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The 1,000 Greatest Films The Top 200 Directors

• Introduction • The Top 500 Films • The Full List • The Top 200 Directors • PDF Companion • Links

The Top 500: •1-25 •26-50 •51-75 •76-100 •101-150 •151-200 •201-250 •251-300 •301-350 •351-400 •401-450 •451-500

• Listed below are, according to our calculations, the 200 most critically acclaimed filmmakers of all-time.

• As per the 1,000 Greatest Films, this list has been compiled from a large resource of film lists. Additionally, also factored in are some 'Best Director' polls, as per those listed at the bottom of this page

• Alongside each director's name is the position each director held in January 2010's version.

• To qualify for this top 200, each director needs to have a minimum of two films cited in ballots/lists that we have collated.

• Please note that the number of films cited includes those films in the 1,000 Greatest.

1		Orson Welles (1) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited	2	Alfred Hitchcock (2) 13 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 39 films cited
3↑		Stanley Kubrick (4) 11 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited	4	Federico Fellini (3) 12 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 19 films cited
5		John Ford (5) 17 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 38 films cited	6	Jean Renoir (6) 10 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 26 films cited
7		Akira Kurosawa (7) 11 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 24 films cited	8↑	Francis Ford Coppola (9) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited
9		Ingmar Bergman (8) 13 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 28 films cited	10	Jean-Luc Godard (10) 14 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 37 films cited
11		Charles Chaplin (11) 10 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 22 films cited	12	Billy Wilder (12) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 23 films cited
13↑		Martin Scorsese (14) 9 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 24 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	14	Luis Buñuel (13) 14 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 23 films cited
15		Howard Hawks (15) 11 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 28 films cited	16	Carl Dreyer (16) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
17		Sergei Eisenstein (17) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited	18	F.W. Murnau (18) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited
19		Yasujiro Ozu (19) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 23 films cited	20↑	Fritz Lang (22) 15 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 32 films cited
21		Robert Bresson (20) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited	22	Andrei Tarkovsky (21) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
23		David Lean (23) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited	24	François Truffaut (24) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 21 films cited
25		Kenji Mizoguchi (25) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 19 films cited	26↑	Steven Spielberg (28) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 20 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
27		Buster Keaton (26) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited	28	Michelangelo Antonioni (27) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited
29		Roberto Rossellini (29) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 20 films cited	30	D.W. Griffith (30) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 27 films cited
31↑		Vittorio De Sica (32) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited	32	Luchino Visconti (31) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited
33		Ernst Lubitsch (33) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 27 films cited	34↑	Woody Allen (35) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 27 films cited
35		Max Ophüls (34) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited	36↑	John Huston (37) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 30 films cited
37		Satyajit Ray (36) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited	38↑	Roman Polanski (41) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 16 films cited
39		Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly (38) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited	40	Robert Altman (39) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 25 films cited
41		Jean Vigo (40) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited	42	Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (42) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited \| See also #89 entry for Michael Powell
43		Sergio Leone (43) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited	44	Frank Capra (44) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 20 films cited
45↑		Michael Curtiz (46) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 24 films cited	46	Alain Resnais (45) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 20 films cited
47↑		Sam Peckinpah (48) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited	48↑	Ridley Scott (49) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited
49		Preston Sturges (47) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited	50↑	Victor Fleming (51) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited



51		Bernardo Bertolucci (50) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited	52	John Cassavetes (52) 7 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited
53↑		Carol Reed (55) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited	54	David Lynch (54) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
55		Marcel Carné (53) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	56	Werner Herzog (56) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 20 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
57↑		Erich von Stroheim (58) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited	58↑	Vincente Minnelli (59) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 22 films cited
59		George Cukor (57) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 29 films cited	60	Leo McCarey (60) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited
61↑		Elia Kazan (62) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited	62↑	Josef von Sternberg (64) 8 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited
63↑		Nicholas Ray (65) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 16 films cited	64	Jacques Tati (61) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
65		Rainer Werner Fassbinder (63) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 22 films cited	66	Douglas Sirk (66) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited
67↑		Joseph L. Mankiewicz (68) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited	68	Pier Paolo Pasolini (67) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited
69		Krzysztof Kieslowski (69) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited	70↑	Terrence Malick (71) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited
71↑		Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (73) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	72	William Wyler (72) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 24 films cited
73		Abbas Kiarostami (70) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited	74↑	Jacques Tourneur (76) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 16 films cited
75		Wong Kar-wai (74) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	76↑	Quentin Tarantino (79) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
77		Chris Marker (75) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited	78↑	Clint Eastwood (83) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 23 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
79		Milos Forman (77) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited	80	Wim Wenders (80) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited
81		King Vidor (78) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 22 films cited	82↑	David Cronenberg (84) 5 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
83		Eric Rohmer (81) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 22 films cited	84	Jacques Rivette (82) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited
85		Hou Hsiao-hsien (85) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	86	Jean-Pierre Melville (86) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited
87		Jean Cocteau (87) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited	88	Nicolas Roeg (88) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited
89		Michael Powell (89) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited \| See also #42 entry for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger	90↑	George Lucas (91) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
91		James Cameron (90) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	92↑	Brian De Palma (93) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 18 films cited
93		Sidney Lumet (92) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 25 films cited	94↑	Gillo Pontecorvo (98) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited
95		George A. Romero (95) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited	96	Raoul Walsh (96) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 31 films cited
97		Jacques Demy (94) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	98	Otto Preminger (97) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 24 films cited
99		Alexander Dovzhenko (99) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited	100↑	William Friedkin (115) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited



101		Robert Flaherty (101) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited	102↑	James Whale (106) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
103↑		Henri-Georges Clouzot (108) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	104	René Clair (100) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 18 films cited
105		Abel Gance (102) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited	106	Andrzej Wajda (104) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited
107↑		George Stevens (109) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited	108	Dziga Vertov (103) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited
109		Samuel Fuller (107) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 20 films cited	110	Chantal Akerman (105) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited
111↑		Terry Gilliam (118) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited	112	Spike Lee (112) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
113↑		Hal Ashby (114) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited	114	Arthur Penn (110) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited
115		Theo Angelopoulos (111) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited	116↑	John Carpenter (129) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited
117		Peter Weir (113) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited	118↑	Lars von Trier (124) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
119↑		Glauber Rocha (122) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited	120	Jane Campion (120) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited
121		Anthony Mann (117) 6 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited	122	Alexander Mackendrick (116) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
123		Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack (121) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 2 films cited	124↑	Hayao Miyazaki (127) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
125↑		Pedro Almodóvar (126) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	126	Stan Brakhage (119) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 25 films cited
127		Robert Aldrich (125) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 19 films cited	128	G.W. Pabst (123) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
129		Jim Jarmusch (128) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	130↑	John Boorman (132) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited
131		Tod Browning (131) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited	132	Don Siegel (130) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 16 films cited
133↑		Mike Nichols (141) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited	134↑	Michael Cimino (140) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited
135↑		Paul Thomas Anderson (137) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	136	Edward Yang (135) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
137		Mikio Naruse (133) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited	138↑	Robert Wise (146) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited
139↑		Bob Fosse (153) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited	140↑	Michael Mann (155) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
141↑		Tim Burton (157) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited	142	Fred Zinnemann (138) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited
143		Victor Erice (134) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited	144↑	Rob Reiner (152) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited
145		Ken Loach (142) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 14 films cited	146	Michael Snow (136) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
147↑		Ritwik Ghatak (149) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited	148	Nagisa Oshima (148) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited
149		Oliver Stone (143) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited	150	Jean Eustache (139) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited



151		Mike Leigh (144) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	152↑	Peter Bogdanovich (154) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
153		Robert Wiene (150) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited	154↑	Louis Malle (160) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 15 films cited
155↑		David Hand (166) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 2 films cited	156	Blake Edwards (147) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited
157		Zhang Yimou (145) 4 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited	158↑	Frank Borzage (161) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 19 films cited
159		Claude Lanzmann (143) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited	160↑	Ben Sharpsteen (169) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited
161		Béla Tarr (158) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited	162	Sydney Pollack (159) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
163		Robert Zemeckis (162) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 13 films cited	164	Sam Wood (156) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
165		Victor Sjöström (165) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited	166↑	Georges Franju (168) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited
167↑		John Schlesinger (173) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 12 films cited	168	Ermanno Olmi (167) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited
169↑		Claude Chabrol (182) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 21 films cited	170	Leni Riefenstahl (164) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited
171		Andy Warhol (170) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 16 films cited	172	Francesco Rosi (163) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited
173		Robert Mulligan (171) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	174↑	Peter Jackson (183) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
175		Joseph Losey (172) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited	176	John Woo (175) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited
177		Agnès Varda (177) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	178↑	Paul Verhoeven (189) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 10 films cited
179		Ousmane Sembene (174) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited	180↑	Shohei Imamura (197) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited
181↑		Tobe Hooper (192) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited	182↑	Emir Kusturica (185) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited
183		Luis García Berlanga (180) 3 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited	184	Manoel de Oliveira (176) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 17 films cited
185↑		Mel Brooks (188) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited	186	Charles Burnett (178) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited
187		Edgar G. Ulmer (181) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 6 films cited	188↑	Richard Linklater (193) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors
189↑		Claire Denis (191) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 11 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	190	George Roy Hill (187) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited
191		Kenneth Anger (179) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited	192↑	Dario Argento (194) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited
193		Michael Haneke (---) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 9 films cited \| See also The 21st Century's Top 50 Directors	194↑	William Wellman (196) 0 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 24 films cited
195		Jacques Becker (186) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 8 films cited	196	Robert Hamer (184) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 3 films cited
197		Sergei Parajanov (190) 2 films in the 1,000 Greatest \| 5 films cited	198	Giuseppe Tornatore (---) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 4 films cited
199		Louis Feuillade (198) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 7 films cited	200	Cecil B. DeMille (200) 1 film in the 1,000 Greatest \| 21 films cited

	Previous Top 200 Members...
		Alan J. Pakula		Humphrey Jennings


More Director Listings
• Pop Matter's 100 Essential Directors.
• Le Mot du Cinephiliaque's 25 Most Influential Directors of All-Time (2nd edition).
• Sight & Sound's The Wild Bunch... 50 of the Movies' Maddest Visionaries .
• Total Film's The Greatest Directors Ever (2007)
• Are we useful? They could be contenders. The Globe and Mail (2007).
• Telegraph's Top 21 British Directors of All Time (2007).
• Reel.com's Greatest Directors feature.
• Gerald Peary's Magnificent Seven (2006).
• The Cinematheque's ongoing Directors Poll.
• Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Directors (1996). It comes courtesy of Jack Ferdman's The Best of Movies website and is a much better list than any one could have possibly predicted from EW.
• Film critic Jeffrey M. Anderson (San Francisco Examiner, Las Vegas Weekly) lists his "50 Greatest Directors and their 100 Greatest Films" at his website Combustible Celluloid.
• A Survey of Cinema's Top Directors: Scanning the past and looking to the future (2005 poll by The Film Journal).
• Under the Influence: MovieMaker blue-chip panel names the 25 Most Influential Directors of All Time (2002 poll). And, how about The Religious Affiliation of the 25 Most Influential Film Directors of all time!!!
• Cut and Print: The 40 best directors (2004 poll by The Guardian of the best 'active' filmmakers).
• Film Critic Fred Camper lists his Favorite Filmmakers.
• Bill Mousoulis, independent Australian filmmaker and founding editor of Senses of Cinema, offers up his list of the Top 50 directors of all-time.
• MSNBC's Top 10 American Directors.
• Strange Horizons' Ten Best Science Fiction Film Directors.

• Introduction • The Top 500 Films • The Full List • The Top 200 Directors • PDF Companion • Links

The Top 500: •1-25 •26-50 •51-75 •76-100 •101-150 •151-200 •201-250 •251-300 •301-350 •351-400 •401-450 •451-500

[ Home ] [ Directors A-L ] [ Directors M-Z ] [ 1,000 Greatest Films ] [ 21st Century ] [ Film Noir ] [ Ain't Nobody's Blues ] [ Recommended Viewing ] [ About ] [ Links ]