loved directors

1. Lars von Trier

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 ...

2. Yorgos Lanthimos

Director | The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens, Greece. He studied directing for Film and Television at the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theater plays. Kinetta,...

3. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

4. 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...

5. 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 ...

6. Park Chan-wook

Producer | Ah-ga-ssi

Park Chan-wook was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a producer and director, known for The Handmaiden (2016), Oldboy (2003) and Thirst (2009). He is married to Eun-hee Kim. They have one child.

7. 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 ...

8. Takashi Miike

Director | Jûsan-nin no shikaku

Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, ...

9. Susanne Bier

Director | Hævnen

Though Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award winning writer and director Susanne Bier's work often plays out against a wide-reaching global backdrop, its focus is intimate, carefully exploring the explosive emotions and complexities of familial bonds. This unique combination is part of ...

10. Jordan Peele

Writer | Nope

Jordan Peele is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning director, writer, actor, producer, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions. Peele's first feature film, "Get Out," was a critically acclaimed blockbuster, recognized with four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film would earn Peele the ...

11. 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 ...

12. 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...

13. Adam Bernstein

Director | Fargo

Adam Bernstein began his career as an animator, and at age 26 produced the first original programming for the Nickelodeon Network. He went on to direct over seventy music videos, including "Love Shack" for the B-52's, "Hey Ladies" for the Beastie Boys and "Baby's Got Back" for Sir Mix a Lot. In ...

14. Tricia Brock

Director | Killer Diller

Tricia Brock is known for Killer Diller (2004), The Walking Dead (2010) and 30 Rock (2006).

15. 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 ...

16. Harry Bradbeer

Director | Enola Holmes 2

Harry is a multi award-winning director who began his career as assistant to John Schlesinger. He worked with the producer Tony Garnett on the cult hit This Life before becoming lead director on The Cops which won the BAFTA for Best Series two years in a row. Harry's other work includes The Hour ...

17. Randall Einhorn

Director | Abbott Elementary

Randall Einhorn was born on December 7, 1963 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Abbott Elementary (2021), The Office (2005) and Parks and Recreation (2009).

18. Andrew Jarecki

Producer | Capturing the Friedmans

Andrew Jarecki is an American filmmaker, musician, and entrepreneur. He is best known for the Emmy-winning 2015 HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" that led to the arrest and imprisonment of Mr. Durst. He is also known for documentary film "Capturing the Friedmans...

19. Joe Berlinger

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

Academy Award and eight-time Emmy nominated and Peabody and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger has been a leading voice in nonfiction film and television for two decades. Berlinger's films include the landmark documentaries BROTHER'S KEEPER, the PARADISE LOST Trilogy, which helped lead to the ...

20. Lucia Aniello

Producer | Hacks

Lucia Aniello was born on January 10, 1983 in Italy. She is a producer and writer, known for Hacks (2021), Rough Night (2017) and Broad City (2014). She is married to Paul W. Downs. They have one child.

21. Erin Lee Carr

Producer | Britney vs Spears

Erin Lee Carr is a New York based director, producer and writer. Most recently, Erin directed the feature documentary "Britney vs Spears." The high-profile project was the #1 movie on Netflix in over 25 countries. Previously, her four-part documentary series "How To Fix a Drug Scandal" premiered on...

22. Liz Garbus

Producer | What Happened, Miss Simone?

Liz Garbus was born on April 11, 1970 in the USA. She is a producer and director, known for What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015), The Farm: Angola, USA (1998) and Girlhood (2003). She is married to Dan Cogan. They have two children.

23. Rob Savage

Director | Host

Rob Savage is a multi-award winning writer/director and 2013 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, working in shorts, features and commercials. He wrote, directed, shot, co-produced and edited micro- budget feature film Strings at age 18, which has screened at a number of prestigious International...

24. Christina Choe

Director | Nancy

Christina Choe is an American filmmaker whose 2011 short film, I am John Wayne, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival and screened at dozens of festivals around the world. Choe's documentary series Welcome to the DPRK, a personal portrait of North Korea, was recently acquired and ...

25. Brad Anderson

Director | Session 9

Brad Anderson was born in 1964 in Madison, Connecticut, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Session 9 (2001), Transsiberian (2008) and The Machinist (2004).

26. Miguel Arteta

Director | Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Miguel Arteta was born in 1965 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is a director and producer, known for Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014), The Good Girl (2002) and Youth in Revolt (2009). He is married to Justine Arteta.

27. Ingmar Bergman

Writer | Persona

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 (...

28. Rodrigo Cortés

Director | Buried

Rodrigo Cortés was born in 1973 in Pazos Hermos, Ourense, Galicia, Spain. He is a director and editor, known for Buried (2010), Love Gets a Room (2021) and Red Lights (2012).

29. Christopher Nolan

Producer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed writer-director Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970, in London, England. Over the course of 15 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.

...

30. Sebastián Silva

Writer | Tyrel

Sebastián Silva was born on April 9, 1979 in Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile. He is a writer and director, known for Tyrel (2018), The Maid (2009) and Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013).

31. Emerald Fennell

Writer | Promising Young Woman

Emerald Lilly Fennell is an English actress, filmmaker, and writer. She has received many awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Fennell first ...

32. Geoffrey Fletcher

Writer | Precious

Initially working with a video camera and cast of toys and action figures, Geoffrey Fletcher began making films as a child. Those films in part led to his acceptance to NYU's Tisch Graduate Film Program, which he attended after his graduation from Harvard University. He has also apprenticed under ...

33. Ari Aster

Director | Hereditary

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

34. Thom Yorke

Soundtrack | Suspiria

Thom Yorke was born on October 7, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for Suspiria (2018), Children of Men (2006) and Motherless Brooklyn (2019). He was previously married to Rachel Owen.

35. Olivia Wilde

Actress | Tron

Actress and activist Olivia Wilde is a modern day renaissance woman, starring in many acclaimed film productions, while simultaneously giving back to the community.

She was born on March 10, 1984 in New York City. Her parents are Leslie Cockburn (née Leslie Corkill Redlich) and Andrew Cockburn. Her ...

36. Susanna Fogel

Writer | Booksmart

Susanna Fogel was born on October 8, 1980 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Booksmart (2019), The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018) and The Flight Attendant (2020).

37. Veena Sud

Producer | The Killing

Veena Sud was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Veena is a producer and writer, known for The Killing (2011), The Salton Sea (2016) and Seven Seconds (2018).