DIRECTORS - My best

1. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

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Following (1998) - 9 Memento (2000) - 10 Insomnia (2002) - 7 Batman Begins (2005) - 8 The Prestige (2006) - 10 The Dark Knight (2008) - 10 Inception (2010) - 10 The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - 10 Interstellar (2014) - 9

2. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

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The Sugarland Express (1974) - 8 Jaws (1975) - 9 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - 7 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - 10 The Color Purple (1985) - 7 Hook (1991) - 5 Jurassic Park (1993) - 9 Schindler's List (1993) - 10 Saving Private Ryan (1998) -10 Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001) - 10 Catch Me If You Can (2002) - 9 Minority Report (2002) - 9 The Terminal (2004) - 9 Munich (2005) - 9 War of the Worlds (2005) - 8 The Adventures of Tintin (2011) - 9 Bridge of Spies (2015) - 4

3. Paul Haggis

Writer | Crash

Paul Haggis established himself over twenty years with an extensive career in television, before his big break into features arrived when he became the first screenwriter to garner two Best Film Academy Awards back-to-back for his scripts: "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, ...

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Crash (2004) - 10 The Next Three Days (2010) - 8 Third Person (2013) - 10

4. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...

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The Frighteners (1996) - 4 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - 10 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - 10 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - 10 King Kong (2005) - 8 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - 9 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) - 10 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - 8

5. Francis Ford Coppola

Producer | Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...

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The Godfather (1972) - 10 The Conversation (1974) - 8 The Godfather: Part II (1974) - 10 Apocalypse Now (1979) - 10 The Godfather: Part III (1990) - 8

6. Sidney Lumet

Director | 12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...

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12 Angry Men (1957) - 10 Serpico (1973) - 9 Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - 9 Network (1976) - 7 Equus (1977) - 8 Prince of the City (1981) - 10 Find Me Guilty (2006) - 8

7. Ron Howard

Producer | Arrested Development

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.

Howard ...

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Apollo 13 (1995) - 8 A Beautiful Mind (2001) - 10 The Da Vinci Code (2006) - 9 Frost/Nixon (2008) - 9 Rush (2013) - 9

8. James Wan

Writer | Saw

James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet. Wan has also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010)...

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Saw (2004) - 10 Insidious (2010) - 10 The Conjuring (2013) - 8 Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - 8

9. Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Director | Biutiful

Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, 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 Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born ...

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Amores perros (2000) - 8 21 Grams (2003) - 10 The Revenant (2015) - 9

10. David Fincher

Director | Se7en

David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials...

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Se7en (1995) - 9 Fight Club (1999) - 7 Zodiac (2007) - 9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - 9 The Social Network (2010) - 9 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - 8 Gone Girl (2014) - 9

11. Guy Ritchie

Director | Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and ...

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Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) - 10 Snatch. (2000) - 10 Revolver (2005) - 7 Sherlock Holmes (2009) - 8 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) - 8 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) - 8

12. Alfonso Cuarón

Producer | Gravity

Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then ...

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Great Expectations (1998) - 9 Y tu mamá también (2001) - 8 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - 9 Children of Men (2006) - 9 Gravity (2013) - 9

13. Robert Zemeckis

Writer | Back to the Future

A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect ...

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Forrest Gump (1994) - 10 Contact (1997) - 8 Cast Away (2000) - 10 The Polar Express (2004) - 7 Beowulf (2007) - 7 Flight (2012) - 9

14. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

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The Beach (2000) - 10 28 Days Later... (2002) - 8 Sunshine (2007) - 8 Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - 9 127 Hours (2010) - 9 Trance (2013) - 7

15. Ridley Scott

Producer | The Martian

Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...

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Alien (1979) - 7 Blade Runner (1982) - 10 Thelma & Louise (1991) - 10 Gladiator (2000) - 10 Hannibal (2001) - 8 Black Hawk Down (2001) - 8 Matchstick Men (2003) - 8 Prometheus (2012) - 8 The Counselor (2013) - 8 The Martian (2015) - 10

16. David Yates

Director | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

David Yates was born on October 8, 1963 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), The Legend of Tarzan (2016) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - 9 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) - 8 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) - 8 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) - 10

17. Michael Haneke

Writer | Caché

A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...

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Funny Games (1997) - 10 La pianiste (2001) - 8 Caché (2005) - 8 The White Ribbon (2009) - 9

18. Nicolas Winding Refn

Writer | The Neon Demon

Writer, director, and producer Nicolas Winding Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1970, to Anders Refn, a film director and editor, and Vibeke Winding (née Tuxen), a cinematographer. Just before he turned 11, in 1981, he moved to New York with his parents, where he lived out his teen years. ...

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Bronson (2008) - 8 Drive (2011) - 10 Only God Forgives (2013) - 8

19. Martin Scorsese

Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...

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Taxi Driver (1976) - 10 Raging Bull (1980) - 8 Goodfellas (1990) - 7 Casino (1995) - 5 Bringing Out the Dead (1999) - 7 Gangs of New York (2002) - 9 The Departed (2006) - 9 Shutter Island (2010) - 9 Hugo (2011) - 5 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - 9 Silence (2016) - 9

20. Roman Polanski

Director | Chinatown

Roman Polanski is a 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. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.

His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...

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Chinatown (1974) - 10 Le locataire (1976) - 10 Frantic (1988) - 7 The Ninth Gate (1999) - 3 The Pianist (2002) - 9 Carnage (2011) - 7

21. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

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Mystic River (2003) - 9 Million Dollar Baby (2004)- 9 Gran Torino (2008) - 9 Invictus (2009) - 9 American Sniper (2014) - 7

22. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

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Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) - 9 Fitzcarraldo (1982) - 10 Grizzly Man (2005) - 6 Encounters at the End of the World (2007) - 9

23. Quentin Tarantino

Writer | Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of...

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Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 9 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) - 9 Inglourious Basterds (2009) - 9 Django Unchained (2012) - 7

24. Stanley Kubrick

Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...

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Lolita (1962) - 9 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - 10 The Shining (1980) - 6 Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - 9

25. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

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The Terminator (1984) - 9 Aliens (1986) - 9 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 8 Titanic (1997) - 8 Avatar (2009) - 8

26. Denis Villeneuve

Director | Dune

Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), ...

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Incendies (2010) - 6 Prisoners (2013) - 9 Enemy (2013) - 9 Sicario (2015) - 10

27. Lilly Wachowski

Writer | The Matrix

Director, writer, and producer Lilly Wachowski was born in 1967 in Chicago, the daughter of Lynne, a nurse and painter, and Ron, a businessman. Lilly was educated at Kellogg Elementary School in Chicago, before moving on to Whitney M. Young High School. After graduating from high school, she ...

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The Matrix (1999) - 10 The Matrix Reloaded (2003) - 9 The Matrix Revolutions (2003) - 8 Speed Racer (2008) - 6 Cloud Atlas (2012) - 9

28. David Cronenberg

Actor | The Fly

David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early...

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The Fly (1986) - 9 Naked Lunch (1991) - 7 eXistenZ (1999) - 3 Spider (2002) - 9 A History of Violence (2005) - 9 Eastern Promises (2007) - 8

29. George Miller

Producer | Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max ...

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Babe: Pig in the City (1998) - 8 Happy Feet (2006) - 7 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - 10

30. Sam Mendes

Producer | 1917

Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5-...

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American Beauty (1999) - 9 Jarhead (2005) - 7 Skyfall (2012) - 9

31. Gregory Hoblit

Producer | Hill Street Blues

Gregory Hoblit was born in Texas but moved to Northern California at a young age because of his father's job in law enforcement, a hint at what might have attracted the mystery/courtroom plots of his movie/TV credits. After graduating from UCLA, he worked as a TV co-producer with Steven Bochco ...

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Fallen (1998) - 9 Frequency (2000) - 7 Fracture (2007) - 9

32. Pedro Almodóvar

Writer | Hable con ella

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study ...

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Todo sobre mi madre (1999) - 7 Hable con ella (2002) - 9 La piel que habito (2011) - 10 Relatos salvajes (2014) - 7

33. Richard Linklater

Director | Waking Life

Self-taught writer-director Richard Stuart Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, to Diane Margaret (Krieger), who taught at a university, and Charles W. Linklater III. Richard was among the first and most successful talents to emerge during the American independent film renaissance of the 1990s. ...

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The School of Rock (2003) - 8 A Scanner Darkly (2006) - 9 Bernie (2011) - 8 Before Midnight (2013) - 8 Boyhood (2014) - 8 Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) - 4

34. Bryan Singer

Director | X-Men

Bryan Singer is an American film director and producer who got his start writing and co-directing the short film Lions Den with his classmates while he attended USC. He was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men, which helped kick-start the superhero renaissance. He later directed three sequels....

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The Usual Suspects (1995) - 10 X-Men (2000) - 8 X2 (2003) - 8 Superman Returns (2006) - 7 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - 8

35. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

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Take the Money and Run (1969) - 8 Annie Hall (1977) - 9 Match Point (2005) - 8 Midnight in Paris (2011) - 7 Blue Jasmine (2013) - 8

36. Adrian Lyne

Director | Jacob's Ladder

Adrian Lyne (Director/Writer/Producer) is the creative force behind some of the most talked-about movies of our time, among them, Fatal Attraction (1987), 9½ Weeks (1986) and Indecent Proposal (1993).

Born in Peterborough, England and raised in London, Lyne attended the Highgate school, where...

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Jacob's Ladder (1990) - 8 Lolita (1997) - 8 Unfaithful (2002) - 8

37. Spike Jonze

Producer | Her

Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...

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Being John Malkovich (1999) - 8 Where the Wild Things Are (2009) - 8 Her (2013) - 8

38. Wes Anderson

Director | Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an ...

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Bottle Rocket (1996) - 8 Rushmore (1998) - 8 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - 9 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - 5 The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - 7 Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - 8 The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 7

39. J.J. Abrams

Producer | Lost

Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990)....

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Mission: Impossible III (2006) - 8 Star Trek (2009) - 8 Super 8 (2011) - 7 Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) - 8 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - 8

40. Guillermo del Toro

Writer | El laberinto del fauno

Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his ...

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Mimic (1997) - 7 Hellboy (2004) - 8 El laberinto del fauno (2006) - 10 Pacific Rim (2013) - 8 Crimson Peak (2015) - 6

41. Gore Verbinski

Director | Rango

Gore Verbinski, one of American cinema's most inventive directors who was a punk-rock guitarist as a teenager and had to sell his guitar to buy his first camera, is now the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) which made the industry record for highest opening weekend of ...

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The Mexican (2001) - 6 The Ring (2002) - 9 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - 8 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) - 8 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) - 7

42. M. Night Shyamalan

Producer | Lady in the Water

Born in Puducherry, India, and raised in the posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots.

He is the son of Jayalakshmi, a Tamil ...

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The Sixth Sense (1999) - 10 Signs (2002) - 7 After Earth (2013) - 5

43. Joel Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...

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Fargo (1996) - 9 The Big Lebowski (1998) - 5 No Country for Old Men (2007) - 8 Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) - 7

44. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director | Punch-Drunk Love

Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...

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Boogie Nights (1997) - 9 Magnolia (1999) - 5 The Master (2012) - 7 Inherent Vice (2014) - 8

45. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Director | Un long dimanche de fiançailles

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a self-taught director who was very quickly interested by cinema, with a predilection for a fantastic cinema where form is as important as the subject. Thus he started directing TV commercials and video clips (such as Julien Clerc in 1984). At the same time he met designer/...

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Delicatessen (1991) - 4 La cité des enfants perdus (1995) - 6 Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) - 8 Micmacs à tire-larigot (2009) - 8