Favorite Directors

1. Robert E. Fulton

Robert E. Fulton was born on December 11, 1939. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Machu Picchu (1972), Swimming Stone (1982) and Path of Cessation (1974). He died on May 30, 2002 in Pleasant Mount, Pennsylvania, USA.

2. 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 ...

3. 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 (...

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...

the Coen bros

5. Guy Gilles

Director | Absences répétées

Guy Gilles was born on August 25, 1938 in Algiers, Alger, France [now Algeria]. He was a director and writer, known for Absences répétées (1972), Le clair de terre (1970) and Au pan coupé (1967). He died on February 3, 1996 in Paris, France.

6. 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 ...

7. Peter Mettler

Cinematographer | The Top of His Head

Peter Mettler was born on September 7, 1958 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a cinematographer and director who is known as an influential member of the 1980s Toronto New Wave. He is best known for his innovative documentaries Picture of Light (1994), Gambling, Gods and LSD (2002), and The End Of...

8. Ben Hecht

Writer | Notorious

Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood's and Broadway's greatest writers, won an Oscar for best original story for Underworld (1927) at the first Academy Awards in 1929 and had a hand in the writing of many classic films. He was nominated five more times for the best writing Oscar, winning (along with writing...

Ben Hecht (firstly), Charles MacArthur & Lee Garmes (secondly)

9. Akio Jissôji

Director | Shirubâ Kamen

Akio Jissôji was born on March 29, 1937 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Silver Mask (2006), This Transient Life (1970) and Shirubâ kamen (1971). He was married to Chisako Hara. He died on November 29, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan.

10. Nicole Rittenmeyer

Producer | 102 Minutes That Changed America

Nicole Rittenmeyer is known for 102 Minutes That Changed America (2008), Jonestown: The Women Behind the Massacre (2018) and How We Built the Bomb (2015).

Nicole Rittenmeyer & Seth Skundrick

11. 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 ...

12. Tetsuya Nakashima

Director | Kokuhaku

Tetsuya Nakashima was born on September 2, 1959 in Fukuoka, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Confessions (2010), Kiraware Matsuko no isshô (2006) and Kamikaze Girls (2004).

13. Johanna Vaude

Director | De l'Amort

Johanna Vaude is known for De l'Amort (2007), Blow up: Le web magazine cinéma d'Arte (2010) and Samouraï (2002).

14. Mani Kaul

Director | Duvidha

Mani Kaul was born on December 25, 1944 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. He was a director and writer, known for Duvidha (1973), Naukar Ki Kameez (1999) and Uski Roti (1970). He died on July 6, 2011 in New Delhi, India.

15. R. Bruce Elder

Director | The Art of Worldly Wisdom

R. Bruce Elder was born on June 11, 1947 in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and cinematographer, known for The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1979), Lamentations a Monument for the Dead World (1985) and The Book of All the Dead (1997).

16. 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...

17. Keiichi Hara

Director | Kappa no Kû to natsuyasumi

Born in Tatebayashi city. After working in a PR firm, joined Shin'Ei Animation Company in 1982. After doing animation tasks for the TV series "Doraemon" (created by Fujiko-Fujio), he was promoted to chief director with others TV series of the same creators, "ESPer Mami" (1987-88) and "21-Emon" (...

18. 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, ...

19. 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 ...

20. Birgit Hein

Director | Die unheimlichen Frauen

Birgit Hein was born on August 6, 1942 in Berlin, Germany. She was a director and writer, known for Die unheimlichen Frauen (1992), La moderna poesia (2000) and Baby, I Will Make You Sweat (1995). She was married to Wilhelm Hein. She died on February 23, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.

Wilhelm Hein & Birgit Hein (w&b hein)

21. Leighton Pierce

Director | Wood

Leighton Pierce is known for Wood (2000), Puppy-Go-Round (1996) and 50 Feet of String (2011).

22. Gregory J. Markopoulos

Director | Galini

Gregory J. Markopoulos was born on March 12, 1928 in Toledo, Ohio, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Galini (1958), Twice a Man (1963) and The Illiac Passion (1967). He died on November 12, 1992 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

23. Philippe Grandrieux

Director | Un lac

Philippe Grandrieux born 1954 is a French film director and screenwriter. Grandrieux was born in Saint-Étienne. He studied film at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle in Belgium. He exhibited his first video work at Galerie Albert Baronian, Bruxelles. In the 1980s, he worked in ...

24. 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...

25. 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), ...

26. 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...

27. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

28. Ulrich Seidl

Producer | Rimini

Ulrich Seidl was born on November 24, 1952 in Vienna, Austria. He is a producer and director, known for Rimini (2022), Paradise: Love (2012) and Goodnight Mommy (2014). He is married to Veronika Franz. They have two children.

29. Hélène Cattet

Director | Amer

Hélène Cattet was born in 1976 in Paris, France. She is a director and writer, known for Amer (2009), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013) and Let the Corpses Tan (2017).

Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani

30. Germaine Dulac

Director | Âme d'artiste

The daughter of a cavalry captain, she was raised by a grandmother in Paris, where she studied various forms of art with an emphasis on music and the opera. In 1905 she married engineer-novelist Marie-Louis Albert-Dulac and under his influence veered toward journalism. As one of the leading radical...

31. Jean Epstein

Director | La chute de la maison Usher

Jean Epstein was born on March 25, 1897 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Mauprat (1926) and Le lion des Mogols (1924). He died on April 2, 1953 in Paris, France.

32. Don Hertzfeldt

Director | World of Tomorrow

Don Hertzfeldt was born on August 1, 1976 in Fremont, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for World of Tomorrow (2015), It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011) and The Simpsons (1989).

33. Shane Carruth

Composer | Upstream Color

Writer-director Shane Carruth, a former software engineer, burst onto the independent movie scene with his extremely low-budget science-fiction film Primer (2004) in 2004. Carruth also played one of the two leads in the film and composed its music. "Primer" won the Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P...

34. Paul Clipson

Director | Hypnosis Display

Paul Clipson was a director and cinematographer, known for Hypnosis Display (2014), Lightmaze (2010) and Love's Refrain (2016). Paul died on February 3, 2018 in San Francisco, California, USA.

35. Allan King

Director | Dying at Grace

Allan King was born on February 6, 1930 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for Dying at Grace (2003), Warrendale (1967) and Avonlea (1990). He was married to Colleen Murphy. He died on June 15, 2009 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

36. 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 ...

37. Aleksandr Petrov

Director | Rusalka

He studied art at VGIK (state institute of cinema and TV). He was a disciple of Yuri Norstein at the Advanced School for screenwriters and directors (Moscow).

After making his first films in Russia, in Canada he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea (1999), resulting in a 20-minute animated ...

38. Bill Viola

Director | Hatsu yume

A pioneer in the medium of video art, Bill Viola's work explores the spiritual and perceptual side of human experience. Since 1970 he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances and pieces for television. Works include Hatsu yume (...

39. Johnnie To

Director | Hak se wooi

With over thirty directing and producing credits to his name, Johnnie To enjoyed international breakthroughs with Election (2005), Election 2 (2006) (aka "Triad Election") and Exiled (2006); those films enjoyed multiple international film festival appearances and were separately sold to more than ...

40. Harun Farocki

Director | Memories

The German film director, screenwriter and media artist Harun Farocki was born on the 9th January 1944 in Nový Jicín [Neutitschein], at that time a part of Czechoslovakia annexed by the Third Reich. He was the son of an immigrated Indian doctor and a German woman. Farocki first studied Theatre, ...

41. Helena Trestíková

Director | Forman vs. Forman

Helena Trestíková was born on June 22, 1949 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She is a director and writer, known for Forman vs. Forman (2019), Marcela (2007) and Anny (2020).

42. 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 ...

43. 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 ...

44. Ruben Östlund

Director | Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund was born on April 13, 1974 in Styrsö, Västra Götalands län, Sweden. He is a director and editor, known for Triangle of Sadness (2022), Force Majeure (2014) and The Square (2017). He was previously married to Andrea Östlund.

45. Joshua Oppenheimer

Director | The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer was born on September 23, 1974 in Texas, USA. He is a director and producer, known for The Act of Killing (2012), The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1998) and The Look of Silence (2014).

46. Lucrecia Martel

Director | La mujer sin cabeza

Born in 1966 in Salta in the North of Argentina,Lucrecia Martel settled down in Buenos Aires where she attended the ENERC (National Film School). She started by directing a few shorts among which Historias Breves I: Rey muerto (1995), which garnered several awards in the international film festival...

47. 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...

48. 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 ...

49. Helma Sanders-Brahms

Director | Deutschland bleiche Mutter

Helma Sanders-Brahms was born on November 20, 1940 in Emden, Province of Hanover, Prussia [now Lower Saxony], Germany. She was a director and writer, known for Germany Pale Mother (1980), No Mercy, No Future (1981) and Laputa (1986). She died on May 27, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

50. Raúl Ruiz

Director | La Telenovela Errante

Chilean director Raúl, or Raoul, Ruiz (1941-2011) was one of the most exciting and innovative filmmakers to emerge from 1960s World Cinema, providing more intellectual fun and artistic experimentation, shot for shot, than any filmmaker since Jean-Luc Godard. A guerrilla who uncompromisingly ...

51. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

52. Eric Pauwels

Director | Les films rêvés

Eric Pauwels was born on September 2, 1953 in Antwerpen, Flanders, Belgium. He is a director and writer, known for Dreaming Film (2010), Letter from a Filmmaker to His Daughter (2002) and La deuxième nuit (2016).

53. Marcel L'Herbier

Director | L'inhumaine

Marcel L'Herbier was born on April 23, 1888 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for L'inhumaine (1924), Le bonheur (1934) and Sacrifice d'honneur (1935). He was married to Marcelle Pradot. He died on November 26, 1979 in Paris, France.

54. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

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

55. Dorota Kedzierzawska

Director | Nic

Dorota Kedzierzawska was born on June 1, 1957 in Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland. She is a director and writer, known for Nothing (1998), Time to Die (2007) and Crows (1994).

56. Park Chan-wook

Director | Oldeuboi

Park Chan-wook was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a producer and director, known for Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022). He is married to Eun-hee Kim. They have one child.

57. 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 ...

58. Anja Dornieden

Director | Her Name Was Europa

Anja Dornieden is known for Her Name Was Europa (2020), The Masked Monkeys (2016) and Comfort Stations (2018).

Anja Dornieden & Juan David González Monroy

59. Antoine d'Agata

Director | Aka Ana

Antoine d'Agata is known for Aka Ana (2008), El cielo del muerto (2005) and White Noise (2019).

60. Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Director | De humani corporis fabrica

Lucien Castaing-Taylor is known for The Fabric of the Human Body (2022), Leviathan (2012) and Caniba (2017).

Lucien Castain-Taylor & Verena Paravel

61. Georges Schwizgebel

Director | L'homme sans ombre

Georges Schwizgebel was born on September 28, 1944 in Reconvilier, Bern, Switzerland. He is a director and writer, known for L'homme sans ombre (2004), Fugue (1999) and Darwin's Notebook (2020).

62. Nicolas Philibert

Director | Être et avoir

Nicolas Philibert was born on January 10, 1951 in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. He is a director and writer, known for To Be and to Have (2002), La Maison de la radio (2013) and In the Land of the Deaf (1992).

63. Franco Piavoli

Director | Al primo soffio di vento

Franco Piavoli was born on June 21, 1933 in Pozzolengo, Lombardy, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Al primo soffio di vento (2002), The Blue Planet (1982) and Voices Through Time (1996). He is married to Neria Poli. They have one child.

64. 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, ...

65. 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 ...

66. Marc Hurtado

Director | Le saut

Marc Hurtado was born in 1962. He is a director and producer, known for Le saut (2013), The Infinite Mercy Film (2009) and Infinite Dreamers (2015).

67. 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...

68. Jürgen Reble

Director | Rumpelstilzchen

Jürgen Reble was born in 1956 in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a director and editor, known for Rumpelstilzchen (1989), Passion (1990) and Das Goldene Tor (1992).

69. Martin Arnold

Director | Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy

Born 1959 in Vienna. Studied Psychology and History of Art at Vienna University. Free-lance film maker since 1987. Founding member of Sixpack Film. Organisor of several avant-garde film festivals in Vienna. Presentation of a selection of Austrian avant-garde films at American cinematheques in 1990....

70. Tony Scott

Producer | Domino

Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British...

71. 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...

72. Michael Snow

Director | Wavelength

Central figure of the American avant-garde. An artist who made an isolated animated short, A to Z (1956), Snow concentrated on his painting career until moving to New York in 1963. After attending avant-garde film screenings organized by critic-filmmaker Jonas Mekas and turning out a second film, ...

73. 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). ...

74. Sacha Guitry

Writer | Les perles de la couronne

French actor, dramatist and director, Sacha Guitry was born in 1885 in Saint-Petersburg where his father, actor Lucien Guitry, was under contract with the city's French theater. Early on, Sacha knew he was going to be an artist. Therefore, his studies were mediocre.

His acting debuts were not too ...

75. Andrew Dominik

Director | Chopper

Andrew Dominik was born on October 7, 1967 in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a director and writer, known for Chopper (2000), Blonde (2022) and Killing Them Softly (2012).

76. Luigi Bazzoni

Director | Di domenica

Luigi Bazzoni was born on June 25, 1929 in Salsomaggiore Terme, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Di domenica (1963), The Possessed (1965) and The Fifth Cord (1971). He died on March 1, 2012 in Salsomaggiore Terme, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

77. 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 ...

78. Bi Gan

Director | Diqiu zuihou de yewan

Bi Gan is known for Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018), Kaili Blues (2015) and A Short Story (2022).

79. Slavko Vorkapich

Director | Hanka

Slavko Vorkapich was born on March 17, 1894 in Dobrinci near Sremska Mitrovica, Austria-Hungary [now Serbia]. He was a director, known for Hanka (1955), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and The Past of Mary Holmes (1933). He died on October 20, 1976 in Mijas, Málaga, Andalucía, Spain.

80. Guy Debord

Writer | In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni

Guy Debord was born on December 28, 1931 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (1978), Howlings in Favour of De Sade (1952) and Fuerza nueva: Canción para los obreros de Seat (2019). He was married to Alice Becker-Ho and Michele ...

81. 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. ...

82. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Producer | Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul on January 26th, 1959. In 1976, he began studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, in a context of strong student unrest, boycotts and political polarization. In 1978, he switched courses to Electrical Engineering at Bogazici University. ...

83. Trey Parker

Music_department | South Park

Trey was born in Conifer, Colorado, on October 19, 1969 to Randy Parker, a geologist, and Sharon Parker, an insurance broker. He has an older sister, Shelley Parker. He met Matt Stone (co-creator of South Park (1997)) while attending the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he had a double ...

84. Lana Wachowski

Writer | The Matrix

Lana Wachowski and her sister Lilly Wachowski, also known as the Wachowskis, are the duo behind such ground-breaking movies as The Matrix (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2012). Born to mother Lynne, a nurse, and father Ron, a businessman of Polish descent, Wachowski grew up in Chicago and formed a tight ...

the Wachowski starship

85. Ferdinand Khittl

Director | Das magische Band

Ferdinand Khittl was born on January 20, 1924 in Frantiskovy Lázne, Czechoslovakia. He was a director and writer, known for Das magische Band (1960), Eine Stadt feiert Geburtstag (1959) and Auf geht's (1956). He died on February 28, 1976.

86. Oliver Stone

Director | JFK

Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.

William Oliver Stone was ...

87. Trinh T. Minh-ha

Director | What About China?

Trinh T. Minh-ha was born in 1952 in Hanoi, Vietnam. She is a director and writer, known for What About China? (2022), Shoot for the Contents (1991) and Night Passage (2004).

88. Zack Snyder

Director | 300

Zachary Edward "Zack" Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter, best known for action and science fiction films. Snyder made his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead and has gone on to be known for his comic book movies and ...

89. Louis C.K.

Writer | Louie

Louis C.K. was born on September 12, 1967 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Louie (2010), American Hustle (2013) and Horace and Pete (2016). He was previously married to Alix Bailey.

90. Piotr Kamler

Director | Chronopolis

Piotr Kamler was born on June 30, 1936 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland. He is a director and writer, known for Chronopolis (1982), The Hole (1969) and The Step (1975).

91. Saul Bass

Director | Why Man Creates

Saul Bass was born in New York City in 1920 and is a widely acclaimed graphic designer with a career spanning over 40 years. Among his most famous works are the title sequences for such classic films as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Bass used his ...

92. Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Producer | Erde

Nikolaus Geyrhalter was born in 1972 in Vienna, Austria. He is a producer and director, known for Earth (2019), Over the Years (2015) and Our Daily Bread (2005).

93. Larry Jordan

Director | Hildur and the Magician

Larry Jordan was born in 1934 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Hildur and the Magician (1971), The Apparition (1976) and The Grove (1993).

94. Edgar Wright

Director | Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg...

95. Nathan Fielder

Writer | The Curse

Nathan Fielder is a writer, director and comedian from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known for his hit television series Nathan for You which debuted in 2013 on Comedy Central.

His other credits include The Simpsons, Transparent, Bob's Burgers, Kroll Show, Rick and Morty, Jon Benjamin Has ...

96. Maren Ade

Producer | Toni Erdmann

Maren Ade was born in Karlsruhe on 12 December 1976 to a couple of teachers.She studied cinema at Munich's Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film. As of 2001 she co-founded, together with Janine Jackowski, a fellow graduate from HFF, the "Komplizen" film company. It is through Komplizen that Maren would...

97. Bill Morrison

Director | Dawson City: Frozen Time

Bill Morrison was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a director and editor, known for Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016), The Great Flood (2013), The Miners' Hymns (2011), Spark of Being (2010), Light Is Calling (2004) and Decasia (2002). Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) won a Critics' Choice Award ...

98. 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,...

99. Paolo Sorrentino

Writer | È stata la mano di Dio

Director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, and and became an orphan when he lost both of his parents at the age of 16. At the age of 25, after studying for a few years at the Faculty of Economics and Business in University of Naples Federico II, he decided to work in the...

100. Antonio Campos

Producer | The Staircase

Antonio Campos is an American filmmaker

Campos made his feature-length debut on Afterschool, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was later acquired by IFC Films. It was released in a limited release on October 2, 2009. Campos then went on to direct Simon Killer. The ...