So what constituted a mention on this best directors list? A steady body of work and a handful of fantastic must-watch narrative films certainly helps; as does a groundbreaking behind-the-camera style, a unique voice that crosses genres and demographics, and awareness and accountability when it comes to how their work influences viewers. The compilation also features directors from all over the world, ranging from the stalwarts of Hollywood’s Golden Age to a collection of 21st-century hotshots. Alas, there’s no getting around the fact that white guys are in the majority here. (To wit, only eight females have ever been nominated for a Best Director Oscar in its 94-year history and icon Spike Lee didn’t receive his first nomination until BlackKklansman in 2019.) And while the numbers have made strides in recent years, there’s still a long way to go. According to UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report, of the top 200 theatrical films released in 2021 (ranked by global box office), the percentage of women directors has increased by more than fivefold over the past decade. But, until this list can look as diverse as we’d like it to, there are still some stellar non-white-male directors out the whose work is worthy of devouring, if you aren’t doing so already. And many of them are included on our list of the 75 best directors of all time.
Best Directors
1. Steven Spielberg (1946-)
Pick an age, any age. Now remember what it was like seeing a particular Spielberg movie for the first time. As children, we believed in E.T.; as adolescents, we couldn’t get enough of Indiana Jones’ adventures or Jurassic Park’s larger-than-life dinosaurs or the terrifying shark in Jaws. As adults, we wept while watching the senseless deaths in Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Munich. Spielberg is the rare filmmaker who can deliver commercial blockbusters—don’t forget about Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005) and Catch Me While You Can (2002), to name three more titles—and captivating, highly pedigreed art that stirs the imagination. Still going strong into his sixth decade of moviemaking, Spielberg will soon offer us more magic via a remake of the musical West Side Story.
2. Martin Scorsese (1942-)
After calling the shots for more than 40 years, most directors would quietly recede from work and just participate in anniversary panels. Thankfully, Scorsese has never been most directors. From his early work of 1973’s Mean Streets and 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore to his most recent 2019 epic The Irishman, Scorsese has continued to stay relevant as he pushes boundaries. He’s willing to serve up deliciously entertaining red-blooded fare such as Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Departed (for which he finally won his Best Director Oscar in 2007) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2015) and then explore serious religious themes in The Passion of the Christ (1987) and Silence (2016). Twenty-five full-length films in all; many masterpieces among them.
3. Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
Hitchcock will forever be one of the greats because of his sheer brilliance in his craft. His movies unfold with the utmost confidence, enabling audiences to put their blind trust in him. And his set-pieces—the terrifying shower scene in 1960’s Psycho, the swooping crop duster in 1959’s North by Northwest, the swarm of birds in, well, 1963’s The Birds—resemble our most haunting nightmares. The director, who’s influenced generations of filmmakers, also had a keen understanding of the obvious: if you’re watching a movie in the dark then you’re a willing participant in a voyeuristic thrill ride (see: 1954’s Rear Window). And nobody delivered these thrills like the master.
4. James Cameron (1954-)
The appropriate descriptor is titanic—and that’s not just a reference to his behemoth 1997 movie of the same name. Cameron is the director who can tackle mammoth projects with sky-high budgets and turn them into awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping wonders. And even if the Titanic never hit the iceberg, he would go down as a legend (if not the king of the world) for helming tense and technically brilliant visual wonders such as The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and the 2009 3D adventure Avatar. He’s promised there are several Avatar sequels still on the way.
5. Spike Lee (1957-)
A Spike Lee Joint equals a deep exploration of race relations, media, urban crime and politics at the highest levels. Indeed, Lee isn’t just a magnificent original filmmaker, he’s a master at using the medium as an instrument for social change. And films such as Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), 4 Little Girls (1997), 25th Hour (2002) and BlackKklansman (2018) never fail to evoke important and interesting conversations. His new film, Da 5 Bloods (on Netflix this summer) focuses on Vietnam veterans returning to the jungle to find their lost innocence.
6. Quentin Tarantino (1963-)
There’s an easy way to distinguish between the eras of cinema: Before Pulp Fiction and after Pulp Fiction. That’s how much Tarantino’s non-linear-structured and super-cool 1994 opus impacted the industry and his peers. Though he’s made just nine movies in less than 30 years (including the Oscar-nominated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019), the former video store clerk/movie-history savant is a brand name who delivers a distinctive form of entertainment. Audiences know that when they buckle in for one of his projects—from 1992’s Reservoir Dogs to 2012’s Django Unchained—they’re in store for a rollicking mash-up of hyper-verbal dialogue, pitch-perfect music, blood-spewing violence and dark-edged comedy.
7. Paul Thomas Anderson (1970-)
A true auteur in every sense of the word, Anderson infuses raw energy in his multi-layered work while also serving up a visual cinematic flair and unique insights about love, death and abandonment. A PTA film—his highly ambitious, original masterworks include 1997’s Boogie Nights, 1999’s Magnolia, 2007’s There Will Be Blood, 2012’s The Master, 2014’s Inherent Vice and 2017’s Phantom Thread—also features intricate and complex characterizations that linger in audiences’ minds long after the credits roll.
8. Christopher Nolan (1970-)
The king of cerebral blockbusters, Nolan is worshipped by audiences and critics for being one of the most original and imaginative directors in the business. He’s not only unafraid to challenge fans with overly complex narratives, he packs intense themes of morality, identity and time into each work of art. And as evidenced in mainstream hits The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017), fans are more willing to go along with him for the ride. And his next shrouded-in-mystery effort, Tenet, promises to be the spark to ignite the 2020 moviegoing experience.
9. Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999)
The Shining (1980). A Clockwork Orange (1971). 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Full Metal Jacket (1987). Eyes Wide Shut (1999). His films left us with deep psychological scars, and yet we kept coming back for more. Kubrick himself was never one for convention, forever experimenting with genres, themes and styles. (He also helmed the classics Spartacus in 1960 and Dr. Strangelove in 1964). But all his works highlighted the joys and terrors lurking within the common man. And Kubrick’s chilly postmodern perspective is even more insightful and mysterious today.
10. Alfonso Cuarón (1961-)
He ignited his career with the coming-of-age road-trip charmer Y Tu Mama Tambien in 2002 and only became bolder and more impressive from there. Cuarón has taken on jaw-dropping science fiction (Children of Men, Gravity), crafted a poignant black-and-white love letter to his Mexican childhood (2018’s Roma, for which he earned his second Best Director Oscar in five years) and adapted a children’s classic for the masses (2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). That’s the resume of a genius.
11. Francis Ford Coppola (1939-)
He’s one of the godfathers of American cinema, that’s for certain. The USC film school grad changed the course of history in the early 1970s when he decided to adapt Mario Puzo’s novel, The GodfatherThe Godfather. He turned it into a compelling meditation of the American dream and broke the mold for the new era of gangster mafia movies. Its Oscar-winning 1974 sequel was equally harrowing. Critics hail his 1979 anti-war drama Apocalypse Now as his piece de resistance, as he gutted through the story of a Vietnam soldier’s quest for meaning amid the heart of darkness.
12. Joel Coen (1954-) and Ethan Coen (1957-)
Let’s see, how to describe the creations of Coen brothers? Realistic, but also whimsical (2008’s Burn After Reading). High-minded but also rebuffs to hope (2007’s No Country for Old Men, 1996’s Fargo, 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis). Simplistic and yet devilishly clever and funny (1987’s Raising Arizona, 2000’s O Brother Where Art Thou, 1998’s The Big Lebowski). Maybe their style is difficult to nail down because the Coen brothers are so prolific. And no matter the genre, they always paint an authentic, if darkly comic, portrait of our world.
13. Kathryn Bigelow (1951-)
Bigelow is so much more than a trivia-night answer to the question of who was the first female to ever win a Best Director Oscar. (She struck gold for the searing The Hurt Locker in 2010, lest you forget.) She spent two decades doing solid but unheralded work in films such as Blue Steel (1989), Point Break (1991) and Strange Days (1995). And her first post-Oscar project, Zero Dark Thirty in 2012, was another harrowing look at the brutalities of war. What a trailblazer.
14. Brian De Palma (1940-)
De Palma’s expertise is in showcasing brazen crime and punishment—as in, violent punishment that sears in your brain and stays there forever. Need proof? Check out some of his strong and powerful smash dramas, including Carrie (beware of prom night in 1975!), Blow Out (1981), Scarface (1983), Dressed to Kill (1980), The Untouchables (1987) and the rather underrated Carlito’s Way (1993) starring Al Pacino and a scenery-chewing Sean Penn.
15. David Fincher (1962-)
Fincher showed his promise back when his stylish music videos (“Vogue,” “Janie’s Got a Gun”) were still in heavy rotation on MTV. As a big-screen director, he’s attracted to the grittier aspects of human life and uses a muted color palette and obscured visuals to illustrate his point. We’re still shaking from Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), Panic Room (2002), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Gone Girl (2014). The fact that 2010’s The Social Network, about the creation of Facebook, falls seamlessly into his oeuvre just underlines his effectiveness.
16. Nora Ephron (1941-2012)
“Everything is copy.” So went Ephron’s mantra as she transitioned from witty and astute journalist to author to screenwriter to director. Her films often reflected that point of view, as each expressed her optimistic love of romance, food, parenthood, female friendships and, of course, New York City. Among her sweet and savory offerings? The comedy classics Sleepless in Seattle (1993), You’ve Got Mail (1998) and Julie & Julia (2009). Her death in 2012 left a gaping hole in all our hearts.
17. Pedro Almodovar (1949-)
For more than 30 years, the Spanish director has spun soulful and spellbinding stories filled with lively characters. His early 1980s films (Matador, Law of Desire) were gaudy and loud; his subsequent works, including All About My Mother (1999), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009) and Talk to Her (2002), were exotic and much-heralded gems. It’s been said that his each of his films informs and inspires the next. And his most recent film, 2019’s Pain and Glory, starring Antonio Banderas as a director, was his most personal yet.
18. Clint Eastwood (1930-)
Eastwood is that rare legend on the screen and behind the camera–we know that statement might spark a debate, but we’re prepared to defend our stance. After years of building up his hero status, he made his directorial debut in 1971 with the thriller Play Misty for Me. But he didn’t truly stand out from the pack until the brilliant and tragic Western Unforgiven in 1992 (which earned him a Best Director Oscar win). His lean-and-mean projects, from Million Dollar Baby (2004) to Mystic River (2007), Gran Torino (2009), Sully (2016) and his most recent Richard Jewell, are laden with characters haunted by moral conflicts and a search for justice. And he’s 90 years old.
19. Guillermo del Toro (1964-)
The Mexican filmmaker has spent his career delivering expressive, beautifully rendered bittersweet tragedies. His works are eclectic collections of fairy tales and fables, with the creepy creatures to match. He is, after all, the man who birthed The Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), the Angel of Death in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) and in his Oscar-winning crowning achievement, the misunderstood sea creature in The Shape of Water (2017). Sweet dreams.
20. Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959)
History lesson: DeMille was a talented showman who started commercializing cinema in the 1950s. And he was such an essential figure that The Hollywood Foreign Press Association named its Golden Globe Lifetime Achievement Award after him. He’s best known for biblical tales, as well as bridging the gap from silent films and talkies to technicolor. His notable films? The Ten Commandments (1956), The King of Kings (1927), Samson and Delilah (1949), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and The Sign of the Cross (1932).
21. Ang Lee (1954-)
We’ve already forgiven him for the 2019 dud Gemini Man. Since transitioning into the mainstream with a 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, the Taiwanese filmmaker has made his mark over the years as an exquisite and human storyteller. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), Life of Pi (which earned him a second Best Director Oscar in 2013) and The Ice Storm (1997) are some of his resonant works. But his 2006 Oscar-winner was his landmark: the heartbreaking gay romance amid the vast Western landscapes in Brokeback Mountain.
22. Michael Mann (1943-)
If you’ve come looking for a happy ending, look to a different director’s filmography. Mann prefers deep-diving into tragedy, as his heroes and anti-heroes grapple with ethical dilemmas in sleek, smart and sweeping productions. His films, all imposing, include 1986’s Manhunter (the original Hannibal Lecter film), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Public Enemies (2009), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999) and Collateral (2004). Really, what will it take for this talented director to finally be recognized by the Academy?
23. Jane Campion (1954-)
The first woman to win the Palme d’Or and the second to pick up a Best Director nomination, Campion is a true pioneer for female filmmakers. The New Zealander can take on any story—usually told from a woman’s point of view—and make it compelling, as proven with the drama An Angel at My Table (1990), the aforementioned critical hit The Piano (1993) and the period dramas Portrait of a Lady (1996) and Bright Star (2009). Her most recent work, the 2021 Western miniseries The Power of the Dog, earned her her second Best Director Oscar along with Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars. Campion is the first woman to collect two Best Director statues.
24. Steven Soderbergh (1963-)
To be clear, he would have made the cut even if he hadn’t foretold the panic-stricken future in the 2011 thriller Contagion. Soderbergh started his career as a maverick indie filmmaker thanks to Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989 and still brings that shaggy arthouse vibe to hits such as Out of Sight (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), Traffic (2000), Magic Mike (2011) and the 2001-07 Ocean’s Eleven trilogy. He edits and does his own cinematography to boot.
25. Mike Nichols (1931-2014)
Nichols began his career as a theater director and then exploded onto the scene with the Elizabeth Taylor-starring comedy-drama Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. He followed that one year later with the comedy The Graduate. That was just the 1960s. For the next 40 years, he showed a deft hand at witty comedy and probing drama thanks to Carnal Knowledge (1971), Working Girl (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1991) and Closer (2004). There was nobody classier, and nobody like him who could bring out the best of his actors.
26. Orson Welles (1915-1985)
With one movie—the 1941 drama Citizen Kane, a semi-biopic of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst—the then-23-year-old Welles changed the medium. He stretched visuals. He pried out tense emotions. And he created Charles Foster Kane, one of the most complex characters in cinematic history. And though it’s easy to assume Welles was a one-hit wonder, he provided another classic with the 1958 film noir standard, Touch of Evil.
27. John Ford (1894-1973)
“He is the essence of classical American cinema. Any serious person making films today, whether they know it or not, is affected by Ford.” That’s Scorsese on the legendary Ford, who was skilled at delivering powerful and comprehensive storytelling on a long-shot canvas—specifically in the Western genre with John Wayne front and center. His groundbreaking films include The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Searchers (1956), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
28. Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)
For a man who worked rather silently behind the camera, Lumet brought a brash New York sensibility to his films. You could see the grit on the pavement in Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), Prince of the City (1981) and, his last movie, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007). He rounded out this marvelous milieu with The Verdict (1982), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and 12 Angry Men (1957), working with the likes of Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and Ingrid Bergman.
29. David Lynch (1946-)
Lynch doesn’t offer any answers in his neo-noir films such as Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997), Dune (1984), Wild at Heart (1990) and Mulholland Drive (2001). He’d rather present an abstract portrait of right versus wrong. (Keep in mind he started his career as a painter.) A leader of modern surrealism, the artistic auteur—who also created Twin Peaks in 1990—blends darkness into light and uses both dreamy and violent images as symbolism. Audiences are left wondering if they should be entranced or be outraged.
30. Ridley Scott (1937-)
Scott burst into Hollywood with Alien in 1979—which, of course, is the film in which a creature bursts out of an astronaut’s chest in space. Since then, he’s consistently helmed compelling and harrowing action films via a striking visual style. With Blade Runner (1982), he presented a dystopian future with complex political undertones; with Gladiator (2000), he ensured we were all entertained. Thelma and Louise (1991), Black Hawk Down (2001), American Gangster (2007) and The Martian (2015) have continued to secure his legacy.
31. Ava DuVernay (1972-)
Less than 15 years ago, DuVernay was a publicist working on campaigns for Dreamgirls and The Help. Now she’s become a force of nature (and champion for fellow female filmmakers), overseeing movies that cast an unflinching light on the systematic racial issues in the country. Her offerings, from the Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma to the powerful 13th (Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature) to the Netflix miniseries When They See Us, will be studied in classrooms for years to come.
32. Sergio Leone (1929-1989)
The Italian native invented the American spaghetti Western in 1964 with A Fistful of Dollars, which used long tracking shots to depict brutal violence and the dehumanization of man, and introduced the antihero character in modern action. He followed up his groundbreaker with such prominent works as For A Few Dollars More (1965); The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966); Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984), all of which still hold relevance today.
33. Tim Burton (1958-)
Call him an eccentric genius. Burton is renowned for putting his distinctive touch on gothic-tinged films such as Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989) and Edward Scissorhands (1990)—what a three-year hat trick!—as well as Big Fish (2003) Ed Wood (1994) and the more recent remakes of Alice in Wonderland, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and Dark Shadows. And as kids of all ages know, the former animator also made his mark directing the stop-action 1993 movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.
34. Patty Jenkins (1971-)
With the acclaimed indie Monster in 2003, Jenkins landed in the coveted circle of directors who could make probing films on a small budget. With the pop-culture phenomenon that was Wonder Woman in 2017, she demonstrated that she could also stage action-packed and crowd-pleasing set pieces just like the big boys.
35. Wes Anderson (1969-)
Referring to him as a “quirky director” undermines his immense talent. Consider that he consistently creates snappy characters and uses offbeat humor to flesh out smart, deeply felt stories. And all his films, including Rushmore (1999), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), offer an idiosyncratic and intricately detailed visual flair to boot. His newest offering, The French Dispatch, features an all-star cast of Bill Murray, Timothee Chalamet, Owen Wilson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Benicio del Toro.
36. Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
Starting with his 1950 crime saga Rashomon, the Tokyo-born director established himself as a preeminent artist who could cross genres. He put his distinct stamp on King Lear (Ran) and Macbeth (Throne of Blood). Meanwhile, his artful The Seven Samurai (1954)—about a group of soldiers who help protect a group of villagers—inspired The Magnificent Seven and even Star Wars has touches of the 1958 adventure film The Hidden Fortress.
37. Richard Linklater (1960-)
And now, take a moment to appreciate the beauty of life even at its most ordinary. That’s how Linklater would want it. Instead of car crashes and explosions and superheroes and arch-villains, Linklater prefers to observe the nuances of friendships and relationships—as evidenced in films such as Boyhood (2014), the Before Sunrise trilogy (1995-2013), Dazed & Confused (1993) and even The School of Rock (2003). The Texan proves that the textures of authenticity can still triumph over the audacious.
38. Oliver Stone (1946-)
Just his name usually evokes an emotional reaction. That’s because many of Stone’s most famous works—the Oscar-winning Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Snowden (2016)—not only focus on hot-button historical events, they’re laced with his explicit political viewpoints. (His interpretation of John F. Kennedy’s assassination generates controversy to this day.) Still, his attention to detail and his tendency to poke and prod almost always results in a thought-provoking experience.
39. Robert Zemeckis (1952-)
No doubt Zemeckis is a special-effects whiz—the Oscar winner is responsible for Forrest Gump mingling with JFK at the White House, the animated Jessica Rabbit flirting with a live-action detective and Marty McFly traveling in a DeLorean to go to 1955. But don’t overlook the fact that Forrest Gump (1994), the Back to the Future trilogy (1985-90), Romancing the Stone (1984), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Cast Away (2000) and The Polar Express (2004) are some of the most adored and re-watchable films ever.
40. Frank Capra (1897-1991)
What does it mean for a film to be described as “Capra-esque”? Only uplifting and spirited tributes to the American spirit. The popular director and three-time Best Director Oscar winner began in comedies (It Happened One Night swept the Oscars in 1935). He then made his way to films about humble men taking on the corporate world in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)—and, of course, the 1946 holiday hallmark, It’s a Wonderful Life.
41. Darren Aronofsky (1969-)
It’s a testament to Aronofsky’s skill that he’s been embraced by the mainstream without compromising his integrity—or his penchant for the deeply disturbing. From his grim, stylistically over-the-top drug addiction drama Requiem for a Dream (2000) to his stripped-down anguishing drama of The Wrestler (2008) to the perfectionist-gone-awry thrills of Black Swan (2010), he brings big ideas and big intensity to his work. And, in the case of his religiously allegorical 2017 psychological thrillermother!, a big beating heart.
42. George Lucas (1944-)
No matter that he’s more prolific as a producer and a writer, Lucas is one of the most essential figures in Hollywood, and his contributions to the big screen are flat-out historic. That’s what happens when you create the seminal Star Wars saga and direct six of its nine episodic installments. (The first release, 1977’s Stars Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, still holds up and is remarkably ahead of its time.) In the years leading up to The Force, Lucas also directed the acclaimed films THX 1138 (1971) and American Graffiti (1973).
43. Edgar Wright (1974-)
He has a rabid fan following, possibly because of the way his freewheeling films feature audio cues that sync up perfectly with scene transitions or because of the way his actors enter and exit the frame with a bang. But mostly because the Brit’s films are totally good times. From Shaun of the Dead (2004) to Hot Fuzz (2007), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010), The World’s End (2013) and Baby Driver (2017), he has a knack for edge-of-your-seat zaniness.
44. Amy Heckerling (1954-)
Leave out the director of some of the most enduring teen comedies of the 20th century? As if! An alum of New York University and the American Film Institute, Heckerling kept it real with both Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Clueless (1995)—both of which will never get old even though its young stars are now all middle-aged and beyond. In between, she also wrote and directed all three Look Who’s Talking movies. We totally pause and give her applause.
45. Barry Jenkins (1979-)
While his exceptional and breathtaking 2016 coming-of-age drama Moonlight will always be linked to Oscar’s infamous Envelope-Gate episode, the moment did establish Jenkins as one of the most talented directors to emerge out of Hollywood in recent years. Indeed, he followed up Moonlight—which deftly explored themes of identity, masculinity and sexuality—with the lovely and intimate adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk. And that was just his third feature-length film. We can’t wait to see what he does next.
46. Ron Howard (1954-)
The artist formerly known as Opie and Richie Cunningham has proven himself a wonder behind the camera over the past 40 years. Sure, he has an eye for straightforward and polished narratives (The Da Vinci Code,Solo: A Star Wars Movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Splash). And definitely check out the bittersweet 1989 comedy Parenthood if you haven’t already. But he also experimented with special effects big-time in the gratify-defying smash Apollo 13 in 1995. Meanwhile, A Beautiful Mind, for which he won the Best Director Oscar in 2002, is an old-fashioned, sweeping love story. The common thread: an underlying, heart-tugging warmth that harkens back to the streets of Mayberry.
47. Sofia Coppola (1971-)
Nepotism may have helped her get through the door, but Francis Coppola’s daughter long ago proved her salt. Beginning with the coming-of-age drama The Virgin Suicides in 2000 and moving right on through to Lost in Translation in 2003 (which led to her first Best Directing Oscar nomination), Marie Antoinette (2006), The Bling Ring (2013) and a 2017 remake of The Beguiled, Coppola focuses on the intimate, beautiful, dreamy and does it from the female perspective. In other words, she’s shied very, very, very far away from the hyper-masculinity on display in her father’s films. Nothing wrong with that.
48. Cameron Crowe (1957-)
The onetime Rolling Stone wunderkind evolved into a deft screenwriter and director. And some of his movie images are nothing short of iconic—think of John Cusack holding up his Boom Box in Say Anything (1989); a desperate Tom Cruise shouting “Show me the money!” into the telephone in Jerry Maguire (1996); the group singalong to Elton John on a tour bus in 2000’s Almost Famous. For that matter, even the peculiar Vanilla Sky in 2001 had Cruise running through a completely desolate Times Square. Here’s hoping Crowe has another No. 1 hit in him.
49. Ryan Coogler (1986-)
Though he has just three directorial features to his name and is the youngest on the list, Coogler has already made an indelible splash. After all, consider the terrific trifecta: His debut, the true-story drama Fruitvale Station (2013) found a balance between mind-blowing anger and human tragedy. The Rocky sequel, Creed (2015), was a supremely enjoyable movie that transcended sports. And with the Oscar-nominated extravaganza Black Panther, he used dynamic set pieces to change the superhero genre. We can’t wait to see what he does next.
50. Greta Gerwig (1983-)
As an actress, Gerwig impressed with indies such as Frances Ha, Mistress America and Greenberg. As a director, she’s blown audiences away with her smart, savvy choices. Her first solo effort, Lady Bird—inspired by her own high-school years in Sacramento—was a relatable and infectious mother-daughter tale that led to a Best Director Oscar nomination. Her remake of the classic Little Women showed the March sisters as fierce, independent women who didn’t need men to follow their passions. How fitting.
51. George Miller (1945-)
He doesn’t have the most expansive resume, but this is a case of quality over quantity. At an age when most of his peers started slowing down, the then 70-year-old Australian director went back to his Mad Max glory days of the 1970s and unveiled the post-apocalyptic Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, one of the most ferocious blockbusters of recent years. His only other output this millennium? Two animated movies about tap-dancing penguins: Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2. The first won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Go figure.
52. Andrea Arnold (1961-)
Many viewers discovered Arnold’s lyrical talents in 2019 via Big Little Lies, as she directed every episode of the spellbinding second season. But the Brit has been delivering vibrant work for more than a decade, from the psychological thriller Red Road (2006) to the tender coming-of-age story Fishtank (2009). Her raw 2016 opus American Honey depicted a sun-drenched road trip through America, exploring the divide between the haves and have-nots.
53. Taika Waititi (1975-)
The buzz started in 2014 with the clever and subversive vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows and grew two years later with the utterly charming adventure Hunt for the Wilderpeople. But what launched the New Zealander into the stratosphere was his ability to bring those same characteristics to both the superhero genre in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the quirky Holocaust-themed drama Jojo Rabbit (2019). No wonder he was recently tapped to write and direct his very own Star Wars movie.
54. M. Night Shyamalan (1970-)
There are third-act movie twists…and then there’s the jaw-dropping ending of the ghost story The Sixth Sense. The India-born Shyamalan wrote and directed the 1999 classic before his 30th birthday, and for that alone, he deserves a spot on the list. The past 20 years have been more of a mixed bag, with well-regarded hits (Split, Unbreakable) and flops (The Last Airbender, After Earth) on the resume. Still, he continues to put out consistently enjoyable and mind-bending work—and the best is possibly yet to come.
55. Denis Villeneuve (1967-)
Since his slow-burn English-language debut Prisoners with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in 2013, the French-Canadian director has been entrancing audiences with smart, grown-up and star-driven thrillers. (Yup, these movies really do exist!) He executed the artful and gripping Sicario (2015), Enemy (2014), Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) with precision, pulling at the heartstrings while making pulses race. More impressively, he often captured these emotions via stark silences and lack of movement.
56. John Carpenter (1948-)
Carpenter has never achieved the acclaim of Spielberg, Scorsese or Coppola but his body of work is just as influential. Though a master of the horror genre, he relies on suspense rather than gore. In the 1978 classic Halloween, for example, he didn’t show masked villain Michael Meyers brutally slay his victims. Instead, the director delivered scares through mounting tension in long, uninterrupted takes (same for the thriller Assault on Precinct 13 in 1976). And when he does go for the bloodshed, he goes big. Just look at the frozen creature feature The Thing (1982)…if you dare.
57. Mira Nair (1957-)
After graduating Harvard on a full scholarship, Nair made three documentaries about her home country of India (the latter of which, 1988’s Salaam Bombay!, was nominated for an Oscar and won an audience award at the Cannes Film Festival). The success paved the way for an established career. Her movies—including Mississippi Masala (1991), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Vanity Fair (2004), The Namesake (2006) and The Queen of Katwe (2016)–show an awareness for setting, and she renders her characters at their most vulnerable.
58. Danny Boyle (1956-)
Surreal sequences, strong use of vibrant color, a driving soundtrack, time-lapse sequences, point-of-view shots and voice-over narration are just some of the hallmarks of a Boyle movie. And yet he’s genre-hopped throughout his career. Among the best of his eclectic mix of movies: 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire (for which he won the Best Director Oscar), 1996’s Trainspotting, 2002’s 28 Days Later, 2010’s 127 Hours, 2016’s Steve Jobs and, most recently in 2019, the sweet time-warp rom-com Yesterday.
59. Nicole Holofcener (1960-)
Explosions, be damned. The writer and filmmaker behind Walking & Talking (1996), Lovely & Amazing (2001), Friends with Money (2006) and The Land of Steady Habits (2018) has forged a successful career via a radical approach: Creating humanistic dramedies featuring multidimensional characters that happen to be prickly, snappy and witty. Please do check out her finest work, 2013’s Enough Said, starring a never-better Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in one of his final roles.
60. Bob Fosse (1927-1987)
The creative former dancer and choreographer forged his modern style into his big-screen works and revolutionized dance on film. From 1972’s Cabaret to the autobiographical All That Jazz in 1979, he used fast cuts, zooms and tight rapid-fire editing to capture all the strain and sweat that goes into delivering a full-bodied performance. (And, in the case of 1974’s Lenny, a stand-up comedy routine.) His razzle-dazzle technique is still popular today. P.S. In 1973, that’s Fosse beating Coppola and The Godfather for Best Director Oscar.
61. Mel Brooks (1926-)
For almost 60 years, this writer and director has given audiences high-quality low-brow comedy. In fact, the story goes that one of Brooks’ biggest problems lensing the gut-busting spoofs The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Spaceballs (1987), History of the World Part I (1981) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) was that his casts constantly cracked up while the cameras were rolling. Nobody can time out the rhythm of comedy like this legend. May the Schwartz always be with him.
62. Bong Joon-ho (1969-)
He was one of the most exciting directors in the world even before he unleashed the brilliant and compassionate parable Parasite in 2019 (which resulted in a rare Palme d’Or win at the Cannes Film Festival and the Best Picture Oscar victory). Since breaking out with Memories of Murder in 2003, the South Korean native has flourished with mobster movies, taut thrillers, dystopian sci-fi and quirky adventures via The Host (2006), Mother (2009), the English-language Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017), respectively. Each of his films feature subversive humor, fleshed-out characters and a sharp perspective on social realism. The result is an unexpected freshness.
63. Sam Mendes (1965-)
Mendes’ background as a renowned theater director has strongly played into his filmmaking style. He often focuses on character development (1999’s Oscar-winning American Beauty, 2002’s Road to Perdition, 2008’s Revolutionary Road), while even his two most recent James Bond movies (Skyfall and Spectre) refused to settle for boilerplate action. But in 1917, Mendes took his most visceral approach yet: A World War I drama that unspooled as if it were filmed in a single take, the film enabled audiences to feel as if they were living out the events in real-time.
64. Marielle Heller (1979-)
A 15-year-old girl in San Francisco has an affair with her mother’s lover. A struggling author decides to plagiarize letters from famous writers to make ends meet. A cynical journalist strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mister Rogers. Heller directed these stories—Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—in a mere four-year-span from 2015-19, lending her warm and intimate touch to all the above. No wonder the Oakland native has become one of the most in-demand directors in Hollywood.
65. Spike Jonze (1969-)
Like Fincher, Jonze cut his teeth directing unforgettable music videos (“Buddy Holly,” “Sabotage,” “It’s Oh So Quiet”). With Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002), he put forth a brazenly hip and self-aware playfulness with a no-frills design aesthetic. His must-see work? The ultra-imaginative Her, about a man who falls in love with the voice in his computer system. It’s so ahead of its time that it doesn’t even count as sci-fi. Still, he returned to his music roots for his latest movie: The 2020 documentary Beastie Boys Story.
66. Lana Wachowski (1965-) and Lilly Wachowski (1967-)
Just stand back and marvel at the amazing The Matrix. Mashing the exuberant contemporary action movie with the artful technique of the Hong Kong martial-arts film (the slow-mo bullet shot has been oft-imitated but never quite duplicated) and the brainy intelligence of a sci-fi pic, the Keanu Reeves-starring 1999 film and its two sequels redefined the 21st century blockbuster. Even if the siblings, who also lensed Bound (1996), Speed Racer (2008) and Cloud Atlas (2012), never exceed this achievement, their legacy is on solid ground. That said, Matrix 4 is in the works.
67. Penny Marshall (1943-2018)
Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own that when it comes to baseball, the hard is what makes it great. Marshall made directing look easy. After a hit run in the sitcom Laverne & Shirley, she joined her big brother Garry Marshall behind the camera and scored with heartwarming comedies such as Big (1988), A League of Their Own (1992) and The Preacher’s Wife (1996). And her poignant 1990 true-story drama Awakenings, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, earned three Oscar nominations—including Best Picture. But not Best Director, sigh.
68. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (1963-)
Birdman and The Revenant are two wildly different films in tone, pace and atmosphere—and both were directed by Inarritu in consecutive years. That feat alone earns him a prime slot on this list (as well as Best Director Oscar wins in 2015 and 2016, respectively). The Mexican film director has also delved into themes of love, death, revenge and the power of communication in 2003’s 21 Grams, 2006’s Babel and his first film, the acclaimed 2000 crime drama Amores Perros.
69. Jordan Peele (1979-)
From 2012 to 2015, Peele was known for being one of the stars of the brutally funny Comedy Central sketch comedy show Key & Peele. Then he took audiences to the sunken place. With 2017’s Get Out, he scripted and directed a deeply impressive Oscar-nominated film about race relations that threaded the needle between horror, satire and straight comedy. His 2019 follow-up, the inventive and highly ambitious thriller Us, showed Hollywood that he knew how to beat the sophomore jinx.
70. Rob Reiner (1947-)
OK, OK, the actor-turned-director hasn’t turned in a successful movie in more than two decades. Can you handle this truth: That low batting average can’t detract from his string of sparkling works that will still be cherished two decades from now (and beyond). This Is Spinal Tap (1984). Stand by Me (1986). The Princess Bride (1987). When Harry Met Sally (1989). Misery (1990). A Few Good Men (1992). The American President (1995). As screenwriting legend William Goldman once said of his frequent collaborator, “His films have a certain comedy style, coupled with a sweetness and toughness.”
71. Nancy Meyers (1949-)
“Sometimes directing is like math,” Meyers once declared. “It’s a technical job and an artistic job, and combining those two things at the same time is kind of hard.” Meyers, who didn’t direct her first film until age 48 and a 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, makes it look easy. In the super-watchable, stylish comedies The Intern (2015), Something’s Gotta Give (2003), It’s Complicated (2009) and The Holiday (2006), the storyteller targets women of every age with her flawed and funny heroines. And her cozy interiors—ah, those spacious California kitchens!—are so consistent that they’re practically characters themselves.
72. Lulu Wang (1983-)
The 37-year-old Wang has already emerged as a burgeoning talent thanks to her award-winning 2019 autobiographical drama The Farewell, in which a young New Yorker (Awkwafina) visits her ailing Chinese grandmother while keeping the matriarch in the dark about her grim medical diagnosis. The film was not only tender, it expertly explored generational and geographic tensions. Wang’s next film, she says, is an ambitious sci-fi pic. Can’t wait.
73. John Hughes (1950-1999)
Don’t you—forget about him. Referred to by the late, great critic Roger Ebert as “the philosopher of adolescence,” Hughes’ stellar work—he directed eight movies all throughout the 1980s, including Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)—examined universally relatable and timeless ideas such as the yearning to be noticed, peer pressure and delicate social standings. Judd Apatow and Wes Anderson are just a few of the directors who’ve named him as an inspiration.
74. Anne Fletcher (1966-)
She was a renowned choreographer—Boogie Nights! Bring It On! She’s All That! —who stepped into the director’s chair for the 2006 breakout hit Step Up. (Hello there, Channing Tatum.) Since then, she’s worked with the likes of Katherine Heigl, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and Barbra Streisand in the highly re-watchable feel-good comedies 27 Dresses (2008), The Proposal (2009) and The Guilt Trip (2012). Her latest movie was the coming-of-age 2018 comedy Dumplin’ with Jennifer Aniston and Dolly Parton.
75. J.J. Abrams (1966-)
Abrams, a prodigal movie and TV screenwriter, is the ultimate movie studio guy. That’s a compliment, as his all-inclusive content appeals to all ages and creeds. Ranging from reboots and sequels (2006’s Mission: Impossible III, 2009’s Star Trek) to Spielberg-y adventures (2011’s Super 8), his films are reliably shiny and sturdy toys. His two Star Wars films, 2015’s The Force Awakens and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, embody this formula with a straightforward story, sleek production design and rollicking tone. Looking for film recommendations? Try the 100 best movies on Netflix right now.
