My 100 Favorite Directors

1. Akira Kurosawa

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...

2. 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 ...

3. 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 ...

4. Arash Moayerian

Director | Khaltoor

Arash Moayerian is known for The Potboiler (2017), The Charlatan (2005) and The Redtails (2018).

5. Milos Forman

Director | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman was born Jan Tomas Forman in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, to Anna (Svabova), who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. During World War II, his parents were taken away by the Nazis, after being accused of participating in the underground resistance. His father died in ...

6. Billy Wilder

Actor | Critical Rescue

Billy Wilder is known for Critical Rescue (2003), Diagnosis: Unknown (2002) and The F.B.I. Files (1998).

7. Mohammad Kart

Director | Shena-ye Parvaneh

Mohammad Kart is known for Drown (2020), The Rebel (2022) and Bruise (2014).

8. Hossein Rahmani Manesh

Actor | Major

Hossein Rahmani Manesh is a singer, songwriter, musician, film composer and actor. Hossein started his career at a young age and with the establishment of Aryan Star Company in 2019, he officially entered the field of music and production. and he uses it as a nickname. Most of his works are known ...

9. Asghar Farhadi

Writer | Forooshande

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...

10. 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.

11. 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 ...

12. Mani Haghighi

Actor | Paziraie sadeh

Mani Haghighi is an Iranian film director, writer, film producer, and actor. Haghighi started making movies in 2001.

Haghighi was educated in Iran and, from the age of 15, Appleby College in Canada. He took a BA in philosophy at McGill University in Montréal, where he studied under Charles Taylor ...

13. Fereydoun Jeyrani

Writer | Khafegi

Fereydoun Jeyrani is known for Asphyxia (2017), Red (1999) and The Last Supper (2002).

14. Abdolreza Kahani

Director | Bist

Abdolreza Kahani is an award-wining Iranian director. He has a Master of Art in theatre from the University of Tehran. Kahani's career began by making experimental short films and documentaries at the age of thirteen. His first feature film "Dance with the Moon" was debuted in 2004. Kahani created ...

15. Peyman Ghassemkhani

Writer | Marmoulak

Peyman Ghassemkhani was born on January 20, 1967 in Tehran, Iran. He is a writer and actor, known for The Lizard (2004), The Monster (2019) and The Good, the Bad, the Corny (2017). He was previously married to Bahareh Rahnama.

16. Mehrab Ghasemkhani

Writer | Katyusha

Mehrab Ghasemkhani is known for Katyusha (2018), Saint Petersburg (2010) and Dorehami (2016).

17. Mehran Ahmadi

Actor | The Bright Day

Mehran Ahmadi was born on February 28, 1974 in Tehran, Iran. He is an actor and director, known for The Bright Day (2013), Unknown (2023) and Sag Band (2022).

18. Mostafa Kiaei

Director | Hamgonah

Mostafa Kiaei is known for The Accomplice (2020), Bulletproof (2012) and Ice Age (2015).

19. 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 ...

20. Payman Maadi

Actor | Jodaeiye Nader az Simin

Peyman Maadi was born in 1972 in New York City to an Iranian couple. His father was a lawyer. His family moved back to Iran when he was 5 years old. He graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from Karaj Azad University. Maadi started his film career as a screenwriter in late 2000s. He is the writer ...

21. 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 ...

22. Martin Scorsese

Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon

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 ...

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.

24. Zoltán Fábri

Director | Húsz óra

He was born in 1917 and between the two World War he finished his primary and secondary school. After them he graduated in the College of Fine Arts, which helped him later to be a production-designer. He liked to learn and joined the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. He bacame a director and actor....

25. Dariush Mehrjui

Director | Gaav

Dariush Mehrjui was born to a middle-class family in Tehran. He showed interest in painting miniatures, music, and playing santoor and piano. He spent a lot of time going to the movies, particularly American films which were un-dubbed and inter-spliced with explanatory title cards that explained ...

26. Masoud Dehnamaki

Director | Deportees 3

Masoud Dehnamaki is an Iranian filmmaker , holding numerous box-office records .

Dehnamaki says that he was a member of the decimated army that liberated Khoramshahr in 1982 - a decisive turning point in Iran-Iraq war . In his interview to CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour , he said that the war...

27. Kar-Wai Wong

Director | Yi dai zong shi

Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong ...

28. 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 ...

29. Sergio Leone

Actor | L'uomo del labirinto

Sergio Leone is known for Into the Labyrinth (2019), The Final Sacrifice: Directors Cut (2022) and Le acrobate (1997).

30. Takeshi Kitano

Animation_department | Reiton-kyoju to Cho-Bunmei E no Isan

Takeshi Kitano is known for Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (2013).

31. Mehran Modiri

Director | Pavarchin

Mehran Modiri is considered to be the leading artist in social satire in Iran. His various series which have been broadcast through IRIB have set records in terms of viewership (an estimated 85% viewership when he is on air), as well as make him a popular personality among masses. In 2008 Modiri ...

Dorehami Ghahve Talkh Bagh Mozaffar

32. 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 ...

33. 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 ...

My Life to Live 9/10 Pierrot le fou 8/10 Masculin féminin 8/10 Contempt 8/10 Band of Outsiders 8/10 Breathless 8/10 A Woman Is a Woman 8/10 A Married Woman 7/10 Le Petit Soldat 7/10 Week End 7/10 Alphaville 7/10 Charlotte et son Jules 7/10 Charlotte et Véronique 7/10 Une histoire d'eau 7/10 Ten Minutes Older: The Cello - "segment" 6/10

34. Narges Abyar

Director | Shabi Ke Mah Kamel Shod

Narges Abyar graduated in Persian literature; She started writing books in 1997. Up to the present, she has written more than thirty story and fiction books for children, young adults and adults. She was selected as an Oscar Academy member in 2020.

Her famous novels are namely: . Mountain on the ...

35. Shahed Ahmadloo

Director | Morchekhar

Shahed Ahmadloo is known for Ant Eater (2020), Cinema Donkey (2019) and Crystal Rain (2010).

36. Manouchehr Ahmadi

Director | Rast-ghamatan

Manouchehr Ahmadi is known for Rast-ghamatan (1982).

37. 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 ...

38. Yimou Zhang

Director | Ying xiong

Yimou Zhang was born on November 14, 1951 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. He is a director and writer, known for Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He has been married to Ting Chen since December 2011. They have three children. He was previously married to ...

39. Homayoon Ass'adian

Director | Tala va mes

Homayoon Ass'adian is known for Gold and Copper (2010), Kissing the Moon-Like Face (2012) and A Special Day (2017).

40. Javad Razavian

Actor | Pavarchin

Javad Razavian is known for On Tiptoes (2002), On the Side Lines (2015) and Snake Venom (2019).

41. Houman Seyyedi

Writer | Jang-e jahani sevom

Houman Seyyedi is an Iranian actor, director, screenwriter and editor. He has received various accolades, including six Crystal Simorghs-making him the only director to have three wins in Special Jury Prize category-two Hafez Awards, five Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Awards, a NETPAC...

42. Behruz Afkhami

Director | Azar, Shahdokht, Parviz va digaran

Behruz Afkhami was born in 1956 in Tehran, Iran. He is a director and writer, known for Azar, Shahdokht, Parviz and Others (2014), The River's End (2003) and The Morning of the Execution (2024).

43. Robert Altman

Dishonored

Robert Altman was born on February 23, 1947 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was an executive, known for Dishonored (2012), Prey (2017) and The Evil Within 2 (2017). He was married to Lynda Carter. He died on February 4, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

44. 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 ...

45. Sirus Alvand

Director | Yek-bar-baraye-hamishe

Sirus Alvand was born on January 31, 1951 in Tehran, Iran. He is a writer and director, known for Once for Ever (1993), Hotel carton (1997) and Bandari (1973).

46. Parisa Bakhtavar

Director | Yadashthaye koodaki

Parisa Bakhtavar is an Iranian film and television director. She is famous for her television series, Posht-e Konkooriha, which followed the lives of high school seniors studying for their college entrance exams. Her first film, Dayere-ye Zangi is a comedy filmed in Tehran starring Mehran Modiri.

...

47. 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 ...

48. Marzieh Boroomand

Director | Alo!Alo! Man joojoo-am

Marzieh Boroomand is known for Hello! Hello! This Is Juju (1995), City of Mice (1986) and Detective Shamsi and Her Assistant Madam (2001).

49. Rakhshan Banietemad

Director | Zir-e poost-e shahr

Graduated in the field of film directing from The Faculty of Dramatic Arts and joined the Iranian TV in 1973 beginning her career as continuity girl and assistant director. Later on, she made a number of short documentaries and directed her first picture 'Kharej az Mahdudeh (1986)'. Her next films ...

50. Maziar Miri

Director | Gradually

He, Maziar Miri, was born on 1 February 1974 in Darband neighborhood in Tehran.

He graduated in Film Editing, and started working in Editing Dept of Channel 2 IRIB in 1995. After making a few short films, working as an assistant in the cinema, and editing a few films and serials, He made His first ...

51. Bahram Beyzaie

Writer | Sagkoshi

Bahram Beizai started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to movies which were becoming popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only fed his hunger to learn more about cinema and the visual arts. By 1961 he had already spent a lot of time studying-and researching- ancient persian...

52. 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 ...

53. Jafar Panahi

Director | Taxi

Jafar Panahi (Born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved ...

54. Kiumars Poorahmad

Director | Otobuse shab

Kiumars Poorahmad was born on December 16, 1949 in Najafabad, Iran. He was a director and writer, known for Night Bus (2007), The Double Lottie (1996) and Where Are My Shoes? (2016). He was married to Mehraneh Rabi. He died on April 5, 2023 in Bandar-e Anzali, Gilan, Iran.

55. Kamal Tabrizi

Director | Marmoulak

Kamal Mosaffa-ye Tabrizi is an Iranian film director. He was born in Tehran, with his parents having moved there from Tabriz. Kamal Tabrizi graduated from Tehran University of Art at Faculty of Cinema and Theater. He began his career with directing, writing and editing short films in 1980. His ...

56. 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,...

57. Nasser Taghvai

Director | Kaghaz-e bikhat

Naser Taghvai is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. Naser Taghvai was born in Abadan, Iran. After early experiences as a story writer, he began filming documentaries in 1967. He made his debut, Tranquility in the Presence of Others, in 1970 and gained the attention of Iranian critics. He ...

58. Bahram Tavakoli

Writer | Man Diego Maradona hastam

Bahram Tavakoli is an Iranian film director. Winning numerous awards, he is a well-established filmmaker of the new generation of Iranian cinema. One of his most successful works is 'Here without Me (2011). It is a breathtaking adaptation of Tennessee Williams 'The Glass Menagerie' which was not ...

59. 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 ...

60. Ebrahim Hatamikia

Director | Be name pedar

Ebrahim Hatamikia, who is internationally renowned for his role in the cinema of Iran in the 1990s, was born in 1961 in Tehran, Iran from an Azarbaijani's family. He left the Art University where he studied script writing. He began his directing career with the film "The Identity" in 1986 and some ...

61. Rouhollah Hejazi

Director | Otaghe Tarik

Rouhollah Hejazi is known for The Dark Room (2018), Among the Clouds (2008) and Death of the Fish (2015).

62. Reza Attaran

Actor | I Feel Sleepy

Reza Attaran was born in Mashhad, Khorasan, I.R.Iran. He is an Iranian actor, singer, writer and director. He has appeared in both films and television shows. Attaran won the Best Actor award at the 2008 Gol Aga Comedy Film Festival. He made his big introduction in 1995 when he was cast in Saate ...

63. Kore-eda Hirokazu

Director | Manbiki kazoku

Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), ...

64. Mehrdad Khoshbakht

Director | Sedaye paye man

Mehrdad Khoshbakht is known for The Sound of My Foot (2011), Damascus Under Fire (2018) and Jaye Oo Digar Khali Nist (2005).

65. Abolhassan Davoodi

Director | Rokhe Divaneh

Abolhassan Davoodi is known for Crazy Rook (2015), Motherland (2009) and Pickpockets Don't Go to Heaven (1992).

66. Michael Haneke

Writer | Caché

A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...

67. Pouran Derakhshandeh

Director | Hiss Dokhtarha Faryad Nemizanand

Pouran Derakhshandeh was born in 1951 in Iran. She is a director and producer, known for Hush! Girls Don't Scream (2013), Under the Smoky Roof (2017) and Little Bird of Happiness (1988).

68. Kazem Rast Goftar

Director | Chek

Kazem Rast Goftar is known for Cheque (2012), The Lucky Bride (2002) and Mask (2005).

69. Shahla Riahi

Actress | Marjan

Shahla Riahi was born on February 7, 1927 in Tehran, Iran. She was an actress and director, known for Marjan (1956), The Carriage Driver (1971) and Guilty (1953). She was married to Esmaeil Riyahi. She died on December 31, 2019 in Tehran, Iran.

70. 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 ...

71. Saman Salur

Director | Chand kilo khorma baraye marassem-e tadfin

Saman Salur is known for A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral (2006), Lonely Tunes of Tehran (2008) and From the Land of Silence (2004).

72. 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....

73. Farajollah Salahshoor

Director | Ayyub-e Payambar

Farajollah Salahshoor was an Iranian film director. He was born in 1952 in Qazvin. He began his career as an actor but later he directed several popular religious films and TV series including Ayoub e Payambar (film), The Men of Angelos (about Seven Sleepers) and Yousuf e Payambar (film). He had a ...

74. 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 ...

75. Saeed Soheili

Director | Chahar-angoshti

Saeed Soheili is known for Four Fingered (2007), Pig Gene (2019) and Marriage in the Extra Time (2010).

76. Hossein Shahabi

Director | The Bright Day

Hossein Shahabi was an Iranian film director, screenwriter and film producer. He was born in 1967 in Tabriz, Iran. After graduating, he studied classical music at Tehran University then spent a few years teaching music. In 1996, he made his first (short) film (Hundred Times Hundred), on the ...

77. Soroush Saeidi

Actor | Kingdom Come

Soroush Saeidi was born in London, England. He is an actor, producer and the youngest of 3 brother's. Having lived in various cities of the world such as London, Toronto, NY & Dubai he is truly a citizen of the world. He has studied Theatre at York University, and also holds a BBA in Management.

78. Ghodratollah Solh Mirzayi

Director | Zendegi shirin

Ghodratollah Solh Mirzayi is known for Sweet Life (2009), A Flower for the Bride (2005) and The Little Man (1994).

79. Kaneto Shindô

Writer | Ichimai no hagaki

Kaneto Shindô was born on April 22, 1912 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Postcard (2010), The Naked Island (1960) and A Last Note (1995). He was married to Nobuko Otowa and Miyo Shindo. He died on May 29, 2012 in Hiroshima, Japan.

80. Iraj Tahmasb

Actor | Zir-e Derakht-e Holou

Born in Tehran Iran in 1959, Iraj Tahmasb graduated from the University of Tehran in Dramatic Arts and Theatre, where he is now teaching the Masters Program. As a teenager Tahmasb taught puppetry, script writing and film making in varies institutes. His active professional career began in 1979 when...

81. 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 ...

82. Ali Atshani

Director | Paper Dream

Ali Atshani was born in Isfahan. His first cinematic attempt was during his high school years. It was a short movie called "Namaye Entezar" , which was chosen for the second annual 100 movie festival.

By the time he entered the university to study computer engineering, he had completed some short ...

83. Hasan Fathi

Director | Shahrzad

Hasan Fathi is known for Shahrzad (2015), Jeyran (2022) and The Postman Doesn't Knock 3 Times (2009).

84. 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 ...

85. Bahman Farmanara

Director | Booye kafoor, atre yas

Bahman Farmanara is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Bahman Farmanara is the second son in a family of four brothers and one sister. The family business was Textile and he was the only son who did not join the business and went off to United Kingdom and later on to United ...

86. Dariush Farhang

Director | Telesm

Dariush Farhang is known for The Spell (1987), The Psycho (1997) and The Path of Glory (1994). He has been married to Rozita Arbabian since 1999. They have one child. He was previously married to Susan Taslimi.

87. Iraj Ghaderi

Actor | Leilaj

Iraj Ghaderi was born in 1935 in Tehran, Iran. He was an actor and director, known for Leilaj (1966), Sam and Nargess (2000) and Claws in the Dust (1997). He was married to Kobra Etminan. He died on May 6, 2012 in Tehran, Iran.

88. Bahman Ghobadi

Director | Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand

Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even ...

89. Niki Karimi

Director | Yek shab

Born in 1971 in Tehran, Niki Karimi is the most famous, internationally acclaimed Actress and filmmaker in Iran. She began her work as an actress with films such as "Sara" by Dariush Mehrjouii, which she won best actress award at "San Sebastian" film festival and in "Nantes film festival in 1992. ...

90. 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,...

91. Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Writer | Gabbeh

Mohsen Makhmalbaf is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.

Many of his films like Salam Cinema, A Moment Of Innocence, Gabbeh, Kandahar and The President have been widely well received across the globe and have brought him ...

92. Ali Mosaffa

Actor | Le passé

Mosaffa was born in Tehran, Iran. His father, Mozaher Mosaffa is a renowned Persian poet and professor of Persian literature at the University of Tehran (UT). Mosaffa's mother, Amir Banoo Karimi is also a leading scholar and professor of Persian literature at the University of Tehran (UT) and the ...

93. Tsai Ming-liang

Director | Qingshaonian Nuozha

Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His ...

94. 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 ...

95. Reza Mirkarimi

Producer | Be hamin sadegi

Reza Mirkarimi was born in 1967 in Tehran and graduated from the Fine Arts University in Graphic Arts. His cinema activities began in 1987 with a series of shorts followed by two TV series aimed at young people. His 1999 first feature, 'The Child and The Soldier', has won several national and ...

96. Tahmineh Milani

Writer | Nimeye Penhan

Tahmineh Milani (born 1 September 1960) is a professional film director, screenwriter, and producer who came to the limelight by breaking all the traditional and conventional norms about women and their presence in Iran's society. Being sentenced to prison have not stopped her from expressing their...

97. Mohamad Ali Najafi

Director | Jong-e Athar

Mohamad Ali Najafi is known for Damn for Those Who Cries (1979), The Other (2010) and Prowling in the Azure City (2015).

98. 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). ...

99. Pedro Almodóvar

Writer | Hable con ella

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study ...

100. 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. ...