Director/Cinematographer Collaborations

1. Steven Spielberg

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, ...

Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Catch Me if You Can, Minority Report, The Terminal, Munich, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, The BFG, The Post, Ready Player One, West Side Story, The Fabelmans)

Allen Daviau (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun)

Douglas Slocombe (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)

2. 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 ...

John Alcott (A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining)

3. 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 (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect ...

Don Burgess (Forrest Gump, Contact, What Lies Beneath, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Flight, Allied, The Witches, Pinocchio)

Dean Cundey (Romancing the Stone, The Back to the Future Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her)

4. 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 ...

Michael Ballhaus (After Hours, The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, The Departed)

Robert Richardson (Casino, Bringing Out the Dead, The Aviator, Shutter Island, Hugo)

Rodrigo Prieto (The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon)

5. 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 ...

Wally Pfister (Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Prestige, Inception)

Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer)

6. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...

Andrew Lesnie (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong, The Lovely Bones, The Hobbit Trilogy)

7. 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 ...

Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, One from the Heart, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, New York Stories)

Gordon Willis (The Godfather Trilogy)

Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Youth Without Youth, Tetro, Twixt, Megalopolis)

8. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

Dean Cundey (Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China)

Gary B. Kibbe (Prince of Darkness, They Live, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., Vampires, Ghosts of Mars)

9. Joel Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...

Roger Deakins (Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, True Grit, Hail Caesar!)

Barry Sonnenfeld (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing)

Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Tragedy of Macbeth)

10. 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...

Roger Deakins (Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, True Grit, Hail Caesar!)

Barry Sonnenfeld (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing)

Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

11. 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 ...

Gordon Willis (Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo)

Carlo Di Palma (Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, September, Alice, Shadows and Fog, Husbands and Wives, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Bullets Over Broadway, Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, Deconstructing Harry)

Sven Nykvist (Another Woman, New York Stories, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Celebrity)

Darius Khondji (Anything Else, Midnight in Paris, To Rome with Love, Magic in the Moonlight, Irrational Man)

Vittorio Storaro (Café Society, Wonder Wheel, A Rainy Day in New York, Rifkin's Festival, Coup de Chance)

12. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

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 ...

Russell Carpenter (True Lies, Titanic, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar 3)

13. 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. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...

Dariusz Wolski (Prometheus, The Counselor, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Martian, Alien: Covenant, All the Money in the World, The Last Duel, House of Gucci, Napoleon)

John Mathieson (Gladiator, Hannibal, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, Gladiator II)

14. 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...

Jeff Cronenweth (Fight Club, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl)

Erik Messerschmidt (Mank, The Killer)

15. 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 ...

Andrzej Bartkowiak (Prince of the City, Deathtrap, The Verdict, Daniel, Garbo Talks, Power, The Morning After, Family Business, Q&A, A Stranger Among Us, Guilty as Sin)

Boris Kaufman (12 Angry Men, The Fugitive Kind, Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Pawnbroker, The Group, Bye Bye Braverman)

Oswald Morris (The Hill, Equus, The Wiz, Just Tell Me What You Want)

16. Alfonso Cuarón

Producer | Gravity

Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then ...

Emmanuel Lubezki (Solo con tu Pareja, A Little Princess, Great Expectations, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men, Gravity)

17. 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 ...

Rodrigo Prieto (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful)

Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman, The Revenant)

18. Guillermo del Toro

Writer | El laberinto del fauno

Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his ...

Guillermo Navarro (Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim)

Dan Laustsen (Mimic, Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley)

19. 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...

Robert Richardson (Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Andrzej Sekula (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms)

20. 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 ...

Robert Richardson (Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Heaven & Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, U Turn)

21. J.J. Abrams

Producer | Lost

Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990)....

Dan Mindel (Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker)

22. 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 (...

Sven Nykvist (Sawdust and Tinsel, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence, All These Women, Persona, Hour of the Wolf, Shame, The Passion of Anna, The Touch, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage, The Magic Flute, Face to Face, The Serpent's Egg, Autumn Sonata, Fanny and Alxander)

Gunnar Fischer (Port of Call, Prison, Thirst, To Joy, This Can't Happen Here, Summer Interlude, Secrets of Women, Summer with Monika, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Magician, The Devil's Eye)

23. 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 ...

Tonino Delli Colli (The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America)

Massimo Dallamano (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More)

24. Brian De Palma

Director | Body Double

Brian De Palma is one of the well-known directors who spear-headed the new movement in Hollywood during the 1970s. He is known for his many films that go from violent pictures, to Hitchcock-like thrillers. Born on September 11, 1940, De Palma was born in Newark, New Jersey in an Italian-American ...

Stephen H. Burum (Body Double, The Untouchables, Casualties of War, Raising Cain, Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible, Snake Eyes, Mission to Mars)

Vilmos Zsigmond (Obsession, Blow Out, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Black Dahlia)

25. Joe Russo

Director | Avengers: Endgame

Joseph Vincent Russo is an American filmmaker and producer who works alongside his brother Anthony Russo. They have directed You, Me and Dupree, Cherry and the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Endgame is one ...

Trent Opaloch (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame)

26. Anthony Russo

Producer | Everything Everywhere All at Once

Anthony J. Russo is an American filmmaker and producer who works alongside his brother Joseph Russo. They have directed You, Me and Dupree, Cherry and the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Endgame is one of ...

Trent Opaloch (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame)

27. Neill Blomkamp

Director | District 9

Neill Blomkamp is a South African-Canadian film director and screenwriter who is known for the science fiction films District 9, Elysium and Chappie. He also directed the supernatural horror film Demonic and the 2007 short film Halo: Landfall, based on the Microsoft science fiction video game ...

Trent Opaloch (District 9, Elysium, Chappie)

28. Spike Lee

Director | Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...

Ernest Dickerson (She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X)

Malik Hassan Sayeed (Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, He Got Game)

Matthew Libatique (She Hate Me, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna, Chi-Raq)

29. 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 ...

Frederick Elmes (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart)

Freddie Francis (The Elephant Man, Dune, The Straight Story)

Peter Deming (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive)

30. Bryan Singer

Director | X-Men

Bryan Singer is an American film director and producer who got his start writing and co-directing the short film Lions Den with his classmates while he attended USC. He was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men, which helped kick-start the superhero renaissance. He later directed three sequels....

Newton Thomas Sigel (The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X-Men, X2, Superman Returns, Valkyrie, Jack the Giant Slayer, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, Bohemian Rhapsody)

31. Peter Bogdanovich

Director | The Last Picture Show

Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter ...

Laszlo Kovacs (Targets, What's Up Doc?, Paper Moon, At Long Last Love, Nickelodeon, Mask)

32. James Mangold

Producer | Logan

James Mangold is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Films he has directed include Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005), which he also co-wrote, the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Wolverine (2013), and Logan (2017).

Mangold also wrote and directed Cop...

Phedon Papamichael (Identity, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, Knight and Day, Ford v Ferrari, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny)

33. Alexander Payne

Director | Nebraska

Director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Peggy (Constantine) and George Payne, ran a Greek restaurant. His father is of Greek and German ancestry, and his mother is of Greek descent; the family name was originally Papadopoulos. He is the youngest...

Phedon Papamichael (Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska, Downsizing)

James Glennon (Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt)

34. Wes Anderson

Director | Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an ...

Robert Yeoman (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City)

35. 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...

Robert Elswit (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice)

36. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

Anthony Dod Mantle (28 Days Later, Millions, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Trance, T2 Trainspotting)

Brian Tufano (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary)

37. 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.

Chung Chung-hoon (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, I'm a Cyborg But That's Okay, Thirst, Stoker, The Handmaiden)

38. Damien Chazelle

Writer | La La Land

Damien Sayre Chazelle is an American director and screenwriter. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His mother, Celia Sayre (Martin) Chazelle, is an American-Canadian writer and professor of history at The College of New Jersey. His father, Bernard Chazelle, is a French-American Eugene Higgins...

Linus Sandgren (La La Land, First Man, Babylon)

39. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

Bruce Surtees (Play Misty for Me, High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Sudden Impact, Tightrope, Pale Rider)

Jack N. Green (Heartbreak Ridge, Bird, White Hunter Black Heart, The Rookie, Unforgiven, A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, Absolute Power, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, True Crime, Space Cowboys)

Tom Stern (Blood Work, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus, Hereafter, J. Edgar, Jersey Boys, American Sniper, Sully, The 15:17 to Paris)

40. Sam Raimi

Director | Spider-Man

Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...

Bill Pope (Darkman, Army of Darkness, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3)

Peter Deming (Evil Dead II, Drag Me to Hell, Oz the Great and Powerful)

41. Joe Dante

Director | Innerspace

Joe Dante is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After a stint as a film reviewer, he began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 as trailer editor for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his directorial debut in 1976 with Hollywood Boulevard (1976) (co-directed with Allan Arkush)...

John Hora (The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Gremlins, Explorers, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Matinee)

Jamie Anderson (Hollywood Boulevard, Piranha, Small Soldiers)

42. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.

A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...

Emmanuel Lubezki (The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, Song to Song)

43. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

Thomas Mauch (Signs of Life, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Stroszek, Fitzcarraldo)

Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein (The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Heart of Glass, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Woyzeck, Where the Green Ants Dream)

Peter Zeitlinger (Invincible, Rescue Dawn, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?, Queen of the Desert, Salt and Fire)

44. Michael Mann

Producer | The Insider

As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...

Dante Spinotti (Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Public Enemies)

45. David Cronenberg

Actor | The Fly

David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early...

Peter Suschitzky (Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, M. Butterfly, Crash, Existenz, Spider, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars)

Mark Irwin (Fast Company, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly)

46. 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 ...

Bill Pope (Bound, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions)

John Toll (Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending, The Matrix Resurrections)

47. Lilly Wachowski

Writer | The Matrix

Director, writer, and producer Lilly Wachowski was born in 1967 in Chicago, the daughter of Lynne, a nurse and painter, and Ron, a businessman. Lilly was educated at Kellogg Elementary School in Chicago, before moving on to Whitney M. Young High School. After graduating from high school, she ...

Bill Pope (Bound, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions)

John Toll (Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending)

48. Sam Mendes

Producer | 1917

Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5-...

Roger Deakins (Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Skyfall, 1917, Empire of Light)

Conrad L. Hall (American Beauty, Road to Perdition)

49. 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 ...

Robert Burks (Strangers on a Train, I Confess, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Birds, Marnie)

Jack E. Cox (The Ring, The Farmer's Wife, Champagne, The Manxman, Blackmail, Juno and the Paycock, Murder!, The Skin Game, Rich and Strange, Number Seventeen, The Lady Vanishes)

Bernard Knowles (The 39 Steps, Secret Agent, Sabotage, Young and Innocent, Jamaica Inn)

50. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme was born on February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on April 26, 2017 in ...

Tak Fujimoto (Last Embrace, Melvin and Howard, Swing Shift, Something Wild, Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Beloved, The Truth About Charlie, The Manchurian Candidate)

51. Paul Greengrass

Director | United 93

Paul Greengrass started his filmmaking career with a super 8 camera he found in his art room in secondary school. Those short movies were animation horror films he made using old dolls, artist dummies, and the general art room clutter.

After studying in Cambridge University he got into Granada ...

Barry Ackroyd (United 93, Green Zone, Captain Phillips, Jason Bourne)

Ivan Strasburg (Resurrected, The Theory of Flight, Bloody Sunday)

52. Rob Marshall

Director | Mary Poppins Returns

Rob Marshall was born on October 17, 1960 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Chicago (2002) and Into the Woods (2014).

Dion Beebe (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Nine, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid)

53. 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 ...

Matthew Libatique (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan, Noah, Mother!, The Whale)

54. James Gunn

Writer | Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, to Leota and James Francis Gunn. He is from a large Catholic family, with Irish and Czech ancestry. His father and his uncles were all lawyers. He has been writing and performing as long as he can remember. He began making 8mm films at the age ...

Henry Braham (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Superman)

55. Kevin Smith

Producer | Clerks

Kevin Patrick Smith was born in Red Bank but grew up in Highlands, New Jersey, the son of Grace (Schultz) and Donald E. Smith, a postal worker. He is very proud of his native state; this fact can be seen in all of his movies. Kevin is of mostly German, with some Irish and English, ancestry.

His ...

David Klein (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks II, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Cop Out, Red State)

56. Justin Lin

Producer | Better Luck Tomorrow

Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-American film director whose films have grossed $2 billion worldwide. He is best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious 3-6 and Star Trek Beyond. He is also known for his work on television shows like Community and the second season of True ...

Stephen F. Windon (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek: Beyond, F9)

57. Steve McQueen

Director | 12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen was born on October 9, 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.

Sean Bobbitt (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Widows)

58. Matthew Vaughn

Producer | Kick-Ass

Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director. He is known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) and for directing the crime thriller, Layer Cake (2004), the fantasy epic, Stardust (2007), the superhero comedy, Kick-Ass (2010), and the ...

Ben Davis (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass, The King's Man)

George Richmond (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Argylle)

59. Martin McDonagh

Writer | In Bruges

Martin McDonagh was born on March 26, 1970 in Camberwell, London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

Ben Davis (Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin)

60. Antoine Fuqua

Producer | The Magnificent Seven

Antoine Fuqua is an American film director, known for his work in the film Training Day as well as The Replacement Killers, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter, Brooklyn's Finest, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer.

He has directed music videos for such artists as Arrested Development, Prince, ...

Mauro Fiore (Training Day, Tears of the Sun, The Equalizer, Southpaw, The Magnificent Seven, Infinite)

61. Todd Phillips

Producer | Joker

Todd Phillips is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Growing up on Long Island, New York, Todd Phillips fell in love with feature film teen comedies made in the 1980s, and claims they were his biggest influence in becoming a filmmaker. While studying film at New York University, ...

Lawrence Sher (The Hangover Trilogy, Due Date, War Dogs, Joker, Joker: Folie a Deux)

62. 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 ...

John F. Seitz (Five Graves to Cairo, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard)

Charles Lang (A Foreign Affair, Ace in the Hole, Sabrina, Some Like it Hot)

Joseph LaShelle (The Apartment, Irma la Douce, Kiss Me Stupid, The Fortune Cookie)

63. Stephen Frears

Director | Dangerous Liaisons

Stephen started off in a career in the legal profession before switching to work as an assistant stage manager at London's Royal Court which led to work as an assistant director on films by Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson He directed his first short in 1967 and his feature debut, Gumshoe, in 1971....

Oliver Stapleton (My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, The Grifters, Hero, The Van, The Hi-Lo Country)

64. 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,...

Oswald Morris (Moulin Rouge, Beat the Devil, Moby Dick, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Roots of Heaven, The Mackintosh Man, The Man Who Would Be King)

65. 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 ...

Joseph Walker (Submarine, Flight, Ladies of Leisure, Rain or Shine, Dirigible, The Miracle Woman, Platinum Blonde, Forbidden, American Madness, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Lady for a Day, It Happened One Night, Broadway Bill, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can't Take it With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life)

66. Gore Verbinski

Director | Rango

Gore Verbinski, one of American cinema's most inventive directors who was a punk-rock guitarist as a teenager and had to sell his guitar to buy his first camera, is now the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) which made the industry record for highest opening weekend of ...

Dariusz Wolski (The Mexican, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End)

Bojan Bazelli (The Ring, The Lone Ranger, A Cure for Wellness)

67. Akira Kurosawa

Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...

Asakazu Nakai (No Regrets for Our Youth, One Wonderful Sunday, Stray Dog, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, I Live in Fear, Throne of Blood, High and Low, Red Beard, Dersu Uzala, Ran)

Takao Saito (Sanjuro, High and Low, Red Beard, Dodes'ka-den, Kagemusha, Ran, Dreams, Rhapsody in August, Madadayo)

68. John Woo

Director | Ying hung boon sik

Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow ...

Wong Wing-hang (A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled, Reign of Assassins)

69. Bong Joon Ho

Writer | Snowpiercer

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the ...

Hong Kyung-pyo (Mother, Snowpiercer, Parasite)

70. 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 ...

Christopher Doyle (Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Ashes of Time, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, Eros)

Pun-Leung Kwan (Ashes of Time, In the Mood for Love, 2046)

71. Adam McKay

Producer | The Other Guys

Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. McKay has a comedy partnership with Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Ferrell and McKay also founded their comedy website Funny or Die through ...

Oliver Wood (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues)

72. Sofia Coppola

Actress | The Godfather Part III

Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and ...

Philippe Le Sourd (The Beguiled, On the Rocks, Priscilla)

73. James Wan

Writer | Saw

James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet. Wan has also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010)...

John R. Leonetti (Death Sentence, Dead Silence, Insidious, Insidious: Chapter 2, The Conjuring)

Don Burgess (The Conjuring 2, Aquaman, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom)

74. Michael Bay

Producer | Armageddon

A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won...

John Schwartzman (The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor)

Amir Mokri (Bad Boys II, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction)

75. Vincente Minnelli

Director | An American in Paris

Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the depression as a set ...

Milton R. Krasner (Home from the Hill, Bells Are Ringing, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Two Weeks in Another Town, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Goodbye Charlie, The Sandpiper)

John Alton (Father of the Bride, Father's Little Dividend, Tea and Sympathy, Designing Woman)

Joseph Ruttenberg (Brigadoon, Kismet, Gigi, The Reluctant Debutante)

Charles Rosher (I Dood It, Ziegfeld Follies, Yolanda and the Thief, The Story of Three Loves)

George J. Folsey (Meet Me in St. Louis, The Clock, Ziegfeld Follies, The Cobweb)

76. Peter Weir

Director | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Peter Weir was born on August 21, 1944 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Way Back (2010) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Wendy Stites since 1966. They have two children.

Russell Boyd (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, The Way Back)

John Seale (Witness, The Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society)

77. 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 ...

Jose Luis Alcaine (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Bad Education, Volver, The Skin I Live In, I'm So Excited!, Pain and Glory, Parallel Mothers)

Angel Luis Fernandez (Labyrinth of Passion, Dark Habits, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Matador, Law of Desire)

78. Richard Attenborough

Actor | Jurassic Park

Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames, was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a ...

Roger Pratt (Shadowlands, In Love and War, Grey Owl, Closing the Ring)

Ronnie Taylor (Gandhi, A Chorus Line, Cry Freedom)

79. Spike Jonze

Producer | Her

Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...

Lance Acord (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are)

80. Warren Beatty

Actor | Reds

Since starring in his first film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), Warren Beatty has been said to have demonstrated a greater longevity in movies than any actor of his generation. Few people have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of the production of films as producer, director, writer, ...

Vittorio Storaro (Reds, Dick Tracy, Bulworth)

81. Luc Besson

Writer | Le Cinquième Élément

Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in ...

Thierry Arbogast (La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Angel-A, Arthur and the Invisibles, Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard, Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, The Lady, The Family, Lucy, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Anna)

82. Kenneth Branagh

Actor | Henry V

Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on December 10, 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to parents William Branagh, a plumber and carpenter, and Frances (Harper), both born in 1930. He has two siblings, William Branagh, Jr. (born 1955) and Joyce Branagh (born 1970). When he was nine, his family ...

Haris Zambarloukos (Sleuth, Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Cinderella, Murder on the Orient Express, Artemis Fowl, Belfast, Death on the Nile, A Haunting in Venice)

Roger Lanser (Peter's Friends, Much Ado About Nothing, In the Bleak Midwinter, As You Like It, The Magic Flute)

83. M. Night Shyamalan

Producer | Lady in the Water

Born in Puducherry, India, and raised in the posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots.

He is the son of Jayalakshmi, a Tamil ...

Tak Fujimoto (The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Happening)

Mike Gioulakis (Split, Glass, Old)

84. 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). ...

Al Ruban (Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, Love Streams)

85. Scott Cooper

Director | Crazy Heart

Scott Cooper was born on April 20, 1970 in Abingdon, Virginia, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Crazy Heart (2009), Hostiles (2017) and Out of the Furnace (2013).

Masanobu Takayanagi (Out of the Furnace, Black Mass, Hostiles, The Pale Blue Eye)

86. Douglas Sirk

Director | Schlußakkord

Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, ...

Russell Metty (Take Me to Town, Taza Son of Cochise, Magnificent Obsession, Sign of the Pagan, All That Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow, Written on the Wind, Battle Hymn, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Imitation of Life)

87. 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 ...

Miroslav Ondricek (Loves of a Blonde, The Fireman's Ball, Taking Off, Hair, Ragtime, Amadeus, Valmont)

88. Gaspar Noé

Director | Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé is an Argentinian filmmaker and screenwriter who lives in France. He is the son of Luis Felipe Noé, an Argentinian artist. He directed I Stand Alone, Irréversible, Enter the Void, Love, Climax, Carne, Lux Æterna, Sodomites and Vortex. His films are known for having a sensory overload ...

Benoit Debie (Irreversible, Enter the Void, Love, Climax, Lux Aeterna, Vortex)

89. Todd Haynes

Director | Far from Heaven

Todd Haynes was always interested in art, and made amateur movies and painted while he was still a child. He attended Brown university and majored in art and semiotics. After he graduated he moved to New York City and made the controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). ...

Edward Lachman (Far from Heaven, I'm Not There, Carol, Wonderstruck, Dark Waters)

90. Ron Howard

Producer | Arrested Development

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.

Howard ...

Salvatore Totino (The Missing, Cinderella Man, The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon, Angels & Demons, The Dilemma, Inferno)

Donald Peterman (Splash, Cocoon, Gung Ho, How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

91. Rian Johnson

Producer | Knives Out

Rian Johnson was born in Maryland and at a young age his family moved to San Clemente, California, where he was raised. After graduating from high school, he went on to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His first feature film, Brick (2005), was released in 2005 ...

Steve Yedlin (Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Knives Out, Glass Onion)

92. Joseph Kosinski

Director | Top Gun: Maverick

Joseph Kosinski is a director whose uncompromising style has quickly made a mark in the filmmaking zeitgeist. His four theatrical releases have grossed $2.2 billion worldwide and been nominated for 7 Academy Awards and 2 Grammys.

His film debut, "Tron: Legacy" for Walt Disney Studios, grossed $400 ...

Claudio Miranda (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, Only the Brave, Top Gun: Maverick, Spiderhead)

93. Francis Lawrence

Director | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Francis Lawrence is an American filmmaker. He started directing over sixty music videos before he directed the cult classic Keanu Reeves film Constantine, I Am Legend and Water for Elephants. He also directed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, and Red ...

Jo Willems (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Red Sparrow, Slumberland, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)

94. 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. ...

Lee Daniel (Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Suburbia, Before Sunset, Fast Food Nation, Boyhood)

Shane F. Kelly (A Scanner of Darkly, Boyhood, Everybody Wants Some!!, Last Flag Flying, Where'd You Go Bernadette, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Hit Man)

95. Anthony Minghella

Writer | The Talented Mr. Ripley

Anthony Minghella was the son of immigrants from Italy, who own an ice-cream factory on the Isle of Wight, where Anthony was born on January 6, 1954. He and his two siblings, Edana Minghella and Dominic Minghella, grew up there, a popular British holiday spot. After graduating from the University of...

John Seale (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain)

96. William Wyler

Director | The Best Years of Our Lives

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...

Gregg Toland (These Three, Come and Get It, Dead End, Wuthering Heights, The Westerner, The Little Foxes, The Best Years of Our Lives)