List of auteurs
Encyclopedia
The term auteur is used to describe film director
s (or, more rarely, producers, or writers) who are considered to have a distinctive, recognizable style, because they (a) repeatedly return to the same subject matter, (b) habitually address a particular psychological or moral theme, (c) employ a recurring visual and aesthetic style, or (d) demonstrate any combination of the above. In theory, an auteur's films are identifiable regardless of their genre
. The term was first applied in its cinematic sense in François Truffaut
's 1954 essay "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema" (see Auteur theory
).
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
s (or, more rarely, producers, or writers) who are considered to have a distinctive, recognizable style, because they (a) repeatedly return to the same subject matter, (b) habitually address a particular psychological or moral theme, (c) employ a recurring visual and aesthetic style, or (d) demonstrate any combination of the above. In theory, an auteur's films are identifiable regardless of their genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
. The term was first applied in its cinematic sense in François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
's 1954 essay "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema" (see Auteur theory
Auteur theory
In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...
).
List of auteurs
The following is supposed to be a list of directors whose status as an auteur is supported by published studies of their body of work. However, most entries on the list do not cite any published studies and reflect little more than the opinions of the individual editors who added them.A
- Chantal AkermanChantal AkermanChantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...
(1950–). BelgianBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, makes films in France. - Fatih AkinFatih AkinFatih Akın is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent.- Personal life :Akın was born in 1973 in Hamburg to parents of Turkish ethnicity...
(1973-). Turkish-German director. - Robert AldrichRobert AldrichRobert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert...
(1918–1983). American Hollywood director. - Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
(1935–). American independent filmIndependent filmAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
maker. - Pedro AlmodóvarPedro AlmodóvarPedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
(1949–). Spanish. - Robert AltmanRobert AltmanRobert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
(1925–2006). American. - Alejandro AmenábarAlejandro AmenábarAlejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos is a Spanish- Chilean film director. Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile to a Spanish mother and Chilean father, but the family moved to Spain just one year after his birth...
. Spanish. - Vijay AnandVijay AnandVijay Anand , also known as Goldie Anand, was an Indian filmmaker, producer, screen writer, editor, and actor, who is known for acclaimed films like Guide and Johnny Mera Naam ....
(Hindi) (1934-2004) - Paul Thomas AndersonPaul Thomas AndersonPaul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed five feature films: Hard Eight , Boogie Nights , Magnolia , Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood...
(1970) American. - Wes AndersonWes AndersonWesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....
(1969–). American. - Theo AngelopoulosTheo AngelopoulosTheodoros Angelopoulos is a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.-Life:Angelopoulos studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but after his military service went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC before returning...
(1936–). Greek. - Kenneth AngerKenneth AngerKenneth Anger is an American underground experimental filmmaker, occasional actor and author...
. American - Michelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
(1912–2007). Italian, made film in Europe and the United States. - Gregg ArakiGregg ArakiGregg Araki is an American independent filmmaker. He is involved in New Queer Cinema.-Early life:Araki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Santa Barbara, California...
(1959–). American - Vicente ArandaVicente ArandaVicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
(1926–). Spanish. - Denys ArcandDenys ArcandGeorges-Henri Denys Arcand, is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions...
(1941-). Canadian. - G Aravindan (1935–1991). Indian.
- Dario ArgentoDario ArgentoDario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
(Italy) - Darren AronofskyDarren AronofskyDarren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
American. (1969) - Fernando ArrabalFernando ArrabalFernando Arrabal Terán is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet. He settled in France in 1955, he describes himself as “desterrado,” or “half-expatriate, half-exiled.”...
(1932). Spanish. - Dorothy ArznerDorothy ArznerDorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
(1897–1979). American, Hollywood 1920s-30s. - Hal AshbyHal AshbyHal Ashby was an American film director and film editor.-Birth and early years:Born William Hal Ashby in Ogden, Utah, Ashby grew up in a Mormon household and had a tumultuous childhood as part of a dysfunctional family which included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide and his...
(1929–1988). American, worked in Hollywood. - Olivier AssayasOlivier AssayasOlivier Assayas is a French film director and screenwriter.He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short films and writing for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma.-Career:...
. French. - Jacques AudiardJacques AudiardJacques Audiard is a French film director, the son of Michel Audiard, also a notable screenwriter and film director.He won twice both the César Award for Best Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language, in 2005 for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and in 2010 for A Prophet...
. French.
B
- Ramin BahraniRamin BahraniRamin Bahrani is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert listed Bahrani's film Chop Shop as the 6th best film of the decade and hailed Bahrani as "the director of the decade." Bahrani was the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, and was the subject of...
(1975-). (USA) - Kailasam Balachander (India)
- Mario BavaMario BavaMario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
(Italy) - Michael BayMichael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
(USA) - Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
- Madhur BhandarkarMadhur BhandarkarMadhur Bhandarkar is a National Award-winning Indian film director, script writer, and producer. He is best known for his films such as Chandni Bar , Page 3 , Traffic Signal , and Fashion...
(1960–). Indian - Basu BhattacharyaBasu BhattacharyaBasu Bhattacharya was a Hindi film director , most famous for his 1966 film Teesri Kasam, starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman , which won the National Film Award for Best Film in 1967; he also produced Sparsh in 1985 starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, which won the Filmfare Best Movie...
(Hindi) (1934-1997) - Jean-Jacques BeineixJean-Jacques Beineix-Biography:In 1964, Jean-Jacques Beineix started his career as Jean Becker's assistant director on the famous French TV series, Les saintes chéries until the end of 1967. Then, in 1970 he worked for Claude Berri and in 1971 for Claude Zidi. In 1977, he directed his first short movie Le Chien de M....
. French - Shyam BenegalShyam BenegalShyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur , Nishant Manthan and Bhumika he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India although he himself has expressed dislike in the term preferring his work to...
(1934–). Indian. - Ingmar BergmanIngmar BergmanErnst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
(1918–2007). SwedishSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. - Bernardo BertolucciBernardo BertolucciBernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
(1941–) Italian, makes films in Europe and the USA. - Susanne BierSusanne BierSusanne Bier is a Danish film director best known for her feature films Brothers, After the Wedding and the Academy-Award-winning In a Better World.-Life and work:Susanne Bier was born to Jewish parents in Copenhagen, Denmark...
(Denmark) - Bong Joon-hoBong Joon-hoBong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.-Biography:He was born in Daegu in 1969 and decided to become a filmmaker while in middle school, perhaps influenced by an artistic family He majored in sociology in Yonsei University in the late 1980s and was a member of the film club...
(1969–). South Korean filmmaker. - John BoormanJohn BoormanJohn Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
. (1933–). British. - Danny BoyleDanny BoyleDaniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
(UK) - Catherine BreillatCatherine BreillatCatherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...
(1948-). French. - Robert BressonRobert Bresson-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
(1901–1999). French. - Edwin BrienenEdwin BrienenEdwin Brienen is a Dutch film director.-Biography:After studying philosophy and psychology, Edwin Brienen embarked on a career as a radio host at the age of 22. His programs for Dutch broadcasting association VPRO attracted a nationwide following. On television he starred in the underground series...
(1971–). Dutch, makes cult films in Germany and Europe. - Lino BrockaLino BrockaCatalino Ortiz Brocka is known as one of the greatest film directors of the Philippines. Brocka was openly homosexual and many of his films incorporated LGBT themes into their often dramatic storylines....
(1970-1991). Filipino. Brocka was openly homosexual and many of his films incorporated LGBT themes into their often dramatic storylines. - Albert BrooksAlbert BrooksAlbert Lawrence Brooks is an American actor, voice actor, writer, comedian and director. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for his role in Broadcast News...
(1947–). American - Jan BucquoyJan BucquoyJan Bucquoy is an anarchist and author-filmmaker born in Harelbeke, Belgium who started as a theatre practitioner and who worked as a cartoon-scriptwriter.-Career:...
(1945-). Belgian, maker of cult movies. - Luis BuñuelLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
(1900–1983). Spanish, made films in Europe and Mexico. - Tim BurtonTim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
(1958–). American, Hollywood filmmaker. - Leonid BerdichevskyLeonid BerdichevskyLeonid Berdichevsky is a world renowned artist, writer and film-maker. He graduated from the State Academy of Cinematography in Moscow in 1970. Since 1988, Berdichevsky has been living and working in Toronto, Canada. His works are published in Russian language publications in the United States...
(1945-). - Alice Guy Blache (1873–1968). French. Made films in France and the United States. The first woman film director and producer.
- Mel BrooksMel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
(1926-) American comedic director, screen writer, and producer. - Tod BrowningTod BrowningTod Browning was an American motion picture actor, director and screenwriter.Browning's career spanned the silent and talkie eras...
(1882–1962). USA
C
- Sergio CorbucciSergio CorbucciSergio Corbucci was an Italian film director. He is best known for his very violent yet intelligent spaghetti westerns...
(1926-1990). Italian. - Silvio Caiozzi (1944–). Chilean.
- James CameronJames CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
(1954-). Canadian. - Jane CampionJane CampionJane Campion is a filmmaker and screenwriter. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the United States...
(1954–). New Zealander. - Frank CapraFrank CapraFrank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
(1897–1991). American. - Laurent CantetLaurent CantetLaurent Cantet is a French director, born on June 15, 1961 at Melle . His parents were schoolteachers in Ardilleux.On 25 May 2008, he received the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes 2008, for the movie Entre les murs.- As director :...
(France) - Leos CaraxLeos CaraxLeos Carax is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl , and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge and the controversial Pola X...
(1960–). French. - Marcel CarnéMarcel Carné-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
(1906–1996). French. - John CarpenterJohn CarpenterJohn Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
(USA) - John CassavetesJohn CassavetesJohn Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
(1929–1989). American, independent filmmaker. - Nuri Bilge CeylanNuri Bilge CeylanNuri Bilge Ceylan is a Turkish photographer and film director. He is married to the filmmaker, photographer, and actress Ebru Ceylan, his co-star in İklimler .-Life:Ceylan learned photography at age 15, and developed an interest in film at 22....
(1959–). Turkish. - Youssef ChahineYoussef ChahineYoussef Chahine was an Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since 1950. He was credited with launching the career of actor Omar Sharif...
(1926–). Egyptian. - Claude ChabrolClaude ChabrolClaude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
(1930–2010). French. - Charlie ChaplinCharlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
(1889–1977). British, made films in Hollywood. - Basu ChatterjeeBasu ChatterjeeBasu Chatterjee is an Indian film director. His films are very similar to those of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Like Mukherjee, he built his plots on middle-class lives.He was born in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India....
(Hindi) (1930-) - Chen KaigeChen KaigeChen Kaige is a Chinese film director and a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema. His films are known for their visual flair and epic storytelling.-Early life:...
(1952–). Chinese. - Stephen ChowStephen ChowStephen Chow Sing-Chi is a Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter, film director and producer.- Professional career :Stephen Chow began as a temporary actor for TVB. He entered TVB in early 1980s, and was trained there, although he had few opportunities to appear in films. Chow graduated from...
(1962-). Hong Kong Chinese. - Alice Chuangstein (2000-). American.
- René ClairRené ClairRené Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
(1898–1981). French. - Larry ClarkLarry ClarkLawrence Donald "Larry" Clark is an American film director, photographer, writer and film producer who is best known for the movie Kids and his photography book Tulsa...
(1943-). American. - Henri-Georges ClouzotHenri-Georges ClouzotHenri-Georges Clouzot was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques, which are critically recognized to be among the greatest films from the 1950s...
(1904–1977). French. - Jean CocteauJean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
(1889–1963). French. - Tony Comstock (1966-). American
- Coen brothersCoen BrothersJoel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
(USA) - Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
(1939-). American, mostly Hollywood - Sofia CoppolaSofia CoppolaSofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
(1971-). American. - Pedro CostaPedro CostaPedro Costa is a Portuguese film director.He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict the marginalised people in desperate living situations...
(1959–). PortuguesePortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... - David CronenbergDavid CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
- Cameron CroweCameron CroweCameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes....
(USA) - Alfonso CuarónAlfonso CuarónAlfonso Cuarón Orozco is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and film producer, best known for his films Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y tu mamá también, and A Little Princess.- Early life :...
(1961–). Mexican. - George CukorGeorge CukorGeorge Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
(USA)
D
- Jean-Pierre and Luc DardenneDardenne brothersBrothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...
(1951–, 1951–). BelgianBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. - Jules DassinJules DassinJulius "Jules" Dassin , was an American film director, with Jewish-Russian origins. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, and subsequently moved to France where he revived his career.-Early life:...
(1911–). American, made films in France after being blacklistedHollywood blacklistThe Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
. - Terence Davies (1945-). British.
- Brian De PalmaBrian De PalmaBrian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
(1940-) - Jonathan DemmeJonathan DemmeRobert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
(USA) - Jacques DemyJacques DemyJacques Demy was one of the most approachable filmmakers to appear in the wake of the French New Wave. Uninterested in the formal experimentation of Alain Resnais, or the political agitation of Jean-Luc Godard, Demy instead created a self-contained fantasy world closer to that of François...
(1931–1990). French, key New WaveFrench New WaveThe New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
filmmaker. - Claire DenisClaire DenisClaire Denis is a French film director and Professor of Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Early life:...
(1948–). French. - Vittorio De SicaVittorio de SicaVittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
(1901–1974). Italian, key neorealistItalian neorealismItalian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
filmmaker. - Stanley DonenStanley DonenStanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...
. American. (1924-) - Alexander DovzhenkoAlexander DovzhenkoAleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko , was a Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director of Ukrainian descent. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin.- Biography :...
(1894–1956). SovietSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. - Carl Theodor DreyerCarl Theodor DreyerCarl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
(1889–1968). DanishDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. - Bruno DumontBruno DumontBruno Dumont is a French film director. To date, he has directed five feature films, all of which border somewhere between realistic drama and the avant-garde. His films have won several awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Two of Dumont's films have won the Grand Prix award: both L'Humanité and...
(1958–). French. - Guru DuttGuru DuttVasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone , popularly known as Guru Dutt, was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He is often credited with ushering in the golden era of Hindi cinema...
(1925–1964). Indian.
E
- Jessica Earley (1981-). American.
- Clint EastwoodClint EastwoodClinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
(1930-). American. - Blake EdwardsBlake EdwardsBlake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
(1922–2010). American. - Atom EgoyanAtom EgoyanAtom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
(1960–). Canadian. - Sergei EisensteinSergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
(1898–1948). Soviet. - Jean EpsteinJean EpsteinJean Epstein was a French filmmaker, film theorist, literary critic, and novelist. Although he is remembered today primarily for his adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, Epstein directed three dozen films and was an influential critic of literature and film from the...
French. - Victor EriceVíctor EriceVíctor Erice Aras is a Spanish film director.He studied law, political science, and economics at the University of Madrid. He also attended the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia in 1963 to study film direction...
(1940-). Spanish. - Mckay Evans (1991-). American
F
- Rainer Werner FassbinderRainer Werner FassbinderRainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
(1945–1982). German, key New WaveNew German CinemaNew German cinema is a period in German cinema which lasted from the late 1960s into the 1980s. It saw the emergence of a new generation of directors...
filmmaker. - Federico FelliniFederico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
(1920–1993). Italian. - Abel FerraraAbel FerraraAbel Ferrara is an American film screenwriter and director. He is best known as an independent filmmaker of such films as The Driller Killer , Ms. 45 , King of New York , Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral .-Early life:Ferrara was born in the Bronx of Italian and Irish descent...
(USA) - Larry FessendenLarry Fessenden-Life and career:He is president of Glass Eye Pix, an independent film production company based in New York City. Fessenden produced the Dark Sky film The Inkeepers which is directed by Ti West and the thriller Hypothermia, besides his work as producer he stars in the psychological thriller I Can...
(1963–). American. - David FincherDavid FincherDavid Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
(1962–). American. - Robert Flaherty (USA)
- Victor FlemingVictor FlemingVictor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
(USA) - Miloš FormanMiloš FormanJan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
(1932–). CzechCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, makes films in Hollywood. - John FordJohn FordJohn Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
(1894–1973). American. - Stephen FrearsStephen FrearsStephen Arthur Frears is an English film director.-Early life:Frears was born in Leicester, England to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant. He did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s...
(1941-). British - Lucio FulciLucio FulciLucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
(1927–1996). Italian. - Samuel FullerSamuel FullerSamuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:...
(1912–1997). American.
G
- Vincent GalloVincent GalloVincent Gallo is an Italian-American film director and actor. Though he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, he is most associated with independent movies, including Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, did the music for and starred in; The Brown Bunny, which he also...
(1962-). American. - Abel GanceAbel GanceAbel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. He is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse , La Roue , and the monumental Napoléon .-Early life:...
(1889–1981). French. - Matteo GarroneMatteo GarroneMatteo Garrone is an Italian film maker.Born in Rome, the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone and a photographer, in 1996 Garrone won the Sacher d'Oro, an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short film Silhouette, that became one of the three episodes that are on his first long film ...
(Italy) - Costa Gavras (1933–) GreekGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, makes films in France and the United States. - Ritwik Ghatak (1925–1976). Indian, independent BengaliBengali languageBengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
filmmaker. - Gautam GhoseGautam GhoseGoutam Ghose is one of the most acclaimed film directors of modern India. Born in Calcutta. Graduated from Calcutta University....
(Bengali/Hindi) (1950-) - Terry GilliamTerry GilliamTerrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
(1940–). American born British, makes films in the UK and US. - Sergio GiralSergio GiralSergio Giral Sergio Giral is a renowned Black Cuban-American film writer and director, born in Havana, Cuba from an American mother and a Cuban father. He was raised in New York City, as an aspiring young painter in the days of the Beatnick generation...
. Cuban. - Amos GitaiAmos GitaiAmos Gitai , born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel, is an Israeli filmmaker and director. He is mainly known for making documentaries and experimental / minimalist feature films...
(1950–). Israeli - Crispin GloverCrispin GloverCrispin Hellion Glover is an American film actor, director and screenwriter, recording artist, publisher, and author. Glover is known for portraying eccentric people on screen such as George McFly in Back to the Future, Layne in River's Edge, unfriendly recluse Rubin Farr in Rubin and Ed, the...
(1964-). American. - Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
(1930–). French, key New WaveFrench New WaveThe New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
filmmaker. - Noël GodinNoël GodinNoël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
(1945-). Belgian, independent filmmaker and writer. - Michel GondryMichel GondryMichel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
(1963–). French. - Alejandro González IñárrituAlejandro González IñárrituAlejandro González Iñárritu 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 DGA of America for Best Director. He is also the first and only Mexican born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene...
(1963–). Mexican. - Adoor GopalakrishnanAdoor GopalakrishnanMoutatthu "Adoor" Gopalakrishnan Unnithan is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Adoor Gopalakrishnan had a major role in revolutionizing Malayalam cinema and is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of India.. Adoor's first film Swayamvaram pioneered the new wave cinema...
(1941–). Indian, independent filmmaker. - David Gow, writer/director/producer "Steel ToesSteel ToesSteel Toes is a 2006 film directed by David Gow and Mark Adam, and starring Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn. It was filmed in Montréal, Canada, and was produced by Galafilm. The movie was based on writer/director David Gow's play Cherry Docs ....
", also a playwright and theatre director - James GrayJames Gray (film director)James Gray is an American film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Gray was born in New York City of Russian Jewish descent. His father was once an electronics contractor...
(1969-). American. - David Gordon GreenDavid Gordon GreenDavid Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He has directed dramas such as George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Snow Angels, as well as the thriller Undertow, all of which he wrote or co-wrote...
(USA) - Paul GreengrassPaul GreengrassPaul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.-Life and career:...
(UK, makes films in America as well) - Peter GreenawayPeter GreenawayPeter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
(1942–). British, independent, avant-garde filmmaker. - D.W. Griffith (1875–1948). American.
- Ruy GuerraRuy GuerraRuy Alexandre Guerra Coelho Pereira is a film director, screenwriter, film editor, and actor in Brazil. Guerra was born a Portuguese citizen in Lourenço Marques in Moçambique, when it was still a colony of Portugal....
(1931–). MozambicanMozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, makes films in Brazil. - Yilmaz GüneyYilmaz GüneyYılmaz Güney, was a Kurdish film director, scenarist, novelist and actor from Turkey. Many of his works are devoted to the plight of ordinary, working class people in Turkey.- Biography :...
(1937–1984). TurkishTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. - Gulzar (Hindi) (1936-)
- Gurudutt (Hindi) (1925-1964)
- Tomás Gutiérrez AleaTomás Gutiérrez AleaTomás Gutiérrez Alea was a Cuban filmmaker. He wrote and directed more than 20 features, documentaries, and short films, which are known for his sharp insight into post-Revolutionary Cuba, and possess a delicate balance between dedication to the revolution and criticism of the social, economic,...
(1928–1996). CubanCubansCubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
.
H
- Kamal HaasanKamal HaasanKamal Haasan is an Indian film actor, screenwriter and director, considered to be one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema. He is widely acclaimed as an actor and is well known for his versatility in acting...
(India) - Hal HartleyHal HartleyHal Hartley is an American film director, screenwriter, producer composer, who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and 1990s...
(USA) - Michael HanekeMichael HanekeMichael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
(1942–). Austrian, - James Marcus Haney (USA)
- Howard HawksHoward HawksHoward Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
(1896–1977). American. - Todd HaynesTodd HaynesTodd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
(USA) - Rolf de HeerRolf de HeerRolf de Heer is a Dutch film director, writer and producer living in Australia. De Heer was born in Heemskerk in The Netherlands but migrated to Sydney when he was eight years old. He attended the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney. His company is called Vertigo Productions and...
(Australia) - Werner HerzogWerner HerzogWerner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
(1942–). German, key independent New WaveNew German CinemaNew German cinema is a period in German cinema which lasted from the late 1960s into the 1980s. It saw the emergence of a new generation of directors...
filmmaker. - Walter Hill (USA)
- Alfred HitchcockAlfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
(1899–1980). British, made films in Hollywood. - Agnieszka HollandAgnieszka HollandAgnieszka Holland is a Polish film and TV director and screenwriter. Best recognized for her highly political contributions to Polish cinema, Holland is one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers.-Personal life:...
(1948–). Polish. - Ishirō HondaIshiro HondaIshirō Honda , sometimes miscredited in foreign releases as "Inoshiro Honda", was a Japanese film director...
(1911–1993). Japan. - Hong Sang-sooHong Sang-sooHong Sang-soo is a South Korean film director. Hong's directorial debut, The Day a Pig Fell into the Well , was praised by South Korean critics for its originality and won international film prizes...
(1960–). South Korean filmmaker. - Hou Hsiao-HsienHou Hsiao-HsienHou Hsiao-Hsien is an award-winning film director and a leading figure of Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement.-Biography:...
(1947–). TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese, key New Wave filmmaker. - King HuKing HuKing Hu was a Hong Kong- and Taiwan-based Chinese film director whose Wuxia films brought Chinese cinema to new technical and artistic heights. His films Come Drink with Me , Dragon Gate Inn and A Touch of Zen inaugurated a new generation of wuxia films in the late 1960s...
(1931–1997). Chinese, made films in Hong Kong and Taiwan. - John Hughes (1950–2009) (USA)
- Danièle Huillet (1936–2006). French, collaborated with husband Jean-Marie Straub.
- Steven HAuse (USA)
I
- Kon IchikawaKon Ichikawawas a Japanese film director.-Early life and career:Ichikawa was born in Ise, Mie Prefecture. In the 1930s Ichikawa attended a technical school in Osaka. Upon graduation, in 1933, he found a job with a local rental film studio, J.O. Studio, in their animation department...
(1915–2008). Japanese, postwar New Wave filmmaker. - Im Kwon-TaekIm Kwon-taekIm Kwon-taek is one of South Korea's most renowned film directors. In an active and prolific career, his films have won many domestic and international film festival awards as well as considerable box-office success, and helped bring international attention to the Korean film industry.- Early life...
(South Korea) - Shohei ImamuraShohei Imamurawas a Japanese film director. Imamura was the first Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards.His eldest son Daisuke Tengan is also a script writer and film director, and worked on the screenplays to Imamura's filmsThe Eel , Dr...
(1926–2006). Japanese, key New Wave filmmaker. - James IvoryJames Ivory (director)James Francis Ivory is an American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
(1928–). American, made films in the UK. - G.V. Iyer (Kannada) (1917-2003)
J
- Derek JarmanDerek JarmanMichael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
(1942–1994). English, independent filmmaker, stage designer, artist and writer . - Jim JarmuschJim JarmuschJames R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
(1953–). American, independent filmmaker. - Jean-Pierre JeunetJean-Pierre Jeunet-Life and career:Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in Roanne, Loire, France. He bought his first camera at the age of 17 and made short films while studying animation at Cinémation Studios. He befriended Marc Caro, a designer and comic book artist who became his longtime collaborator and...
(1953–). French. - Jia ZhangkeJia ZhangkeJia Zhangke is a Chinese film director. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yuan....
(1970–). Chinese. - Alejandro JodorowskyAlejandro JodorowskyAlejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a Chilean filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru...
(1929–). Chilean, surrealist, makes films in Mexico and France. - Spike JonzeSpike JonzeSpike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
(1969-). American. - Peter JacksonPeter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
(New Zealand) - Rian JohnsonRian JohnsonRian Craig Johnson is an American writer and director, who won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with his debut feature, Brick.-Background:...
American independent filmmaker. Famous for BrickBrick (film)Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It was Johnson's directorial debut and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival...
and The Brothers BloomThe Brothers BloomThe Brothers Bloom is a 2008 American postmodern caper film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Ricky Jay, Rinko Kikuchi, and Robbie Coltrane...
. - Neil JordanNeil JordanNeil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
Irish film-maker.
K
- Puttanna KanagalPuttanna KanagalPuttanna Kanagal was one of the most prominent Kannada film directors of the 1960s and the 70s. Although the majority of his films were on offbeat or taboo subjects, he endeared himself to both the critics and ordinary film goers alike. He also directed a handful Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and...
(Kannada) - Raj KapoorRaj KapoorKnown as Ranbir Raj Kapoor Rāj Kapūr, 14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988), also known as The Show-Man, was an Indian film actor, producer and director of Hindi cinema. He was the winner of nine Filmfare Awards, while his films Awaara and Boot Polish were nominated for the Palme d'Or at the...
(Hindi) (1924-1988) - Phil KarlsonPhil KarlsonPhil Karlson was a film director known for his no-nonsense film noirs. Karlson directed 99 River Street, Kansas City Confidential and Hell's Island all with actor John Payne in the early 1950s...
(USA) - B.V. Karanth (Kannada) (1929-2002)
- Girish KarnadGirish KarnadGirish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language...
(Kannada) (1938-)) - Girish KasaravalliGirish KasaravalliGirish Kasaravalli is a noted film director, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema in Kannada cinema, who has won the National Film Award for Best Film four times, Ghatashraddha , Tabarana Kathe , Thaayi Saheba and Dweepa...
(Kannada) (1950-) - Mani KaulMani KaulMani Kaul was an Indian film director of Hindi films. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and later became a teacher. Started his career with Uski Roti , which won him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie, he went on to win...
(Hindi) (1944-2011) - Aki KaurismäkiAki Kaurismäki-Career:After studying Media Studies at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki started his career as a co-director in the films of his elder brother Mika Kaurismäki. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment , Dostoyevsky's famous crime story set in modern-day Helsinki...
(Finland) - Elia KazanElia KazanElia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
(Turkey, made films in the USA) - Buster KeatonBuster KeatonJoseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
(USA) - Mehboob Khan (Hindi) (1907-1964)
- Abbas KiarostamiAbbas KiarostamiAbbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
(1940- ) (Iran) Iranian filmmaker. - Krzysztof KieślowskiKrzysztof KieslowskiKrzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
(1941–1996) (Poland) - Kim Jee-woon (1964–). South Korean filmmaker.
- Kim Ki-dukKim Ki-dukKim Ki-duk is a South Korean filmmaker noted for his idiosyncratic "art-house" cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit. He is not related to the Kim Ki-duk who directed Yonggary in the 1960s...
(1960- ) (South Korea) - Takeshi KitanoTakeshi Kitanois a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
(Japan) - Masaki Kobayashi (Japan)
- Satoshi KonSatoshi Konwas a Japanese anime director and manga artist from Kushiro, Hokkaidō and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association . He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is sometimes credited as in the credits of Paranoia Agent...
(1963–2010) (Japan) - Andrei KonchalovskyAndrei KonchalovskyAndrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky is a Soviet-American and Russian film director, film producer and screenwriter....
(Soviet Union) - Hirokazu KoreedaHirokazu Koreedais a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. His films explore themes of memory, death, and coming to terms with loss.Koreeda originally planned to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University instead worked as an assistant director on documentaries for TV Man Union...
(1962– ) (Japan) - Harmony KorineHarmony KorineThe story is told from the perspective of a young man suffering from untreated schizophrenia, played by Ewen Bremner, as he tries to understand his deteriorating world. Julien's abusive father is played by Werner Herzog...
(1973- ) (USA) - Stanley KubrickStanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
(1928–1999) (USA) - Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawawas a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
(1910–1998) (Japan) Post-war Japanese filmmaker. - Kiyoshi KurosawaKiyoshi Kurosawais a Japanese filmmaker. He is best known for his many contributions to the Japanese horror genre.-Biography:Born in Kobe on July 19, 1955, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is not related to director Akira Kurosawa...
(1955-) (Japan) - Emir KusturicaEmir KusturicaEmir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...
(Serbia) - Stanley KwanStanley KwanStanley Kwan is a Hong Kong Second Wave film director and producer.Kwan landed a job at the TVB after receiving a mass communications degree at Hong Kong Baptist College...
(Hong Kong) - Mikhail KalatozovMikhail KalatozovMikhail Kalatozov born Mikheil Kalatozishvili was a Georgian/Russian film director. Born in Tiflis , he studied economics before starting his film career as an actor and later cinematographer....
(Soviet) - Richard KellyRichard KellyRichard Kelly or Kelley may refer to:*Richard Kelly , founder of the Tuam Herald newspaper in 1837*Richard Kelly , American film director, known for 2001's Donnie Darko...
(USA)
L
- Fritz LangFritz LangFriedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
(Austria) Austrian and American (Hollywood) filmmaker. - David LeanDavid LeanSir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
(UK) - Patrice LecontePatrice LecontePatrice Leconte is a French film director, actor, comic strip writer, and screenwriter.-Biography:...
(France) - Ang LeeAng LeeAng Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
(Taiwan/USA) - Spike LeeSpike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
(USA) - Mike LeighMike LeighMichael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
(United Kingdom) - Sergio LeoneSergio LeoneSergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
(Italy) - Sarah Lewen (United States)
- Jerry LewisJerry LewisJerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
(US) - Richard LinklaterRichard Linklater-Early life:Linklater was born in Houston, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University and left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through...
(US) - Ken LoachKen LoachKenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
(UK) - Joseph LoseyJoseph LoseyJoseph Walton Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood...
(USA, made films in the USA and UK) - Ernst LubitschErnst LubitschErnst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
(USA) - George LucasGeorge LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
(USA) - Baz LuhrmannBaz LuhrmannMark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
(Australia) - Sidney LumetSidney LumetSidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
(USA) - Bigas LunaBigas LunaJuan José Bigas Luna is a Spanish film director. He began his professional career in the design world, creating the Estudio Gris with Carlos Riart in 1969. In his earlier exhibitions, at the beginning of the sixties, he showed a great interest in conceptual art and the emerging visual technologies...
(Spain) - Ida LupinoIda LupinoIda Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
(USA) - David LynchDavid LynchDavid Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
(1946- )(USA)
M
- Guy MaddinGuy MaddinGuy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...
(Canada) - Dušan MakavejevDušan MakavejevDušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
(Serbia) - Mohsen MakhmalbafMohsen MakhmalbafMohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer. During 2007 he was the president of Asian Film Academy.Makhmalbaf's films have been widely presented in international film festivals in the past ten years. The multi-award-winning director, belongs to the new wave...
(Iran) - Terrence MalickTerrence MalickTerrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....
(USA) - Louis MalleLouis MalleLouis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
(France) - David MametDavid MametDavid Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
(USA) - Joseph L. MankiewiczJoseph L. MankiewiczJoseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
(USA) - Michael MannMichael Mann (film director)Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. For his work, he has received nominations from international organizations and juries, including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
(USA) - José Mojica Marins (1936-) (Brazil) Filmmaker, actor, screenwriter, and television and media personality.
- Chris MarkerChris MarkerChris Marker is a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La jetée , A Grin Without a Cat , Sans Soleil and AK , an essay film on the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa...
(France) - Shane MeadowsShane MeadowsShane Meadows is an English film director, screenwriter, occasional actor and BAFTA winner.-Background:Meadows grew up in the Westlands Road area of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. His father was a long distance lorry driver and his mother worked in a fish and chip shop...
(UK) - Julio MédemJulio MedemJulio Médem is a Spanish writer and film director.Medem was born in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain and showed an interest in movies since childhood, when he would take his father's Super 8 camera and shoot at night, while nobody was paying attention...
(Spain) - Deepa MehtaDeepa MehtaDeepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...
(Indian born Canadian) - Ketan MehtaKetan MehtaKetan Mehta is an Indian film director, who has also directed documentaries and television serials.-Early life and education:Born in Navsari in Gujarat, Ketan Mehta did his schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi and later graduated in film direction from Film and Television Institute of...
(India) (1952-) - Fernando MeirellesFernando MeirellesFernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
(Brazil, makes American films as well) - Georges MélièsGeorges MélièsGeorges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
(France) - Jean-Pierre Melville (France)
- Sam MendesSam MendesSamuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
(UK) - Brillante MendozaBrillante MendozaBrillante Mendoza is a Filipino film director. He has directed nine films since 2005. He won the award for Best Director for his film Kinatay at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival...
(Philippines) - Takashi MiikeTakashi Miikeis a highly prolific and controversial Japanese filmmaker. He has directed over seventy theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. In the years 2001 and 2002 alone, Miike is credited with directing fifteen productions...
(Japan) - Vincente MinnelliVincente MinnelliVincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
(1903–1986) (USA) - Hayao MiyazakiHayao Miyazakiis a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
(Japan) - Kenji MizoguchiKenji MizoguchiKenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
(1898–1956) (Japan) Key Japanese filmmaker. - Sohrab ModiSohrab ModiSohrab Modi was an Indian Parsi stage and film actor, director and producer. His films include Khoon Ka Khoon , a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Sikandar, Pukar, Prithvi Vallabh, Jhansi ki Rani, Mirza Ghalib, and Nausherwan-e-dil . His films always carried a message of strong commitment to...
(Hindi) (1897-1984) - Michael MooreMichael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
(1954-) (USA) Director, producer, author, & activist. - Nanni MorettiNanni MorettiGiovanni "Nanni" Moretti is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.-Life and work:Moretti was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol , in 1953 to parents who were teachers...
(Italy) - Errol MorrisErrol MorrisErrol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...
- American documentary film director - Hrishikesh MukherjeeHrishikesh MukherjeeHrishikesh Mukherjee ) was a famous Indian film director known for a number of films, including Satyakam, Chupke Chupke, Anupama, Anand, Abhimaan, Guddi, Gol Maal, Aashirwad, Bawarchi, and Namak Haraam.Popularly known as Hrishi-da, he directed 42 films during his career spanning over four decades,...
(Hindi) (1922-2006) - Kira MuratovaKira MuratovaKira Muratova is a Soviet and Ukrainian film director, screenwriter and actress. She was born in 1934 in Soroca, Bessarabia, Romania . She was born to a Romanian mother and a Russian father. Muratova is known for her unusual and original directorial style...
- Russian film director - F.W. Murnau (Germany)
- Geoff MurphyGeoff MurphyGeoff Murphy is a successful New Zealand filmmaker best known for his work during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the last half of the 1970s....
(New Zealand) - Fei MuFei MuFei Mu was a major Chinese film director from the pre-Communist era.-Biography:Born in Shanghai, China, Fei Mu is considered by many to be one of the major film directors prior to the communist revolution in 1949...
(1906–1951) (China) Pre-revolutionary Chinese filmmaker. - Cristian Mungiu (Romania)
- Carl Mygind (1900–2000) (Norway) (Norwegian pre-modern).
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- Mikio NaruseMikio Narusewas a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967.Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook...
(1905–1969) (Japan) Key Japanese filmmaker. - Christopher NolanChristopher NolanChristopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...
(1970-) (UK) - Raphael NadjariRaphael NadjariRaphaël Nadjari is a French born writer and director for film and television.In 1993, Nadjari started working for French television as a writer and director...
(1971-) (FR/IL) - Govind NihalaniGovind NihalaniGovind Nihalani is an Indian director, cinematographer, and also a screenwriter and film producer. He has been directing Hindi films since the late seventies, and worked in the television medium.- Biography :...
(1940-) (India) - MysskinMysskinMysskin is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2006 with Chithiram Pesuthadi. His other directorials Anjathe and Nandalala received high critical acclaim...
(1971-) (Tamil)
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- Manoel de OliveiraManoel de OliveiraManoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira, GCSE is a Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Porto. He began working on films in the late 1920s, but did not receive international recognition until the early 1970s. Since the late 1980s he has been one of the most prolific working film directors and...
(Portugal) - Max OphülsMax OphülsMaximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
(Germany) - Mamoru OshiiMamoru OshiiMamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director, and writer. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of popular anime, including Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Ghost in the Shell, and Patlabor 2...
(Japan) - Nagisa OshimaNagisa Oshimais a Japanese film director and screenwriter. After graduating from Kyoto University he was hired by Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959....
(1932-) Japanese, New Wave filmmaker, critic & theorist. - Katsuhiro OtomoKatsuhiro Otomois a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
(Japan) - Idrissa OuedraogoIdrissa OuedraogoIdrissa Ouedraogo is a film director from Burkina Faso. He is best known for his films Yaaba and Tilaï.-Biography:...
(Burkina Faso) - François OzonFrançois OzonFrançois Ozon is a French film director and screenwriter and whose films are usually characterized by sharp satirical wit and a freewheeling view on human sexuality....
(France) - Yasujiro OzuYasujiro Ozuwas a prominent Japanese film director and script writer. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work...
(1903–1963) (Japan) Key Japanese filmmaker.
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- P.Ramlee (MAS) (1929-1973)
- Georg Wilhelm PabstGeorg Wilhelm Pabst-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
(Germany) - PadmarajanPadmarajanP. Padmarajan was an Indian author, screenwriter, and film director who contributed in Malayalam language. Padmarajan was the founder of a new school of film making in Malayalam, along with Bharathan, in the 1980s, which created films that were widely received while also being critically acclaimed...
(India) - Jafar PanahiJafar PanahiJafar Panahi is an Iranian filmmaker and is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement. He has gained recognition from film theorists and critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the...
(Iran) - Alan ParkerAlan ParkerSir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.-Life and career:...
(UK) (1944-) - Pier Paolo PasoliniPier Paolo PasoliniPier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
(Italy) - Sergei Parajanov (USSR)
- Sai ParanjpyeSai ParanjpyeSai Parānjpye is a movie director and a screenwriter in India. She is the director of award-winning movies, Sparsh, Katha, Chasme Buddoor, and Disha....
(Hindi) (1938-) - Park Chan-wookPark Chan-wookPark Chan-wook is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Park is most known for his films Joint Security Area, Thirst and what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of...
(South Korea) - Alexander PayneAlexander PayneAlexander Payne, born Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.- Early life :...
(USA) - Sam PeckinpahSam PeckinpahDavid Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
(USA) - Nelson Pereira dos Santos (Brazil)
- Tyler PerryTyler PerryTyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...
(USA) - Roman PolanskiRoman PolanskiRoman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
(Poland) }} - Corneliu PorumboiuCorneliu PorumboiuCorneliu Porumboiu is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. His 2006 feature 12:08 East of Bucharest won him the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival...
(Romania) - Sally PotterSally PotterCharlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...
(UK) - Michael PowellMichael Powell (director)Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
(UK) (1905-1990) - Otto PremingerOtto PremingerOtto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
(USA) - Emeric PressburgerEmeric PressburgerEmeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films, notably 49th Parallel , The...
(UK) (1902-1988) - Vsevolod PudovkinVsevolod PudovkinVsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
(Soviet Union) - Cristi PuiuCristi PuiuCristi Puiu is a Romanian film director and screenwriter.Puiu's first interest in art was painting and in 1992, he was admitted as a student at the Painting Department of Ecole Superieure d'Arts Visuels in Geneva. After the first year he switched to film studies at the same school and graduated in...
(Romania)
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- Sam RaimiSam RaimiSamuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
(USA) - Bob RafelsonBob RafelsonRobert "Bob" Rafelson is an Emmy Award winning American film director, writer and producer. He was an early member of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s and is most famous for directing and co-writing the film Five Easy Pieces, starring Jack Nicholson, as well as being one of the creators of...
(USA) - Lynne Ramsay (GB)
- Pen-ek RatanaruangPen-Ek RatanaruangPen-Ek Ratanaruang is a Thai film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his arthouse work, Last Life in the Universe, and is considered to be one of Thai cinema's leading "new wave" auteurs, alongside Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul...
(Thailand) - Mani RatnamMani RatnamMani Ratnam is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi starring Anil Kapoor in 1983...
(Tamil/Hindi) (1956-) - Nicholas RayNicholas RayNicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
(USA) - Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
(1921–1992) (India) Indian (Bengali) filmmaker & writer. - Kelly ReichardtKelly ReichardtKelly Reichardt is a screenwriter and film director working within American indie cinema. Her debut film River of Grass was released in 1994. It was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. In 1999, she completed her sophomore...
(USA) - Jason ReitmanJason ReitmanJason Reitman is a Canadian/American film director, screenwriter, and producer, best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking , Juno , and Up in the Air . As of February 2, 2010, he has received three Academy Award nominations, two of which are for Best Director...
(USA) - Jean RenoirJean RenoirJean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
(France) - Alain ResnaisAlain ResnaisAlain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
(France) - Carlos ReygadasCarlos ReygadasCarlos Reygadas is a Mexican filmmaker known for his three films Batalla en el Cielo, Japón and Silent Light . After Batalla en el Cielo, he was known for his raw depiction of sex in his films and the use of old or ugly-seeming characters...
(Mexico) - Arturo RipsteinArturo RipsteinArturo Ripstein y Rosen is a Mexican film director.-Life and career:Ripstein got his break into movies working as an uncredited assistant director for Luis Buñuel. In 1965, he directed his first feature, Tiempo de Morir...
(Mexico) - Jacques RivetteJacques RivetteJacques Rivette is a French film director. His most well known films include Celine and Julie Go Boating, La Belle Noiseuse and the cult film Out 1....
(France) - Glauber Rocha (Brazil)
- Robert RodriguezRobert RodriguezRobert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
(USA) - Nicholas Roeg (UK)
- Éric RohmerÉric RohmerÉric Rohmer was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and teacher. A figure in the post-war New Wave cinema, he was a former editor of Cahiers du cinéma....
(France) - George A. RomeroGeorge A. RomeroGeorge Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
(USA) - Roberto RosselliniRoberto RosselliniRoberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
(Italy) - Bimal RoyBimal RoyBimal Roy was one of the most acclaimed Indian film directors of all time. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films like Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini, making him an important director of Hindi cinema...
(India) (1909-1966) - Raúl Ruiz (Chile)
- David O. RussellDavid O. RussellDavid Owen Russell is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been praised for the loose, comic energy that characterizes his work, and is notorious for his explosive confrontations with cast members.-Early life:...
(USA) - Ken RussellKen RussellHenry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
(GB)
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- Gus van SantGus Van SantGus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
(USA) - Carlos SauraCarlos SauraCarlos Saura Atarés is a Spanish film director and photographer.-Early life:Born into a family of artists , he developed his artistic sense in childhood as a photography enthusiast.He obtained his directing diploma in Madrid in 1957 at the Institute of Cinema Research and Studies...
(Spain) - John SaylesJohn SaylesJohn Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...
(USA) - Volker SchlondorffVolker SchlöndorffVolker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker who has worked in Germany, France and the United States...
(Germany) - Paul SchraderPaul SchraderPaul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
(USA) - Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
(USA) - Ridley ScottRidley ScottSir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
(GB) - Tony ScottTony ScottAnthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
(GB) - Ousmane SembèneOusmane SembèneOusmane Sembène , often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer...
(Senegal) - Mrinal SenMrinal SenMrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
(1923- ) (India) - Kirill Serebrennikov - Russian film director
- Rod SerlingRod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
(USA) - Kumar ShahaniKumar ShahaniKumar Shahani is a noted Indian Film director, born in Larkana, Sindh , on 7 December 1940. After the Partition of India his family shifted to the city of Bombay...
(Hindi) (1940-) - V. ShantaramV. ShantaramV. Shantaram is a renowned Indian filmmaker, film producer and actor. He is most known for his films like Dr...
(Hindi) (1901-1990) - Jim SheridanJim SheridanJim Sheridan is an Irish film director. A six-time Academy Award nominee, Sheridan is perhaps best known for his films My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Tryin and In America.-Life and career:...
(Ireland) - Daryush ShokofDaryush ShokofDaryush Shokof is an Iranian artist, film director, philosopher, writer, art director, and film producer, and singer...
(Iran) - M. Night ShyamalanM. Night ShyamalanManoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
(India) - Tarsem SinghTarsem SinghTarsem Dhandwar Singh , known professionally as Tarsem, is an Indian director who has worked on films, music videos, and commercials.- Life and career :...
(India) - Douglas SirkDouglas SirkDouglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:...
(USA) - Victor SjöströmVictor SjöströmVictor Sjöström was a Swedish actor, screenwriter, and film director.- Biography:Born in Silbodal, in the Värmland region of Sweden, he was only a year old when his father, Olof Adolf Sjöström, moved the family to Brooklyn, New York. His mother died when he was seven years old in 1886...
(Swedish) - Burleigh SmithBurleigh SmithBurleigh Smith is an Australian screenwriter, film director and actor. His films centre on relationships between men and women and often emphasise dry wit and desperate characters...
(1979- ) (Australia) - Kevin SmithKevin SmithKevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
(1970- ) (USA) - Zack SnyderZack SnyderZachary Edward "Zack" Snyder is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and producer. After making his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead, he gained wide recognition with the 2007 box office hit 300, adapted from writer-artist Frank Miller's Dark Horse Comics...
(1966-) (USA) - Steven SoderberghSteven SoderberghSteven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
(USA) - Alexander SokurovAlexander SokurovAlexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a semi-documentary, Russian Ark , filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust , which was honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival.- Life and work...
(Russia) - Todd SolondzTodd SolondzTodd Solondz is an American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire. Solondz has been critically acclaimed for his examination of the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia", a reflection of his own background...
(1959- ) (USA) - Paolo SorrentinoPaolo SorrentinoPaolo Sorrentino is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Naples.Sorrentino's first film as screenwriter, Polvere di Napoli, was released in 1998. He began directing several short movies, like L'amore non ha confini, in 1998, and La notte lunga, in 2001...
(1970- ) (Italy) - Steven SpielbergSteven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
(1946- ) (USA) - Josef von SternbergJosef von SternbergJosef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
(USA) - George StevensGeorge StevensGeorge Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Among his most notable films were Diary of Anne Frank , nominated for Best Director, Giant , winner of Oscar for Best Director, Shane , Oscar nominated, and A Place in the Sun , winner of Oscar for Best...
(USA) - Oliver StoneOliver StoneWilliam Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
(USA) - Jean-Marie StraubJean-Marie StraubJean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet were a duo of filmmakers who made two dozen films between 1963 and 2006...
(France) - I. V. SasiI. V. SasiIrruppam Veedu Sasidaran, better known as I. V. Sasi, is a Malayali Indian film director who is known for his films of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s. He has directed about 150 films in various South Indian languages and Hindi. He is known as the "veteran" or the "guru" filmmaker in Malayalam...
(1948- ) (India) - Erich von StroheimErich von StroheimErich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
(USA) - Preston SturgesPreston SturgesPreston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...
(USA) - Seijun SuzukiSeijun Suzuki, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...
(1923–). Japanese, B-movieB-movieA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
and independentIndependent filmAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
New Wave filmmaker. - Hans-Jürgen SyberbergHans-Jürgen SyberbergHans-Jürgen Syberberg is a German film director, whose best known film is his lengthy feature, Hitler: A Film from Germany.- Early life :...
(Germany) - Jan ŠvankmajerJan ŠvankmajerJan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.- Life and career :Jan...
(Czech Republic)
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- Patrick TamPatrick TamPatrick Tam Kar Ming is a Hong Kong film director and film editor. He directed the 1987 film Final Victory, scripted by Wong Kar-wai.He edited Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild, contributing the cameo appearance of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in the last scene, and Ashes of Time, as well as Johnnie To's...
(Hong Kong) - Quentin TarantinoQuentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
(USA) - Andrei TarkovskyAndrei TarkovskyAndrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
(USSR) - Bela TarrBéla Tarr-Life:Tarr was born in Pécs, but grew up in Budapest. Both of his parents were close to theatre and film: his father was a scenery designer, while his mother has been working as a prompter at a theater for more than 50 years now...
(Hungary) - Jacques TatiJacques TatiJacques Tati was a French filmmaker, working as a comedic actor, writer and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time...
(France) - Julie TaymorJulie TaymorJulie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
(USA) - André TéchinéAndré TéchinéAndré Téchiné , is a French screenwriter and film director. He has had a long and distinguished career that places him among the best post-New Wave French film directors....
(France) - Eddy Terstall (The Netherlands)
- Hiroshi Teshigahara (Japan)
- Tian ZhuangzhuangTian ZhuangzhuangTian Zhuangzhuang is a Chinese film director and producer.Tian was born to an influential actor and actress in China. Following a short stint in the military, Tian began his artistic career first as an amateur photographer and then as an assistant cinematographer at the Beijing Agricultural Film...
(China) - Johnnie ToJohnnie ToJohnnie To Kei-Fung, born 22 April 1955, is a Hong Kong film director and producer. Popular in his native Hong Kong, To has also found acclaim overseas...
(Hong Kong) - Giuseppe TornatoreGiuseppe Tornatore-Life and career:Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo.He worked initially as a freelance photographer...
(Italy) - Guillermo del ToroGuillermo del ToroGuillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones...
(Mexican, makes films in Mexico, Spain and America) - Manny Torres (United States)
- Lars von TrierLars von TrierLars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
(Denmark) - Jan Troell (Sweden)
- Margarethe von Trotta (Germany)
- François TruffautFrançois TruffautFrançois Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
(France) - Ming-liang TsaiTsai Ming-liangTsai Ming-liang is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese Cinema, along with earlier contemporaries such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang...
(Taiwan) - Shinya TsukamotoShinya Tsukamotois a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.-Biography:Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging...
(Japan) - Tsui HarkTsui HarkTsui Hark , born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong New Wave film director and producer. He is viewed as a major figure in the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema .-Early life:...
(Hong Kong) - Tom TykwerTom TykwerTom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run , Heaven , Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , and The International ....
(Germany) - SelvaraghavanSelvaraghavan-Personal life:Selvaraghavan is the son of film director Kasthuri Raja, elder brother of actor Dhanush and has two sisters, who are both doctors. On 15 December 2006, he married actress Sonia Agarwal, with whom he had previously worked with on three films...
(Tamil)
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- Agnès VardaAgnès VardaAgnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style....
(France) - Paul Verhoeven (Holland)
- Dziga VertovDziga VertovDavid Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
(USSR) - Jean VigoJean VigoJean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
(France) - Thomas VinterbergThomas VinterbergThomas Vinterberg is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production....
(Denmark) - Luchino ViscontiLuchino ViscontiLuchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...
(Italy)
W
- The Wachowskis (USA)
- Andrzej WajdaAndrzej WajdaAndrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
(Poland) - Regis WargnierRégis WargnierRégis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor and film score composer.-Director:*1986 : La Femme de ma vie starring Jane Birkin*1988 : Sueurs froides...
(France) - Alex van WarmerdamAlex van WarmerdamAlex van Warmerdam is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is also a painter.-Biography:He was cofounder of the theatre group Hauser Orkater . In 1980 he founded the theatre group De Mexicaanse Hond , together with his brother Marc van Warmerdam...
(The Netherlands) - John WatersJohn Waters (filmmaker)John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
(USA) - Apichatpong WeerasethakulApichatpong WeerasethakulApichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004...
(Thailand) - Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
(USA) - Wim WendersWim WendersErnst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
(Germany) - Joss WhedonJoss WhedonJoseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
(USA) - Bo Widerberg (Sweden)
- Billy WilderBilly WilderBilly Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
(USA) - Hype WilliamsHype WilliamsHarold "Hype" Williams , previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. His nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child....
(USA) - Tommy WiseauTommy WiseauTommy Wiseau is a screenwriter, director, producer, executive producer, and actor. He is the founder of the film production company Wiseau Films. Wiseau is best known for his film The Room which has been described as "one of the worst movies ever made" and has gained cult film status...
(USA) - Wong Kar-waiWong Kar-waiWong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
(Hong Kong) - John WooJohn WooJohn Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong-based film director and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard...
(Hong Kong) - Edgar WrightEdgar WrightEdgar Howard Wright is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the TV series Spaced, and for directing the film Scott Pilgrim vs...
(UK) - William WylerWilliam WylerWilliam Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
(USA)
Y
- Edward YangEdward YangEdward Yang , along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming Liang, was one of the leading filmmakers of the Taiwanese New Wave and Taiwanese Cinema. He won the Best Director Award at Cannes for his 2000 film Yi Yi .-Biography:...
(Taiwan) - Yasmin AhmadYasmin AhmadYasmin Ahmad was a film director, writer and scriptwriter from Malaysia and was also the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur. Her television commercials and films are well-known in Malaysia for their humour, heart and love that crosses cross-cultural barriers, in particular her...
(Malaysia) - Yuen Woo-pingYuen Woo-pingYuen Woo-ping is a Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director, renowned as one of the most successful and influential figures in the world of Hong Kong action cinema. He is one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong...
(Hong Kong)
Z
- Robert ZemeckisRobert ZemeckisRobert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
(1952-) (American) - Zhang YimouZhang YimouZhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum....
(China) - Fred ZinnemannFred ZinnemannFred Zinnemann was an Austrian-American film director. He won four Academy Awards and directed films like High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.-Life and career:...
(American) - Rob ZombieRob ZombieRob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
(American) - Erick ZoncaErick ZoncaErick Zonca is a French film director, best known for his critically acclaimed, award-winning 1998 feature film debut The Dreamlife of Angels. The film won the Best Actress award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival....
(French) - Andrzej Żuławski (1940-) (Poland)
- Andrey ZvyagintsevAndrey ZvyagintsevAndrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev is a Russian film director and actor. He is mostly known for his 2003 film The Return, which won him a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.-Biography:...
- Russian film director - Terry ZwigoffTerry ZwigoffTerry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheros, and themes of alienation. His fiction films are the features Ghost World , Bad Santa , and Art School Confidential...
(USA)