztof Kieslowski

Writer | Trois couleurs: Bleu

Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (...

1991 The Double Life of Véronique 1993 Three Colors: Blue 1994 Three Colors: White 1994 Three Colors: Red

Blind Chance Dekalog

38. 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 ...

1965 Repulsion 1968 Rosemary's Baby 1974 Chinatown 1976 The Tenant 1992 Bitter Moon 1994 Death and the Maiden 1999 The Ninth Gate 2013 Venus in Fur

Knife in the Water Cul-De-Sac Tess Macbeth The Fearless Vampire Killers

39. Éric Rohmer

Director | Ma nuit chez Maud

Admirers have always had difficulty explaining Éric Rohmer's "Je ne sais quoi." Part of the challenge stems from the fact that, despite his place in French Nouvelle Vague (i.e., New Wave), his work is unlike that of his colleagues. While this may be due to the auteur's unwillingness to conform, ...

The Bakery Girl of Monceau Suzanne's Career My Night at Maud's The Collector Claire's Knee Chloe in the Afternoon

40. Seijun Suzuki

Director | Tsigoineruwaizen

Seijun Suzuki was born in Nihonbashi, Tôkyô, on May 24, 1923. In 1943, he entered the army to fight at the front. In 1946, he enrolled in the film department of the Kamakura Academy and passed the assistant director's exam. For the next few years, he worked as an assistant director at several ...

Branded to Kill Tokyo Drifter Youth of the Beast , Fighting Elegy Gate of Flesh Story of a Prostitute

41. 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 ...

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday Mon Oncle Playtime Trafic Jour de Fete Parade

42. Kimiyoshi Yasuda

Director | Shin Zatôichi: Yabure! Tôjin-ken

Born in Tokyo in 1911 Yasuda Kimiyoshi died in the capital city in 1983. In-between, however, the director was in charge of 88 films most of which were of the jidaigeki genre. Kimiyoshi's first film was 1944's Ouma Wa Nanajyunana Mangoku. Beginning with 1964 the director began working on TV movies ...

Zatoichi on the Road Adventures of Zatoichi Zatoichi's Cane-sword Zatoichi and the Fugitives Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman Zatoichi's Conspiracy

43. Jules Dassin

Director | Du rififi chez les hommes

Jules Dassin was an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and actor best known for his films Rififi (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), and Topkapi (1964).

He was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was one of eight children of Russian-Jewish ...

1955 Rififi

Thieves' Highway Night and the City The Naked City Brute Force

44. Pierre Étaix

Actor | Le grand amour

Pierre Étaix was born on November 23, 1928 in Roanne, Loire, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Le Grand Amour (1969), As Long as You've Got Your Health (1966) and Yoyo (1965). He was married to Odile Crepin, Annie Fratellini and Denise bernard. He died on October 14, 2016 in Paris, ...

The Suitor Yoyo As Long as You've Got Your Health Le Grand Amour Land of Milk and Honey

45. 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 ...

1985 Brazil 1991 The Fisher King 1995 12 Monkeys 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 2005 The Brothers Grimm

Time Bandits Jabberwocky

46. Kon Ichikawa

Director | Inugami-ke no ichizoku

Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of ...

Tokyo Olympiad Fires on the Plain The Burmese Harp The Makioka Sisters An Actor's Revenge

47. Shôhei Imamura

Director | Kuroi ame

Shohei Imamura's films dig beneath the surface of Japanese society to reveal a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath. Along with his colleagues Nagisa Ôshima and Masahiro Shinoda, Imamura began his serious directorial career as a member of the New Wave movement in Japan....

The Pornographers Vengeance Is Mine Pigs and Battleships The Insect Woman Intentions of Murder

48. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writer | Il Decameron

Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...

1975 Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom

Mamma Roma The Decameron The Canterbury Tales Arabian Nights

49. Nicolas Roeg

Director | Don't Look Now

When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's ...

1971 Walkabout

Bad Timing The Man Who Fell to Earth Insignificance Don't Look Now

50. 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 ...

1941 Citizen Kane

F for Fake Mr. Arkadin Chimes at Midnight The Immortal Story Othello

51. Olivier Assayas

Writer | Personal Shopper

Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is best know for his films Demonlover (2002), Something in the Air (2012), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016).

Assayas is the son of French director/screenwriter Raymond Assayas, alias Jacques Rémy.

His ...

2007 Boarding Gate

Summer Hours Carlos Clouds of Sil Maria Personal Shopper

52. René Clair

Writer | Le silence est d'or

René Clair was born on November 11, 1898 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Man About Town (1947), Beauties of the Night (1952) and The Grand Maneuver (1955). He was married to Bronia Clair. He died on March 15, 1981 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Le Million À Nous la Liberté Under the Roofs of Paris I Married a Witch

53. Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer | Le salaire de la peur

Beginning his film career as a screenwriter, Henri-Georges Clouzot switched over to directing and in 1943 had the distinction of having his film The Raven (1943) banned by both the German forces occupying France and the Free French forces fighting them, but for different reasons. He shot to ...

1955 Diabolique

The Wages of Fear Quai des Orfèvres Le Corbeau

54. 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...

Beauty and the Beast The Blood of a Poet Orpheus Testament of Orpheus

55. Costa-Gavras

Director | Z

Costa-Gavras was born on February 12, 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, Greece. He is a director and writer, known for Z (1969), Missing (1982) and Amen. (2002). He has been married to Michèle Ray-Gavras since 1968. They have two children.

Missing The Confession State of Siege

56. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

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

Umberto D. Indiscretion of an American Wife The Children Are Watching Us Bicycle Thieves

57. 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 ...

1951 Steel Helmet 1964 The Naked Kiss 1982 White Dog

Shock Corridor Pickup on South Street

58. 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.

1986 Down by Law 1995 Dead man 1999 Ghost Dog 2003 Coffee and Cigarettes 2005 Broken Flowers 2013 Only Lovers Left Alive 2016 Paterson 2016 Gimme Danger (Documentary) 2019 The dead don't die

Stranger than Paradise Night on Earth Mystery Train

59. Abbas Kiarostami

Writer | Copie conforme

Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career ...

1990 Close-Up 1997 Taste of Cherry

Certified Copy Like Someone in Love

60. Masaki Kobayashi

Director | Seppuku

Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.

Kwaiden Harakiri Samurai Rebellion The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

61. Mike Leigh

Director | Secrets & Lies

Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre ...

1983 Meantime 1993 Naked 1996 Secrets & Lies 2002 Alll or Nothing

Topsy-Turvy Life Is Sweet

62. 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 ...

Trouble in Paradise Heaven Can Wait Design for Living To Be or Not to Be

63. 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 ...

1973 Badlands 1978 Days of Heaven 1998 The Thin Red Line 2005 The New World 2011 The Tree of Life 2012 To the Wonder 2017 Song to Song

64. Albert Maysles

Cinematographer | Grey Gardens

Albert Maysles was born on November 26, 1926 in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Grey Gardens (1975), Salesman (1969) and Gimme Shelter (1970). He was married to Gillian Walker. He died on March 5, 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, ...

Gimme Shelter Salesman Grey Gardens The Beales of Grey Gardens

65. Errol Morris

Director | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

His documentaries helped spur a rebirth of non-fiction film in the 80s & garnered wide critical success. But until 2003's "The Fog of War," Morris was shunned by the Academy Awards.

Morris' first two films won much acclaim (Gates of Heaven (1978) and Vernon, Florida (1981)). In the second movie, ...

A Brief History of Time Gates of Heaven Vernon, Florida The Thin Blue Line

66. Max Ophüls

Director | La ronde

Director Max Ophüls was born Max Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany. He began his career as a stage actor and director in the golden twenties. He worked in cities such as Stuttgart, Dortmund, Wuppertal, Vienna, Frankfurt, Breslau and Berlin. In 1929 his son Marcel Ophüls was born in Frankfurt, ...

La Ronde Le Plaisir The Earrings of Madame de... Lola Montès

67. Nagisa Ôshima

Director | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Nagisa Oshima's career extends from the initiation of the "Nuberu bagu" (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in ...

In the Realm of the Senses Empire of Passion Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence Death by Hanging

68. Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Director | Komödianten

Georg Wilhelm Pabst is considered by many to be the greatest director of German cinema, in his era. He was especially appreciated by actors and actresses for the humane way in which he treated them. This was in contrast to some of his contemporaries, such as Arnold Fanck, who have been ...

1929 Pandora's Box

The 3 Penny Opera Westfront 1918 Kameradschaft

69. D.A. Pennebaker

Director | Dont Look Back

D.A. Pennebaker was born on July 15, 1925 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Don't Look Back (1967), The War Room (1993) and Unlocking the Cage (2016). He was married to Chris Hegedus, Kate Taylor and Sylvia Bell. He died on August 1, 2019 in Sag Harbor, ...

Monterey Pop Jimi Plays Monterey The War Room Don't Look Back

70. Carol Reed

Director | The Third Man

Carol Reed was the second son of stage actor, dramatics teacher and impresario founder of the Royal School of Dramatic Art Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Reed was one of Tree's six illegitimate children with Beatrice Mae Pinney, who Tree established in a second household apart from his married life. ...

The Fallen Idol Night Train to Munich Odd Man Out

71. Alain Resnais

Director | Hiroshima mon amour

Alain Resnais was born on June 3, 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on March 1, 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...

Hiroshima Mon Amour Night and Fog Last Year at Marienbad Muriel, or The Time of Return

72. Volker Schlöndorff

Director | Die Blechtrommel

Has studied economy and political sciences as well as at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographique (IDHEC) in Paris, France. Worked as an assistant director with Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Resnais. Founded his own production company Bioskop Film together with Reinhard Hauff ...

1998 Palmetto

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum Coup de grâce The Tin Drum Young Torless

73. 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....

1941 The Lady Eve 1948 Unfaithfully Yours

Sullivan's Travels The Palm Beach Story

74. Hiroshi Teshigahara

Director | Suna no onna

Hiroshi Teshigahara was born the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (flower arrangement). In 1950, he graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Centre and took a ...

Pitfall Woman in the Dunes The Face of Another Antonio Gaudi

75. Jan Troell

Director | Här har du ditt liv

Jan Troell was born on July 23, 1931 in Limhamn, Malmö, Skåne län, Sweden. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Here Is Your Life (1966), The Emigrants (1971) and Il capitano (1991). He is married to Agneta Ulfsäter-Troell. They have one child.

Everlasting Moments Here Is Your Life The Emigrants The New Land

76. Agnès Varda

Director | Cléo de 5 à 7

Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.

1985 Vagabond

Cleo from 5 to 7 La Pointe Courte Le Bonheur

77. Josef von Sternberg

Director | The Devil Is a Woman

Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop ...

The Scarlett Empress Underworld The Last Command The Docks of New York

78. 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 ...

1991 Europa 2003 Dogville 2009 Antichrist 2011 Melancholia 2013 Nymphomaniac 2018 The House That Jack Built

The Element of Crime Breaking the Waves

79. Andrzej Wajda

Director | Katyn

Andrzej Wajda is an Academy Award-winning director. He is the most prominent filmmaker in Poland known for The Promised Land (1975), Man of Iron (1981), and Katyn (2007).

He was Born on March 6, 1926, in Suwalki, Poland. His mother, Aniela Wajda, was a teacher at a Ukrainian school. His father, ...

A Generation Kanal Ashes and Diamonds Danton

80. Anthony Asquith

Director | The Browning Version

British film director Anthony Asquith was born on November 9, 1902, to H.H. Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his second wife. A former home secretary and the future leader of the Liberal Party, H.H. Asquith served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 and was ...

Pygmalion The Importance of Being Earnest The Browning Version

81. 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, ...

2005 The Squid and the Whale 2010 Greenberg 2013 Frances Ha 2015 Mistress America 2019 Marriage Story

Kicking and Screaming

82. Jacques Becker

Writer | Le trou

His interest in films was stimulated by a meeting with King Vidor, who offered him employment in the US as actor and assistant director. However, he remained in France and became assistant to Jean Renoir, a friend of the family, during that director's peak period (1932-39). In 1934 he ventured ...

Le Trou Casque d'Or Touchez Pas au Grisbi

83. Marcel Carné

Director | Le quai des brumes

Marcel Carné, the son of a cabinet maker, entered the movies as the assistant of Jacques Feyder. At the age of 25 he directed his first movie Jenny (1936). Colaborating with the writer Jacques Prévert, the decorator Alexandre Trauner, the musician and composer Maurice Jaubert and the actor Jean ...

Children of Paradise Port of Shadows Les Visiteurs du Soir

84. Pedro Costa

Director | Cavalo Dinheiro

Pedro Costa was born on December 30, 1958 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a director and writer, known for Horse Money (2014), Vitalina Varela (2019) and Colossal Youth (2006).

1994 Casa de Lava 1997 Ossos 2000 In Vanda's Room 2006 Colossal Youth

85. 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...

1986 Sid & Nancy

Walker Repo Man

86. Robert Day

Director | The Big Game

Robert Day worked his way up from clapper boy to camera operator to full-fledged lensman in his native England before giving directing a shot in the mid-1950s. His first film as director, the black-comic The Green Man (1956) for the writer-producer team of 'Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, ...

First Man Into Space The Haunted Strangler Corridors of Blood

87. 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 ...

2001 The Devil's Backbone 2006 Pan's Labyrinth 2017 The Shape of Water

Cronos

88. 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 ...

1980 Melvin and Howard 1986 Something Wild 1991 The Silence of the Lambs 1993 Philadelphia

A Master Builder

89. 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 ...

Ivan the Terrible: Part I Alexander Nevsky Ivan the Terrible: Part II

90. 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, ...

1956 The Searchers

Stagecoach My Darling Clementine

91. 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...

1940 His Girl Friday 1948 Red River 1959 Rio Bravo

Only Angels Have Wings

92. 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 ...

1966 Ride in the Whirlwind 1966 The Shooting 1971 Two-Lane Blacktop

93. Kazuo Ikehiro

Director | Zatôichi umi o wataru

Kazuo Ikehiro was born on October 25, 1929 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a director and assistant director, known for Zatoichi's Pilgrimage (1966), The Phantom Samurai (1961) and Zatoichi's Flashing Sword (1964).

Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold Zatoichi's Flashing Sword Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman's Pilgrimage

94. Hiroshi Inagaki

Director | Wasurerareta kora

Inagaki's career in film began as an actor--a child actor, in fact, appearing in numerous silent films beginning at the very dawn of Japanese cinema. This is probably why he was promoted to director at the unusually (for Japan) young age of 22. Along with producer Mansaku Itami (later the father of...

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

95. 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. ...

1927 Metropolis

M The Testament of Dr. Mabuse Ministry of Fear

96. David Maysles

Director | Grey Gardens

David Maysles was born on January 10, 1931 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Grey Gardens (1975), Gimme Shelter (1970) and Salesman (1969). He died on January 3, 1987 in New York City, New York, USA.

Gimme Shelter Salesman The Beales of Grey Gardens

97. Kazuo Mori

Director | Suzakumon

Kazuo Mori was born on January 15, 1911 in Matsuyama, Japan. He was a director and assistant director, known for Suzakumon (1957), Vendetta of a Samurai (1952) and Nichiro senso shori no hishi: Tekichu odan sanbyaku-ri (1957). He died on June 29, 1989.

Zoku Zatôichi monogatari Zatoichi and the Doomed Man Zatoichi at Large

98. Ronald Neame

Producer | Great Expectations

A British filmmaker who, over the years, worked as assistant director, cinematographer, producer, writer and ultimately director, Ronald Neame was born on April 23, 1911. His father, Elwin Neame, was a film director and his mother, Ivy Close, was a film star. During the 1920s, he started working at...

The Horse's Mouth Hopscotch Tunes of Glory

99. Ken Loach

Director | I, Daniel Blake

Unlike virtually all his contemporaries, Ken Loach has never succumbed to the siren call of Hollywood, and it's virtually impossible to imagine his particular brand of British socialist realism translating well to that context.

After studying law at St. Peter's College, Oxford, he branched out into ...

2006 The Wind That Shakes the Barley 2007 It's a Free World... 2009 Looking for Eric 2016 I, Daniel Blake 2019 Sorry We Missed You

Kes 1969 Riff-Raff (1991) Poor Cow (1967) Land and Freedom (1995) My Name Is Joe (1998) Looks and Smiles (1981) Sweet Sixteen (2002)

100. 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 ...

1943 Five Graves to Cairo 1945 The lost weekend 1957 Witness for the Prosecution