Directors with the Most Films in the IMDb Top 250
by EmboldenedLoser | created - 03 Apr 2011 | updated - 19 Dec 2020 | PublicAll of the directors are ranked from most to least number of films in the Top 250.
All of the directors in this list have their films in the Top 250 compiled in chronological order.
Since their was way too many directors with two films in the Top 250, I came to the conclusion of considering directors with at least three films.
For directors that were tied with each other, which there were many, I ranked them accordingly by the lower number of films that they directed. Ex: Christopher Nolan and Stanley Kubrick each have seven films in the Top 250. The reason why Nolan is ahead is because he has directed 11 films (7/11), while Kubrick has directed 13 (7/13). 64% of Nolan's films are in the Top 250, as compared to 54% of Kubrick's films making the cut.
It should be noted that the total number of films each filmmaker has directed is the total number of full-length motion pictures they've directed excluding all documentaries. For example, Martin Scorsese has directed 38 movies, but 13 of them are documentaries, so the motion picture total is 25. Only films that have been released are counted and those still in production or yet to be released aren't counted towards their total. Only full-length movies are counted and shorts are not. Made-for-TV movies do not count towards total. Movies where a director directed only a segment or segments of a film, as well as where they co-directed a movie, are not counted towards their total or given credit to them if that film just so happens to be in the Top 250.
Thanks for viewing!
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 ...
7 Films (Directed 11 Films)
1. Batman Begins
2. Inception
3. Interstellar
4. Memento
5. The Dark Knight
6. The Dark Knight Rises
7. The Prestige
2. 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 ...
7 Films (Directed 13 Films)
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. A Clockwork Orange
3. Barry Lyndon
4. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
5. Full Metal Jacket
6. Paths of Glory
7. The Shining
3. 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 ...
7 Films (Directed 25 Films)
1. Casino
2. Goodfellas
3. Raging Bull
4. Shutter Island
5. Taxi Driver
6. The Departed
7. The Wolf of Wall Street
4. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...
6 Films (Directed 31 Films)
1. High and Low
2. Ikiru
3. Ran
4. Rashomon
5. Seven Samurai
6. Yôjimbô
5. 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, ...
6 Films (Directed 33 Films)
1. Catch Me If You Can
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Jurassic Park
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. Saving Private Ryan
6. Schindler's List
6. Alfred Hitchcock
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...
6 Films (Directed 54 Films)
1. Dial M for Murder
2. North by Northwest
3. Psycho
4. Rear Window
5. Rebecca
6. Vertigo
7. 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...
5 Films (Directed 10 Films)
1. Django Unchained
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Reservoir Dogs
8. Hayao Miyazaki
Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the ...
5 Films (Directed 11 Films)
1. Howl's Moving Castle
2. My Neighbor Totoro
3. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
4. Princess Mononoke
5. Spirited Away
9. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
5 Films (Directed 18 Films)
1. City Lights
2. Modern Times
3. The Gold Rush
4. The Great Dictator
5. The Kid
10. Billy Wilder
Writer | The Apartment
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...
5 Films (Directed 26 Films)
1. Double Indemnity
2. Some Like It Hot
3. Sunset Blvd.
4. The Apartment
5. Witness for the Prosecution
11. Sergio Leone
Writer | Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...
4 Films (Directed 7 Films)
1. For a Few Dollars More
2. Once Upon a Time in America
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
12. Ingmar Bergman
Writer | Smultronstället
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...
4 Films (Directed 37 Films).
1. Autumn Sonata
2. Persona
3. The Seventh Seal
4. Wild Strawberries
13. 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 ...
3 Films (Directed 8 Films)
1. Aliens
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
3. The Terminator
14. 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...
3 Films (Directed 11 Films)
1. Fight Club
2. Gone Girl
3. Se7en
15. 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 ...
3 Films (Directed 13 Films)
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
16. Ethan Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...
& Joel Coen (the Coen Brothers)
3 Films (Directed 19 Films).
1. Fargo
2. No Country for Old Men
3. The Big Lebowski
17. 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 ...
3 Films (Directed 25 Films)
1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Godfather
3. The Godfather: Part II
18. 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 ...
3 Films (Directed 25 Films)
1. Alien
2. Blade Runner
3. Gladiator
19. Frank Capra
Director | It's a Wonderful Life
One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...
3 Films (Directed 36 Films).
1. It Happened One Night
2. It's a Wonderful Life
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
20. 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 ...
3 Films (Directed 38 Films)
1. Gran Torino
2. Million Dollar Baby
3. Unforgiven
Tell Your Friends