Greatest Directors--G

1. Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...

2. Menahem Golan

Producer | The Apple

Menahem Golan was born Menahem Globus to parents of Polish decent in Tiberias, Israel, in May 1929. In his early years, he was a pilot for the fledgling Israeli Air Force, changing his surname to Golan for patriotic reasons in 1948. A few years later, he took the first step towards his future ...

3. Terry Gilliam

Writer | Brazil

Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In ...

4. Michel Gondry

Director | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band ...

5. Mel Gibson

Actor | Braveheart

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, USA, as the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson (who died in December of 1990). His mother was Irish, from County Longford, while his American-born father is ...

6. D.W. Griffith

Director | The Birth of a Nation

David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 ...

7. Amos Gitai

Director | Rabin: The Last Day

Born in Haifa in 1950, as the second son of architect Munio Weinraub and former Sionist activist Efratia Margalit. On the year of his birth, his parents changed the family name to "Gitai", which is the Hebrew translation of the German name "Weinraub". While he was a student in architecture, Amos ...

8. Alice Guy

Director | The Woman of Mystery

The world's first female filmmaker, French-born Alice Guy entered the film business in 1896 as a secretary at Gaumont, a manufacturer of movie cameras and projectors who had purchased a "cinématographer" from its inventors, the Lumiere brothers. The next year Gaumont became the world's first motion...

9. Alex Gibney

Producer | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Alex Gibney was born on October 23, 1953 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) and The Looming Tower (2018). He has been married to Anne Gibney since August 14, 1982. They have three ...

10. Edmund Goulding

Director | Grand Hotel

London-born Edmund Goulding was an actor/playwright/director on the London stage, and entered the British army when WWI broke out. Mustered out of the service because of wounds suffered in battle, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1921. He obtained assignments as a screenwriter in Hollywood, wrote a ...

11. David Gordon Green

Producer | Halloween Kills

David Gordon Green was born on April 9, 1975 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Halloween Kills (2021), Halloween (2018) and Prince Avalanche (2013).

12. Paul Greengrass

Director | United 93

Paul Greengrass started his filmmaking career with a super 8 camera he found in his art room in secondary school. Those short movies were animation horror films he made using old dolls, artist dummies, and the general art room clutter.

After studying in Cambridge University he got into Granada ...

13. Peter Greenaway

Director | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Peter Greenaway trained as a painter and began working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information in 1965. Shortly afterwards he started to make his own films. He has produced a wealth of short and feature-length films, but also paintings, novels and other books. He has held several ...

14. Christopher Guest

Actor | This Is Spinal Tap

U.S.-born actor, director, writer, musician, and composer best known for his mockumentaries, poking fun at heavy metal music, small town theatre, dog shows, folk music and film-making itself, Christopher Haden-Guest was born February fifth, 1948, in New York City. His mother, Jean Pauline (Hindes),...

15. Jean Grémillon

Director | Pattes blanches

An educated man, Jean Grémillon (b.1898) should almost be mentioned in the same breath as the big five of the golden age of the French cinema (Carné, Renoir, Duvivier, Feyder and Clair). Some of his plans never came to anything: for instance, after World War 2, only three movies, which is too few ...

16. Abel Gance

Writer | La roue

Born an illegitimate son of a wealthy physician, Abel Flamant, and a working class mother, Francoise Perethon. He was raised by his mother and her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Adolphe Gance. Pressured by his parents, he began his working career as a lawyer's clerk in hopes of achieving ...

17. F. Gary Gray

Director | Set It Off

Felix Gary Gray is an African-American music video director, film producer and film director from New York City known for directing films such as Friday, Men in Black: International, Be Cool, The Fate of the Furious, Set It Off, The Negotiator, Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job. He ...

18. Marleen Gorris

Director | Antonia

Marleen Gorris was born on December 9, 1948 in Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands. She is a director and writer, known for Antonia's Line (1995), A Question of Silence (1982) and Broken Mirrors (1984).

19. Bahman Ghobadi

Director | Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand

Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even ...

20. Ebrahim Golestan

Director | Khesht va Ayeneh

Ebrahim Golestan is an Iranian filmmaker and literary figure with a career spanning half a century. He has lived in Sussex, United Kingdom, since 1975. He was closely associated with the controversial and eminent Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad until her death, whom he met at his studio in 1958. He...

21. Luca Guadagnino

Director | Call Me by Your Name

Luca Guadagnino was born on August 10, 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and producer, known for Call Me by Your Name (2017), Suspiria (2018) and Bones and All (2022).

22. Elinor Glyn

Writer | It

Elinor Glyn was born on October 17, 1864 in Jersey, Channel Islands. She was a writer and actress, known for It (1927), Knowing Men (1930) and The Price of Things (1930). She was married to Clayton Glyn. She died on September 23, 1943 in London, England, UK.

23. Jean-Pierre Gorin

Director | Tout va bien

Jean-Pierre Gorin was born on April 17, 1943 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for All's Well (1972), My Crasy Life (1992) and Spy Games (1999).

24. Stuart Gordon

Writer | Re-Animator

Stuart Gordon started his film directing career in 1985. After graduating from Lane Technical High School, Gordon worked as a commercial artist apprentice prior to enrolling at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Unable to get into the film classes, he enrolled in an acting class and ended up ...

25. Lewis Gilbert

Director | Alfie

Lewis Gilbert was a British film director, producer and screenwriter best known for Alfie (1966), as well as three James Bond films: You Only Live Twice (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

He also directed Reach for the Sky (1956), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), Educating Rita (...

26. Bud Greenspan

Director | 16 Days of Glory

Bud Greenspan was born on September 18, 1926 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for 16 Days of Glory (1985), Bud Greenspan's Summer Olympic Greats (1988) and Lillehammer '94: 16 Days of Glory (1994). He was married to Cappy Petrash Greenspan. He died on December ...

27. Mick Garris

Writer | Amazing Stories

Born in Santa Monica, California, on December 4, 1951, Mick Garris grew up with his mother in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Van Nuys from age 12, following his parents' divorce. Garris was making his own 8mm home movies around that time, and when he got older be became a freelance critic ...

28. Pietro Germi

Writer | Il ferroviere

Pietro Germi was born on September 14, 1914 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Railroad Man (1956), Divorce Italian Style (1961) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Olga D'Aiello and Anna Bancio. He died on December 5, 1974 in Rome, ...

29. Yoram Gross

Producer | Dot and the Bunny

Yoram Gross is Australia's leading animation Producer and Director. Internationally acclaimed for his films and television series, Yoram has established a world-wide reputation for the adaptation of children's characters from books and films to animation that win the hearts of children worldwide. ...

30. Augusto Genina

Director | Cielo sulla palude

Augusto Genina was born on January 28, 1892 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Cielo sulla palude (1949), Bengasi (1942) and L'assedio dell'Alcazar (1940). He was married to Carmen Boni. He died on September 18, 1957 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

31. François Girard

Director | Le violon rouge

François Girard was born in Quebec in 1963. Best known for his movie writing and directing (Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The red Violin, Silk...), Girard also directed a number of plays and operas including PARSIFAL at the Metropolitan Opera. He also wrote and directed two Cirque du ...

32. Haile Gerima

Director | Teza

Halie Gerima arrived in the United States from his native Gondar, Ethiopia, to study acting and directing at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, Illinois. He later transferred to the Theater Department at UCLA where he completed the Master's Program in Film. Afterward, he relocated to Washington, DC, ...

33. Jonathan Glazer

Director | Under the Skin

Jonathan first found fame for his revolutionary work on Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' and Jamiroquai's multi-MTV award winning 'Virtual Insanity' video.

In 1999 he directed the ground-breaking Guinness 'Surfer', which picked up 2 D&AD Black Pencils and the top spot at most of the other awards ...

34. James Gray

Director | The Immigrant

Writer/director James Gray made his first film Little Odessa (1994) at the age of twenty-five. The film, which starred Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell, received critical acclaim and was the winner of the Venice Film Festival's prestigious Silver Lion Award in 1994.

...

35. Tay Garnett

Director | China Seas

Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter. After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company. Garnett ...

36. Hideo Gosha

Director | Goyôkin

Hideo Gosha was born on February 26, 1929 in Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan (undisclosed). He was a director and writer, known for The Steel Edge of Revenge (1969), Yôkirô (1983) and Onimasa (1982). He died on August 30, 1992.

37. Ashutosh Gowariker

Writer | Swades: We, the People

His passion for cinema immediately draws your attention, making you realize that Ashutosh Gowariker would not have been anywhere except behind the camera, however tempting the choice. An actor who took to film direction after almost a decade in front of the camera, Ashutosh has acted in Hindi films...

38. John Guillermin

Director | The Towering Inferno

John Guillermin was born on November 11, 1925 in London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for The Towering Inferno (1974), Death on the Nile (1978) and King Kong (1976). He was married to Maureen Connell and Mary Guillermin. He died on September 27, 2015 in Topanga Canyon, ...

39. Robert Guédiguian

Producer | Marius et Jeannette

Robert Guédiguian was born on December 3, 1953 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He is a producer and writer, known for Marius and Jeannette (1997), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (2011) and La ville est tranquille (2000). He has been married to Ariane Ascaride since 1975.

40. John Glen

Director | For Your Eyes Only

He started on the Shepperton Studios cutting rooms in 1948 working on such as 'The Wooden Horse' and 'The Third Man' before moving to Nettlefold Studios where his stay was interrupted by two years National Service after which he joined Group 3 at Beaconsfield . His next move was becoming sound ...

41. Henrik Galeen

Writer | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Henrik Galeen was born on January 7, 1881 in Stryj, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. He was a writer and director, known for Nosferatu (1922), The Golem (1914) and A Daughter of Destiny (1928). He was married to Comptess Ilse von Schenk and Elvira Adler. He died on July 30, 1949 in Randolph, Orange County...

42. Sacha Guitry

Writer | Les perles de la couronne

French actor, dramatist and director, Sacha Guitry was born in 1885 in Saint-Petersburg where his father, actor Lucien Guitry, was under contract with the city's French theater. Early on, Sacha knew he was going to be an artist. Therefore, his studies were mediocre.

His acting debuts were not too ...

43. Ruy Guerra

Director | Estorvo

Ruy Guerra left his studies in Portugal for to go to the School of Cinema in Paris. After having worked as assistant for various French directors he moved to Brasil and participated with his first two films in the birth of the "Cinema Novo": "Os Cafajestes (1962)" and "Os Fuzis (1964)" which won ...

44. Patricio Guzmán

Director | Nostalgia de la luz

Patricio Guzmán was born on August 11, 1941 in Santiago, Chile. He is a director and writer, known for Nostalgia for the Light (2010), The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975) and The Southern Cross (1991).

45. Yilmaz Güney

Writer | Yol

Güney and his work were almost entirely unknown outside of his homeland Turkey until his 1981 escape from imprisonment in Turkey and his "discovery" the following year at the Cannes Film Festival for his autobiographical screenplay for Yol (1982), the festival's grand prize winner. Born in 1937 in ...

46. Ritwik Ghatak

Director | Jukti, Takko Aar Gappo

Ritwik Ghatak was born on November 4, 1925 in Dacca, Bengal Presidency, British India [now in Dhaka, Bangladesh]. He was a director and writer, known for Jukti, Takko Aar Gappo (1974), Musafir (1957) and The Cloud-Capped Star (1960). He was married to Surama Ghatak. He died on February 6, 1976 in ...

47. John Grierson

Director | Drifters

John Grierson was born on April 26, 1898 in Kilmadock, Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK. He was a producer and writer, known for Drifters (1929), Child's Play (1954) and Brandy for the Parson (1952). He was married to Margaret Grierson. He died on February 19, 1972 in Bath, Somerset, England, UK.

48. Fernando Fernán Gómez

Actor | El abuelo

Spanish actor and director of cinema and theater. Son of the actress Carola Fernán Gómez. When he was three years old he comes back to Spain from Argentina. He has written comedies, novels and poem books. He plays a wide repertoire of roles from comedy to drama.

49. Aleksey German

Writer | Khrustalyov, mashinu!

Aleksey German was born on July 20, 1938 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]. He was an actor and writer, known for Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998), Hard to Be a God (2013) and Moy drug Ivan Lapshin (1985). He was married to Svetlana Karmalita. He died on February 21, 2013 in ...

50. Subhash Ghai

Writer | Pardes

Ram Lakhan (1989), Khalnayak (1993), Hero (1983), Karz (1980), these are some grand films made by a grandiose director. Since 1976, Subhash has been directing films. But recently where has the fanfare and the fire has gone from Mukta arts main director? Subhash started in 1976 with the film ...

51. Philippe Garrel

Writer | Les amants réguliers

Philippe Garrel was born on April 6, 1948 in Paris, France. He is a writer and director, known for Regular Lovers (2005), I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (1991) and Liberté, la nuit (1984).

52. Octavio Getino

Director | Argentina, mayo de 1969: Los caminos de la liberación

Born in Leon in Spain, Octavio Getino moved to Argentina in the early 1950s. Here, he co-founded, along with the director Fernando Solanos, the influential and radical film collective known as Cinema Liberacion, and worked with Solanos on the film 'The Hour of the Furnaces', which was largely shot ...

53. Serif Gören

Director | Yol

Serif Gören was born on October 14, 1944 in Ksanthi, Greece. He is a director and editor, known for Yol (1982), Endise (1974) and Derman (1983).

54. Claude Goretta

Director | L'invitation

Claude Goretta was born on June 23, 1929 in Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. He was a director and writer, known for The Invitation (1973), The Lacemaker (1977) and La provinciale (1980). He died on February 20, 2019 in Geneva, Canton de Genève, Switzerland.

55. Vincent Gallo

Actor | Buffalo '66

Vincent Gallo. American-born, Buffalo, New York, 1961. Left home, moved to New York City in 1978, and began playing in the experimental musical group, Gray, with artist Jean Michel Basquiat. After leaving Gray, he formed the band, Bohack, and recorded the highly regarded avant-garde industrial ...

56. István Gaál

Director | Magasiskola

István Gaál was born on August 25, 1933 in Salgótarján, Hungary. He was a director and writer, known for The Falcons (1970), Sodrásban (1964) and Legato (1978). He died on September 25, 2007 in Budapest, Hungary.

57. Heinosuke Gosho

Director | Madamu to nyôbô

Heinosuke Gosho was born on January 24, 1902 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (1931), Once More (1947) and Ragpicker's Angel (1958). He died on May 1, 1981 in Japan.

58. John Gulager

Director | Feast

John Gulager was born on December 19, 1957 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Feast (2005), Piranha 3DD (2012) and He Was a Quiet Man (2007). He has been married to Diane Ayala Goldner since 1986.

59. Val Guest

Writer | The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Val Guest began his career as an actor on the British stage and in early sound films. He ran the one-man London office of "The Hollywood Reporter" until an encounter with director Marcel Varnel led to a screen writing job at Gainsborough Studios. Guest's directing career began in the early 1940s ...

60. Sergey Gerasimov

Director | Lev Tolstoy

Sergei Gerasimov was born in the village of Kundravy in Urals area of the Russian Empire, in 1906. He studied at the Leningrad College of Arts and graduated from the Actors Department of the Leningrad Institute for Stage Arts in 1928. He started his film career in 1924 as an actor, continued as an ...

61. Miguel Gomes

Director | Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto

Miguel Gomes was born in 1972 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a director and writer, known for Our Beloved Month of August (2008), Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One (2015) and Tabu (2012).

62. Stanislav Govorukhin

Director | Konets prekrasnoy epokhi

Stanislav Govorukhin was born on March 29, 1936 in Berezniki, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Perm Krai, Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for The End of a Beautiful Epoch (2015), The Rifleman of the Voroshilov Regiment (1999) and Weekend [Uik-end] (2013). He was married to Galina Govorukhina ...

63. Roberto Gavaldón

Director | El niño y la niebla

Roberto Gavaldon was the most prominent director of the so-called Golden Age of Mexican CInema. One of the supreme artists of the melodrama, Gavaldon was a rival to Old Hollywood movies. Gavaldon's movies, like contemporary director Emilio 'Indio' Fernandez, were popular and populist. Because that ...

64. Lesli Linka Glatter

Director | Homeland

Lesli Linka Glatter is a director of film, network, cable, and premium cable television drama, with both pilots and episodes to her credit. Lesli's TV work includes Homeland (2011), The Newsroom (2012), The Walking Dead (2010), Justified (2010), Ray Donovan (2013), Masters of Sex (2013), Nashville ...

65. Sara Gómez

Director | De cierta manera

Sara Gómez was born in 1943 in Cuba. She was a director and writer, known for One Way or Another (1977), En la otra isla (1968) and Iré a Santiago (1964). She was married to Germinal Hernández and Héctor Veitia. She died in 1974.

66. Rituparno Ghosh

Writer | Dahan

Rituparno Ghosh is a Bengali film director. He has won 12 National Film Awards in India and several awards at international film festivals abroad. He began directing in advertising. In 1992, he made a low-key film debut with a children's feature titled Hirer Angti (The Diamond Ring). His second ...

67. Maggie Greenwald

Director | Songcatcher

Maggie Greenwald is an award-winning filmmaker who began her career as a picture and sound editor. Her first film, Home Remedy, screened at the Munich, London and Torino Film Festivals before opening at the prestigious Film Forum in New York. Her next film, in 1987, The Kill-Off, a noir thriller ...

68. Nick Grinde

Director | Girls of the Road

Nick Grinde's career lasted from the late 1920s to the mid-'40s, but his heyday was the mid to late 1930s. Grinde was one of the journeyman directors (such as Lesley Selander, George Sherman, Lew Landers, etc.) who made the "B" pictures that everybody enjoyed at a Saturday matinée, but whose name ...

69. Murray Grigor

Director | The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

Murray Grigor was born in 1939 in Inverness, Scotland, UK. He is a director and writer, known for The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (1983), Cumbernauld Hit (1977) and Sean Connery's Edinburgh (1983).

70. Tony Gatlif

Director | Vengo

Tony Gatlif was born on September 10, 1948 in Algiers, Alger, France [now Algeria]. He is a director and writer, known for Vengo (2000), Freedom (2009) and The Crazy Stranger (1997).

71. Bette Gordon

Director | Handsome Harry

Bette Gordon was born on June 22, 1950. She is a director and actress, known for Handsome Harry (2009), Variety (1983) and Empty Suitcases (1980).

72. Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Director | Mathilukal

Adoor Gopalakrishnan is India's most acclaimed contemporary filmmaker. Born in 1941 in Kerala, a state in south India, he belongs to a family with strong links to the performing arts, especially Kathakali, a highly-stylised form of dance drama. From the age of eight Adoor began acting for the stage...

73. Keith Gordon

Director | A Midnight Clear

Keith Gordon was born on February 3, 1961 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and actor, known for A Midnight Clear (1992), Waking the Dead (2000) and Mother Night (1996). He has been married to Rachel Griffin since 1998.

74. Philippe Grandrieux

Director | Un lac

Philippe Grandrieux born 1954 is a French film director and screenwriter. Grandrieux was born in Saint-Étienne. He studied film at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle in Belgium. He exhibited his first video work at Galerie Albert Baronian, Bruxelles. In the 1980s, he worked in ...

75. Robert Gardner

Director | Forest of Bliss

Robert Gardner was born on November 5, 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Forest of Bliss (1986), Rivers of Sand (1974) and Altar of Fire (1976). He died on June 21, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

76. Annie Goldson

Producer | Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web

Dr. Annie Goldson has been producing and directing feature and broadcast documentaries for 20 years through her boutique production company Occasional Productions. Known for their craft and insight, her films have won over 50 international and domestic awards at film festivals, have opened ...

77. Jill Godmilow

Director | What Farocki Taught

Born outside Philadelphia in 1943, majored in Russian literature at the University of Wisconsin. An independent filmmaker, primarily of non-fiction works, since 1967. Only one dramatic feature film, WAITING FOR THE MOON, which won 1st prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1987. Since 1992, a ...

78. Paolo Gioli

Director | Rothkofilm

Paolo Gioli was born on October 12, 1942 in Sarzano, Rovigo, Veneto, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Rothkofilm (2008), Tracce di tracce (1969) and Cineforon (1972). He died on January 28, 2022 in Lendinara, Veneto, Rovigo, Italy.