Top 50 favorite directors
December 19, 2004
NB: This list is incredibly subjective and will be in constant flux. Note that no one's going on the top ten or so unless I've seen at least 2 of their films, and there are plenty of (presumably) great directors whose work I've never sampled. So if someone's not on here at all, it's probably out of my own ignorance. Probably the only intentional exclusions are Akira Kurosawa and Mike Leigh — just not my cup of tea, at least so far. (Oh, and M. Night Shyamalan. But you should know he's a hack.) And some of the directors further down the list (eg, Stanley Kubrick) are way down there because so far my opinion is mixed. Anyway, carry on.
- Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate)
- Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore)
- Woody Allen (Manhattan, Annie Hall)
- Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window, Notorious)
- Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia)
- Francois Truffaut (Le Dernier Metro)
- Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries)
- Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby)
- Billy Wilder (Sunset Blvd., Some Like it Hot)
- Tim Burton (Ed Wood)
- Kenneth Branagh (Dead Again)
- James Ivory (The Remains of the Day)
- George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story, Holiday)
- David Lean (Brief Encounter)
- Lars Von Trier (Dancer in the Dark)
- Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan)
- Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull)
- Jacques Demy (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg)
- Peter Weir (The Truman Show)
- Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, Tootsie)
- Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride)
- Francois Ozon (8 Femmes)
- Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation)
- Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters)
- Neil Jordan (The Crying Game)
- Stephen Frears (Prick Up Your Ears)
- Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove)
- Luis Bunel (Belle de Jour)
- Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront)
- Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men)
- Frank Capra (Arsenic and Old Lace)
- Ang Lee (The Ice Storm)
- James L. Brooks (Broadcast News)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve)
- Pierre Jeunet (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain)
- John Huston (The African Queen)
- George Stevens (Woman of the Year)
- Kevin Smith (Dogma)
- Richard Curtis (Love Actually)
- Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future)
- Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
- Louis Malle (Fatale)
- Alejandro Amenabar (Abre Los Ojos)
- John Hughes (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
- Gary Ross (Pleasantville)
- Stephen Daldry (The Hours)
- Anthony Minghella (Truly, Madly, Deeply)
- Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
- Franco Zeffirelli (Hamlet)
- David Cronenberg (Spider)
