Top 250 Directors by IMDB Rating - IMDb

12/10/2020 Top 250 directors by IMDB rating - IMDb
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by komutanucantekme | created - 31 Aug 2012 | updated - 14 Oct 2014 | Public
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
Top 250 directors, based on their ratings on IMDB (and NOT on my personal taste). The
higher number of good films, and the higher ratings for each film, mean higher ratings for the
director. This is more of a poll of popularity than of greatness. Just because your favorite List Activity
director is ranked 195th in this list doesn't mean he is an embarrassment to cinema. Views: 238.844 | in last week 247
250 names Tell Your Friends

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1. Ertem Egilmez Feedback? Tell us what you think about

this feature.
Producer | Canim Kardesim
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2. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
Rotten Tomatoes: Top
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale 100 Classic Movies
paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an a list of 100 titles
assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with A
Saga do Judô (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved
sufficient stature to allow him ...
Rotten Tomatoes: Top
100 Art House &
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a list of 100 titles
Sato Tadao's Favorite

Films
3. Alfred Hitchcock a list of 35 titles
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex,

England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) See all lists by komutanucantekme »
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 ...
4. Ingmar Bergman
Writer | Persona
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a
priest. The film and T.V. series, As Melhores Intenções (1992) is
biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The
film 'Söndagsbarn' depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In
the miniseries Enskilda samtal (...
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls008344500/ 1/18
5. 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, ...
6. 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 ...
7. Christopher Nolan
Writer | Interstellar
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.
...
8. 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 ...
9. Martin Scorsese
Director | Taxi Driver
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 ...
10. William Wyler

Director | Ben-Hur
William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his

death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to
John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three
Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four,
Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...
11. Yasujirô Ozu

Director | 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 ...
12. 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 ...
13. 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...
14. Hayao Miyazaki

Director | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors.

The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking
animation in his films have earned him international renown from
critics as well as public recognition within Japan. The Walt Disney
Company's commitment to introduce the ...
15. 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 ...
16. Mani Ratnam

Writer | Dil Se..
The man who revolutionized Tamil-language cinema, Mani

Ratnam is the biggest director in south India and one of the most
respected directors in all of India. Each of his films contain its
own unique style, with beautifully photographed songs and
unique back-lighting. However, his films contain ...
17. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side

town in New Zealand in 1961. When a friend of his parents
bought him a super 8 movie camera (because she saw how much
he enjoyed taking photos), the then eight-year-old Peter instantly
grabbed the thing to start recording his own movies,...
18. 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 ...
19. 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 ...
20. 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...
21. Howard Hawks

Director | Red River
What do the classic films Scarface: A Vergonha de uma Nação

(1932), Suprema Conquista (1934), Levada da Breca (1938), O
Paraíso Infernal (1939), Jejum de Amor (1940), Sargento York
(1941), Uma Aventura na Martinica (1944), À Beira do Abismo
(1946), Rio Vermelho (1948) Os...
22. 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. ...
23. 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
...
24. Frank Capra

Director | It's a Wonderful Life
One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in
Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America
aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd.
"There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all
miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...
25. 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),
Rebelião (1967) and Guerra e Humanidade: Não há Amor Maior
(1959). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.
26. George Cukor

Director | My Fair Lady
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish

descent, better known for directing comedies and literary
adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director,
and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side
of...
27. 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, ...
28. 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 ...
29. Jean-Luc Godard

Director | Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux
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 ...
30. Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer | Solyaris
The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei M. Eisenstein,

Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky)
studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet
film school V.G.I.K. He shot to international attention with his
first feature, A Infância de Ivan (1962),...
31. Elia Kazan

Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias
Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman
Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best
dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to
Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
32. Woody Allen

Writer | Manhattan
Woody Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg on December 1,

1935 in Brooklyn, New York, to Nettie (Cherrie), a bookkeeper,
and Martin Konigsberg, a waiter and jewellery engraver. His
father was of Russian Jewish descent, and his maternal
grandparents were Austrian Jewish immigrants. As a young boy...
33. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General
Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua,

Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were
Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act,
giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the
earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...
34. Federico Fellini

Writer | Amarcord
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 ...
35. 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 A...
36. Leonid Gaidai

Director | Brilliantovaya ruka
Leonid Iovich Gaidai was born on January 30, 1923, in the town
of Svobodny, Amur region of Siberia, USSR. He was the third
child in the family of a railroad worker. His father, named Iov
Isidorovich Gaidai, was exiled to Siberia from Poltava, Ukraine.
His mother, named Maria Ivanovna Lubimova, came...
37. Michael Curtiz

Director | Casablanca
Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native

Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career
in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he
directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in
1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner...
38. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, the son
of Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later
manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and
Ruth Wood, a housewife turned IBM operator. He had a
comfortable, middle-class upbringing in nearby Piedmont. At
school ...
39. Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Director | Anand
By no means is he any glamorous director, yet Hrishikesh

Mukherjee is one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in
Indian cinema. His magic lay not in the glamor or largeness so
often associated with cinema, but in its simplicity and warmth.
He began his career in Bombay, 1951, as an editor and...
40. 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,...
41. Mervyn LeRoy

Director | Gypsy
The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a

tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy. While he and his father managed to
survive, they lost everything they had. To make money, LeRoy
sold newspapers and entered talent contests as a singer. When
he entered vaudeville, his act was "LeRoy and Cooper--Two...
42. Eldar Ryazanov

Director | Nebesa obetovannye
Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov was born on November 18, 1927

in Samara, Russia. He graduated with honors from the Soviet
State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1950, as a film
director. He was making documentaries for five years. In 1955
Ryazanov came to work at the Mosfilm Studios under the ...
43. Mario Monicelli

Writer | I compagni
Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
He was a writer and director, known for Os Companheiros
(1963), Tomara Que Seja Mulher (1986) and A Grande Guerra
(1959). He was married to Antonella Salerni and Chiara
Rapaccini. He died on November 29, 2010 in Rome.
44. King Vidor

Director | The Crowd
King Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and

screenwriter of Hungarian descent. He was born in Galveston,
Texas to lumberman Charles Shelton Vidor and his wife Kate
Wallis. King's paternal grandfather Károly (Charles) Vidor had
fled Hungary as a refugee following the failed ...
45. Ethan Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Ethan Coen was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis,

Minnesota, USA as Ethan Jesse Coen. He is a producer and
writer, known for A Balada de Buster Scruggs (2018), Um
Homem Sério (2009) and Inside Llewyn Davis: Balada de um
Homem Comum (2013). He has been married to Tricia Cooke
since ...
46. Slobodan Sijan

Director | Ko to tamo peva
Slobodan Sijan was born on November 16, 1946 in Belgrade,

Serbia, Yugoslavia. He is a director, known for Quem Está
Cantando Aí? (1980), Maratonci trce pocasni krug (1982) and O
Duelo (1984).
47. 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 ...
48. Ridley Scott

Producer | The Martian
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye

in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30,
1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear (then County Durham).
His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family
followed him as his career posted him ...
49. Sam Wood

Director | A Night at the Opera
Following a two-year apprenticeship under Cecil B. DeMille as

assistant director, Samuel Grosvenor Wood had the good fortune
to have assigned to him two of the biggest stars at Paramount
during their heyday: Wallace Reid (between 1919 and 1920) and
Gloria Swanson (from 1921 to 1923). By the time ...
50. Luchino Visconti

Writer | Rocco e i suoi fratelli
Luchino Visconti was born on November 2, 1906 in Milan,

Lombardy, Italy as Luchino Visconti di Modrone. He was a writer
and director, known for Rocco e Seus Irmãos (1960), Morte em
Veneza (1971) and Noites Brancas (1957). He died on March 17,
1976 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
51. 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 Herói (2002), O Clã
das Adagas Voadoras (2004) and A Maldição da Flor Dourada
(2006). He has been married to Ting Chen since December 2011.
They have three children...
52. Kenji Mizoguchi

Director | Saikaku ichidai onna
Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the

production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female
roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first
film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent
era, only his last 12 productions are really known ...
53. Frank Darabont

Writer | The Green Mile
Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee

camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian
parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian
revolution. Brought to America as an infant, he settled with his
family in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High ...
54. 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. ...
55. Robert Zemeckis

Writer | Back to the Future
A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp

of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films).
Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier
films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Tudo por uma
Esmeralda (1984), 1941: Uma Guerra Muito Louca (...
56. Emir Kusturica

Director | Underground
A Serbian film director. Born in 1954 in Sarajevo. Graduated in

film directing at the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts
(FAMU) in Prague in 1978. During his studies, he was awarded
several times for his short movies including Guernica (1978),
which took first prize at the Student's Film ...
57. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane
His father was a well-to-do inventor, his mother a beautiful

concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic,
piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died (he was six) he
traveled the world with his father. He was orphaned at 15 after
his father's death and became the ward of Dr. ...
58. Raoul Walsh

Director | Sadie Thompson
Raoul Walsh's 52-year directorial career made him a Hollywood

legend. Walsh was also an actor: He appeared in the first version
of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" renamed Sedução do Pecado
(1928) opposite Gloria Swanson in the title role. He would have
played the Cisco Kid in his own film...
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. Anurag Kashyap

Producer | Gangs of Wasseypur
Anurag Singh Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian

film director, producer and screenwriter. Kashyap made his
directorial debut with as yet unreleased Paanch, with Kay Kay
Menon as the lead. As a filmmaker, he is known for Black Friday
(2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film ...
61. Jean-Pierre Melville

Actor | À bout de souffle
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 ...
62. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar
James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in

Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in
1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California
State University before switching to English, and eventually
dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...
63. 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 ...
64. 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 ...
65. Michael Powell

Director | The Red Shoes
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 ...
66. Georgiy Daneliya

Director | Kin-dza-dza!
Georgi Daneliya was born on August 25, 1930 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Since 1939 the family lived in Moscow, where Danelia's father
was the chief engineer for the Moscow Underground Metro
System. Daneliya's father became a decorated WWII General,
specializing in construction of underground bunkers for ...
67. Vishal Bhardwaj

Composer | Haider
Vishal Bhardwaj is an Indian film director, writer, composer,

singer and producer. He has directed ten feature films, produced
five and composed music for more than forty. His directorial work
includes Makdee, The Blue Umbrella, Kaminey, 7 Khoon Maaf,
Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola, Rangoon, Pataakha as...
68. 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 ...
69. Atif Yilmaz

Director | Bir Yudum Sevgi
Atif Yilmaz was born on December 9, 1925 in Mersin, Turkey as

Atif Yilmaz Batibeki. He was a director and producer, known for
Bir Yudum Sevgi (1984), Vasif Öngören: Asiye nasil kurtulur
(1986) and Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalim (1977). He was married to
Deniz Türkali, Nurhan Nur and Ayse Sasa. ...
70. Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writer | All About Eve
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909,

Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator
of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's
American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist,
then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount ...
71. Zeki Ökten

Director | Sürü
72. William A. Wellman

Director | A Star Is Born
William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of the

original Nasce uma Estrela (1937), was called "Wild Bill" during
his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted
in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle.
A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the ...
73. F.W. Murnau

Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly

influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen
plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of
director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a
company commander at the eastern front and was in the German
air ...
74. Asghar Farhadi

Writer | Darbareye Elly
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...
75. George Stevens

Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman

with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with
actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with
John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of
classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
76. Giuseppe Tornatore

Writer | La migliore offerta
Giuseppe Tornatore was born on May 27, 1956 in Bagheria, Sicily,

Italy. He is a writer and director, known for O Melhor Lance
(2013), A Lenda do Pianista do Mar (1998) and Cinema Paradiso
(1988).
77. 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 ...
78. Leo McCarey

Director | An Affair to Remember
Leo McCarey was born on October 3, 1896 in Los Angeles,

California, USA as Thomas Leo McCarey. He was a director and
writer, known for Tarde Demais para Esquecer (1957), O Bom
Pastor (1944) and Duas Vidas (1939). He was married to Stella
Martin. He died on July 5, 1969 in Santa Monica, California.
79. Yavuz Turgul

Writer | Eskiya
Yavuz Turgul was born in Istanbul, 1946. He worked as journalist

for many years. In 1976 he started to write scripts with the
support of Ertem Egilmez. His first directing experience came
with the movie Fahriye Abla, in 1984. He worked with famous
Turkish actor Sener Sen in so many movies. Turgul ...
80. Fred Zinnemann

Director | From Here to Eternity
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the

University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he
became increasingly interested in American film and decided that
was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European
filmaking for a short time before going to America to...
81. Preston Sturges

Writer | The Great McGinty
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....
82. Moustapha Akkad

Producer | The Message
The creativity of Moustapha Akkad came in such movies as O

Leão do Deserto (1980) and Maomé - O Mensageiro de Alá
(1976), where he directed and showed some really creative
amazing view on the history of Islam. As an Arabic Muslim it was
really hard for him to make it in ...
83. Rajkumar Hirani

Writer | PK
Rajkumar Hirani was born on November 20, 1962 in Nagpur,

Maharashtra, India. He is a writer and editor, known for PK
(2014), Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) and 3 Idiotas (2009).
84. Edmund Goulding

Director | Grand Hotel
London-born Edmund Goulding was an actor/playwright/director

on the London stage, and entered the British army when WWI
broke out. Mustered out of the service because of wounds
suffered in battle, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1921. He obtained
assignments as a screenwriter in Hollywood, wrote a ...
85. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Director | 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. ...
86. Robert Wise

Director | West Side Story
Robert Earl Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester,

Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Olive R. (Longenecker)
and Earl Waldo Wise, a meat packer. His parents were both of
Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. At age nineteen, the avid
moviegoer came into the film business through an ...
87. Jean-Luc Godard

Director | Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux
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 ...
88. 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, Personel (...
89. Rob Reiner

Actor | All in the Family
Robert Reiner was born in New York City, to Estelle Reiner (née
Lebost) and Emmy-winning actor, comedian, writer, and producer
Carl Reiner.
As a child, he often looked up to his father as his inspiration and

role-model. Carl Reiner was on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which
he created and also starred in....
90. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs
Jonathan Demme was born on February 22, 1944 in Baldwin,

Long Island, New York, USA as Robert Jonathan Demme. He was
a director and producer, known for O Silêncio dos Inocentes
(1991), O Casamento de Rachel (2008) and Filadélfia (1993). He
was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell...
91. 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 ...
92. 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), Affaires
publiques (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a
German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Anjos
do Pecado (1943) in 1943. His next film, As...
93. Srdjan Dragojevic

Writer | Lepa sela lepo gore
Srdjan Dragojevic was born on January 1, 1963 in Belgrade,

Serbia, Yugoslavia. He is known for his work on Bela Aldeia, Bela
Chama (1996), Parada (2011) and Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu
(2009). He is married to Tatjana Dragojevic.
94. 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 ...
95. Majid Majidi

Director | Bacheha-Ye aseman
Majid Majidi was born on April 17, 1959 in Tehran, Iran to a

middle class family. He started acting in amateur theater groups
at the age of fourteen. After receiving his high school diploma, he
started studying art at the Institute of Dramatic Art in Tehran.
After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, ...
96. Lee Unkrich

Editor | Toy Story 2
Lee Unkrich is an Academy Award-winning director at Pixar

Animation Studios. He most recently directed Disney.Pixar's
critically-acclaimed "Coco", which received the Academy Award
for Best Animated Feature and Best Song.
As the director of Disney.Pixar's "Toy Story 3," Lee was also

awarded an ...
97. Rajkumar Santoshi

Writer | Andaz Apna Apna
Rajkumar Santoshi is an Indian film director, producer and

screenwriter of Hindi films. Counted as one of the most
successful filmmakers in the Hindi film industry, he has received
several accolades,including three National Film Awards and six
Filmfare Awards.
Santoshi made his directorial debut ...
98. 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...
99. 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 ...
100. Nikita Mikhalkov

Actor | Utomlennye solntsem
Nikita Mikhalkov is the son of the famous communist poet Sergey

Mikhalkov, who wrote the lyrics of the Soviet national anthem
and had strong connections to the Communist Party. Nikita
Mikhalkov's mother, Natalya Petrovna Konchalovskaya, was also a
poet and daughter of famous painter Pyotr Petrovich...
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Top 250 directors by IMDB rating CREATE A NEW LIST

250 names Tell Your Friends

1. Ertem Egilmez Feedback? Tell us what you think about

Sato Tadao's Favorite

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex,

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema,

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling,

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in

10. William Wyler

William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his

11. Yasujirô Ozu

Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often

12. Charles Chaplin

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days

13. Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His

14. Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors.

15. Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but

16. Mani Ratnam

The man who revolutionized Tamil-language cinema, Mani

17. Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side

18. Sergio Leone

19. Luis Buñuel

The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original

20. David Fincher

David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was

21. Howard Hawks

What do the classic films Scarface: A Vergonha de uma Nação

22. Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father

23. Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his

24. Frank Capra

25. Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido,

26. George Cukor

George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish

27. John Ford

John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an

28. David Lean

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon

29. Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the

30. Andrei Tarkovsky

The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei M. Eisenstein,

31. Elia Kazan

32. Woody Allen

Woody Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg on December 1,

33. Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua,

34. Federico Fellini

35. Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father,

36. Leonid Gaidai

37. Michael Curtiz

Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native

38. Clint Eastwood