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Greatest directors (all time)
A ranking of film directors.
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34
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 a...
34
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, (born 1 August 1965) is an English stage and film director. He is best known for directing the comedy-drama film American Beauty (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for...
34
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker and screenwriter. He has directed some of the biggest blockbuster hits of the past few decades. He first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of Rom...
34
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes (born January 2, 1961) is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is known for having directed the acclaimed films Safe (1995), Far from Heaven (2002), I'm Not There (2007), and Carol (2015). Haynes...
34
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American film director, producer, and actor, best known for playing two high-profile roles in television sitcoms in his childhood and early adulthood, and for directing a numb...
34
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt (born August 15, 1972), better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor and filmmaker. He has won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Affleck began his career as a child actor, starring...
34
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Director. He preferred large ensemble casts for hi...
34
Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner (born Isadore Kershner; April 29, 1923 – November 27, 2010) was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing independent films early in his career, and then The Empire Strikes Back, the J...
34
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962) is an Australian film director, screenwriter and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, comprising his romantic comedy film Strictly Ballroom (1992), the romantic dram...
60
J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American director, producer, writer, actor, author and composer, best known for his work in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and/or produced fea...
61
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker.
62
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is an English-American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has created several of the most commercially successful films of the early 21st century. His nine films have...
63
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American director, screenwriter, visual artist, musician, actor, and author. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed a unique cinematic style. The surreal and, in many cases...
64
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios.
65
Luc Besson
Luc Besson (born 18 March 1959) is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer.
66
Woody Allen
(1935)Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an American actor, writer, director, comedian and playwright, whose career spans more than 50 years.
67
Denis Villeneuve
Denis Villeneuve (born October 3, 1967) is a French-Canadian film director and writer.
67
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor.
67
Lee Unkrich
Lee Edward Unkrich (born August 8, 1967) is an American director, film editor and screenwriter. He is a longtime member of the creative team at Pixar, where he started in 1994 as a film editor. He later began directing, first as c...
67
Andrew Stanton
Andrew Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor based at Pixar. His film work includes writing and directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998) (as co-director), Finding Nemo (...
72
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Shyamalan (born 6 August 1970), known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-American film director, screenwriter, producer and occasional actor.
73
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie Pitt (née Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and has been cited as Hollywood'...
75
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (born December 13, 1957) is an American actor and film director. Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films, including Parting Glances, New York Stories, Mystery Train,...
75
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter.
75
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer, and artist. He attended the Actors Studio, making his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in two films with J...
75
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for directing the horror film Hostel and its sequel, Hostel: Part II. He is also known for his role as Donny "The Bear Je...
75
Adam McKay
(1968)Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, comedian, and actor. McKay served as head writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for two seasons. He has a comedy partners...
75
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is known for directing big-budget action films characterized by fast edits, stylistic visuals and extreme use of special effects. His films, which include...
75
Jackie Chan
Datuk Jackie Chan (born Chan Kong-sang, 陳港生; 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film director, producer, stuntman, and singer. Chan has been training in Kung fu and Wing Chun. He has been acting since the 1960s an...
75
Xu Jinglei
Xu Jinglei (born April 16, 1974) is a Chinese actress and film director. She graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1997. She has also spanned an acting career with directing since 2003. Although not well known outside of China, X...
75
Godfrey Reggio
Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films.
75
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor and director. He has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award nominations...
75
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor, activist and playwright. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee and has won one Emmy Award out of seven nominations. His breakout role came in 1985, joinin...
75
Seth Rogen
Seth Aaron Rogen (born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian American actor, filmmaker, and comedian. Rogen began his career performing stand-up comedy during his teenage years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While...
75
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (born February 17, 1981) is an American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor, he appeared in the films A River Runs Through It, Angels in the Outfield and 10 Things I Hate About You, and as Tommy Solo...
75
Joe Dante
Joseph James "Joe" Dante, Jr. (born November 28, 1946) is an American film director, producer, editor and actor. His films—notably Gremlins (1984)—often mix fantastical storylines with comedic elements. Dante's films include Piran...
75
Lenny Abrahamson
Leonard "Lenny" Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and television director. Abrahamson is known for his films Adam & Paul, Garage, What Richard Did and Room.
75
Frank Miller
Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American writer, artist, and film director best known for his dark comic book stories and graphic novels such as Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. H...
91
Hironobu Sakaguchi
Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信 Sakaguchi Hironobu) (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer, and former film director. He is the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and has had a long career in ga...
91
Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films, most of which are English-language Hollywood productions, have made more than $3 billion worldwide, including just over $1...
Info: The persons listed below are officially not in the ranking; they're candidates that don't have the minimum number of votes (1) to officially be in yet. They're listed by the number of votes, not by the rating. Click any item to cast your vote.
candidate
Sam Raimi
Samuel M "Sam" Raimi (born October 23, 1959) is an American film director, producer, writer and actor.
candidate
F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm "F. W." Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888 – March 11, 1931) was a German film director.
candidate
William Shatner
William "Bill" Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor, singer, author, producer, director, spokesman, and comedian. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, Captain of the...
candidate
Sharlto Copley
Sharlto Copley (born November 27, 1973) is a South African actor, producer, and director who has produced and co-directed short films which have appeared at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as commercials and music videos. He is...
candidate
Zhao Wei
Zhao Wei (born 12 March 1976), also known as Vicki Zhao, is a Chinese actress, pop singer, and film director. She is considered one of the "Four Dan Actresses" in China. While studying at Beijing Film Academy, Zhao became an Asian...
candidate
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai, (born 17 July 1958) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes of Time...
candidate
Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen (born 27 July 1963), also known as Yen Ji-dan (甄子丹), is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film director and producer, action choreographer, and multiple-time world wushu tournament champion...
candidate
Chris Evans
Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans (born June 13, 1981) is an American actor and director. Evans is best known for his superhero roles as the Marvel Comics characters Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Human Torch...
Items 51-100 of 117
Ranking discussion [-]
Minimum number of votes to be in this ranking is currently 1. Items in: 117
Candidates list: 25.
Candidates list: 25.
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