George Lucas and Steven Spielberg present a special Oscar to their hero: Akira Kurosawa
So, does this supersede my original list? Well, lists are always organic – they grow and evolve over time. I’ve fiddled with some of the categories and new films have come out and I’ve seen more films from some directors. So, my original list was what it was in October of 2009. This is where I am now, two years later, and one year overdue. The list will continue to evolve over time. The list never quite stops. But here’s where I put it up.
I will remind people again that if you don’t see a director and you’re wondering why, please check the Introduction first. It became clear on the original list that people didn’t read that instruction. Please don’t repeat that. And don’t ask about Godard. See the Intro.
Also, we’ll again find out who reads this part, the film in parenthesis is not necessarily their best film (hell, with Mankiewicz, it’s his worst). But it is the film I chose to write about, for whatever reason.
Because this lists links to the original posts, the numbers are very different. The rank on their original post, except for the six directors who are brand new to the 2.0 list, is their ranking on the original list. Their rank listed here is the new rank. By the way, I haven’t updated any of the original posts – so, for example, the Nolan post won’t reflect on Inception or its place on his list. I’m doing so many other posts right now, that kind of thing will have to wait.
So, here is the 2.0 version of the Top 100 Directors of All-Time – each director, followed by whatever film I wrote about and their score (which won’t match their original score in the individual posts).
100. David Cronenberg (A History of Violence) – 504.96
99. John Schlesinger (Cold Comfort Farm) – 505.31
98. Robert Redford (Quiz Show) – 505.85
97. Gus Van Sant (Milk) – 505.95
96. D.W. Griffith (The Birth of a Nation) – 506.83
95. Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor) – 507.07
94. Buster Keaton (Steamboat Bill, Jr.) – 511.60
Buster Keaton, new to the list, in Limelight, directed by Charlie Chaplin, again high on the list
93. George Stevens (The Diary of Anne Frank) – 512.49
92. Fernando Meirelles (City of God) – 513.75
91. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) – 513.80
90. Paul Greengrass (United 93) – 514.40
89. Tom Tykwer (Perfume) – 514.97
88. James Whale (The Invisible Man) – 517.20
87. David Fincher (The Social Network) – 520.75
86. Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) – 521.87
85. Warren Beatty (Bulworth) – 523.00
84. Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros) – 525.00
Two of the three amigos are now on the list: Cuaron and Gonzalez Inarritu; hopefully Del Toro will make the 3.0 list
83. Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) – 525.40
82. Jean Cocteau (La belle et la bette) – 526.27
81. Werner Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God) – 531.11
80. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Cleopatra) – 534.15
79. Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride) – 543.10
78. Krzysztof Kieslowski (Red) – 543.20
77. Jim Sheridan (In America) – 550.26
76. John Sayles (Lone Star) – 550.58
75. Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy) – 552.12
74. Anthony Minghella (Truly, Madly, Deeply) – 552.73
73. Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in the West) – 553.29
72. Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) – 554.20
71. Michael Curtiz (Yankee Doodle Dandy) – 554.49
70. Alan J. Pakula (All the President’s Men) – 559.23
69. George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story) – 560.78
68. Milos Forman (Amadeus) – 562.95
67. George Lucas (Star Wars) – 565.47
66. Andrei Tarkovsky (Solyaris) – 565.71
65. Terrence Malick (Badlands) – 569.25
64. Tim Burton (Ed Wood) – 570.19
63. Alan Parker (The Commitments) – 571.07
62. Laurence Olivier (Hamlet) – 572.80
61. Mike Nichols (Angels in America) – 573.09
60. Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) – 574.50
59. Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers) – 574.71
58. Louis Malle (May Fools) – 578.08
57. Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides) – 580.00
56. Michael Powell (A Matter of Life and Death) – 580.20
55. Erich von Stroheim (Greed) – 583.80
54. Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) – 584.07
53. John Boorman (Excalibur) – 586.17
52. Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) – 587.93
51. Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) – 588.40
50. Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity) – 589.36
49. Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight) – 591.64
48. Stephen Frears (The Queen) – 600.85
47. Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her) – 601.96
46. Bob Fosse (All That Jazz) – 602.80
45. Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) – 606.85
44. Kenneth Branagh (In the Bleak Midwinter) – 609.02
43. Oliver Stone (JFK) – 613.81
42. Ridley Scott (Kingdom of Heaven) – 614.56
41. Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) – 616.55
40. Sam Mendes (American Beauty) – 625.00
39. Preston Sturges (The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek) – 626.45
38. Robert Altman (M*A*S*H) – 632.82
37. Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) – 636.07
36. Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) – 637.00
35. Jean Renoir (The Grand Illusion) – 645.21
34. David Lynch (Mulholland Drive) – 645.80
33. Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia) – 657.20
32. F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) – 660.31
31. Federico Fellini (Nights of Cabiria) – 661.27
30. Francois Truffaut (Day for Night) – 666.77
29. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) – 676.34
An Oscar-winning list-making father/daughter team - Francis and Sofia Coppola
28. Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire) – 694.67
27. Luis Buñuel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) – 696.03
26. Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep) – 700.19
25. William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives) – 704.24
24. Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society) – 705.76
23. Clint Eastwood (A Perfect World) – 705.98
22. Sidney Lumet (Running on Empty) – 711.35
21. Fritz Lang (M) – 726.43
20. Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) – 737.80
19. Charlie Chaplin (Modern Times) – 747.07
18. Sergei Eisenstein (The Battleship Potemkin) – 750.89
17. Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) – 751.33
16. John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath) – 755.88
15. Christopher Nolan (The Prestige) – 756.26
14. John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) – 761.92
13. Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown) – 776.11
12. Orson Welles (Touch of Evil) – 808.60
11. Roman Polanski (Chinatown) – 815.16
10. Woody Allen (Annie Hall) – 824.04
9. Billy Wilder (Sunset Blvd.) – 829.08
8. David Lean (The Bridge on the River Kwai) – 890.91
7. Alfred Hitchcock (North by Northwest) – 911.77
6. The Coen Brothers (O, Brother Where Art Thou?) – 917.57
5. Ingmar Bergman (Smiles of a Summer Night) – 926.29
The new #1 Director: Stanley Kubrick on the set of A Clockwork Orange with Malcolm McDowell
4. Martin Scorsese (GoodFellas) – 944.97
3. Steven Spielberg (Raiders of the Lost Ark) – 948.56
2. Akira Kurosawa (Ran) – 963.60
1. Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange) – 966.58
News from the San Diego Becks 
18 October, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Strong group. Hoping Del Toro does indeed make Version 3.0.
23 October, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Seconded on Del Toro. Still hate Cuaron, still hate Lynch, though Aronofsky and PT Anderson have become more bearable to me. My tastes are not set in stone, after all).
I discovered, to my horror, that after reading this list I thought that Chris Nolan should be above David Lean. After thinking this to myself, I promptly got a stiff drink and tried to forget that, but I still remain of this opinion. Yes, Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia are both better than anything Nolan has made, but ALL of Nolan’s movies are better than Brief Encounter, and most are better than Dr. Zhivago (not that those movies aren’t excellent).
I understand why Spielberg is higher than Scorsese, but I wish he wasn’t. I wish Scorsese matched himself with GoodFellas, instead of meandering about with movies that could never show his true directorial genius. Though Shutter Island came close, The Aviator and Gangs of New York while excellent could never really be the movies to put Scorsese back on top.
I simply adore how high William Wyler and Sidney Lumet are. They don’t get enough acknowledgment from pop culture awareness. Their deaths were great losses to cinema.
I highly recommend you check out the anime director Makoto Shinkai. While he is not the new Miyazaki (yet), his heart-wrenchingly beautiful plots and animation are a sight to behold. He has finished three full-length films, the best of which is 5 Centimeters Per Second, an excellent story about love and the distance between people, both literal and figurative.
5 November, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Good list, nice to see Sofia Copolla considerably high
19 November, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Glad to see arabofski on there, and Kubrick at number one, I had commented on your last list about not rankIng Kurosawa so high but as I saw rashomon and seven samurai I realized you were right I do like that terry Gilliam is higher in the list and that you got rid of Wes anderson. Del toro in 2012
3 December, 2011 at 12:03 am
I like the upgraded list but was wondering what number you have Michael Mann at now?
3 December, 2011 at 7:41 am
Michael Mann currently comes in at #107.
13 December, 2011 at 12:50 am
Do you have a top 100 films list?
1 January, 2012 at 7:38 pm
First off, I want to say that I really like the dedication to this. This is one of the best and most comprehensive lists I’ve ever seen and your points system has inspired me to start a similar list. Onto my complaint. I have a pretty good guess as to why, but I wonder where Kevin Smith is on the list/what his point ranking is. I have a feeling that its how his films are incredibly subjective and that his critical reception is divided but I’d still like to hear your reasoning for why he has been ommited.
1 January, 2012 at 7:55 pm
Also, a question I had from reading your introductions to these lists. If you had only seen a limited number of a directors films how did you give points in your first 3 catagories?
1 January, 2012 at 9:08 pm
I rate what I have seen and base it on that. Since the films that are harder to find usually aren’t as good, they come off better usually. As for Kevin Smith, I think he’s a great writer (or used to be), but a terribly director. I understand why he would direct his own stuff, but lately, I don’t understand what he’s doing. So he does fairly well on the averages, but he gets no director points – plus he gets nothing from the weighted total because all his awards are for his scripts, which have been good, not for his directing, which has not.
I always lamented that his Superman never got made, because I thought if you could tie his scripts with Burton’s visionary directing, you’d have an amazing film. But it was not to be.
3 January, 2012 at 1:51 am
As much as I appreciate all the tireless effort you’ve put into making this list, I must say that any list without Cecil B. DeMille is really an incomplete one and not worth anybody’s time.
3 January, 2012 at 2:00 pm
I’ve personally always found DeMille’s films to be great productions, but lacking as overall films. In a sense, he was the James Cameron of his day – entertaining, big spectacles that didn’t really have a whole lot of depth.
13 January, 2012 at 12:25 am
Disappointed to see Kurosawa & Scorsese loose Spot 1 & 2 respectively.
To me, Kubrick can never go no 1, he will always be at no 4 behind Spielberg, Scorsese, Kurosawa.
Although Kubrick might have been technically better, the other 3 made films which were much… “friendlier” shall i say. I can never feel affectionate towards a Kubrick film.
BTW…Scorsese has now got HUGO to his name, that should give him no 1.
8 February, 2012 at 1:44 pm
I just wanted to say that I think it’s pretty cool that woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Terrence malick are all nominated for oscars this year
9 February, 2012 at 5:38 pm
What is your #2 film of 2007?
28 April, 2012 at 9:59 am
I like this list but I somehow feel that James Cameron should be on this list. You can’t be a bad director and have the 2 highest grossing films of all time. Plus several academy awards.
28 April, 2012 at 6:37 pm
I think that’s ridiculous. Michael Bay, who is no one’s serious idea of a good director has three films that have grossed over $300 million. Box office is not linked to quality in any way. Plus, I never said Cameron was a bad director. But he doesn’t make my list.
30 April, 2012 at 4:24 pm
I love the list and have added several movies to my viewings already based on it. I was wondering if at some point you could possibly do a list of your favorite screenplay writers. I see that you have one for literature and, based on your comment about Kevin Smith being a good writer but bad director, obviously don’t give directors credit for well written scripts. Directors obviously add a huge amount to any film and I will watch movies to a large degree based on who directed them, but I also know any good movie has to be a great script first. Just wondering if that was ever something you were planning on doing.
30 April, 2012 at 6:42 pm
I wasn’t planning to, for a couple of reasons. The first is that I think of film as a primarily visual medium, and so I tend to buy into the auteur theory. The second is that, with the exception of certain films like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind (the two biggest arguments against the theory), we know who did the directing and can apply credit where it is due. It is much harder with the writing. Look at Bridge on the River Kwai. The Oscar originally went to Pierre Boulle because of the blacklist, though he didn’t even speak English. Later, the proper credits were restored to Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. And, because of the deal the IMDb has with the WGA, those are the credits listed and you can’t change them. But if you read David Lean by Stephen M. Silverman, Lean is quoted as saying “There isn’t a single word of Foreman’s in the picture.” The next page goes on about how Lean mostly wrote the script, asking for Wilson’s help with the American dialogue for Holden. Or look at the lawsuit over the writing credits for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where Cox and Davis got credit rather than Gilliam and Grisoni, not because they had written more of what was filmed, but because the things Gilliam and Grisoni used that happened to be in Cox and Davis’ script was straight from the book and the stuff they changed was the stuff that was different. Really, most of the credit there went to Thompson. So, it’s so much harder to figure out how to rate the writers. Even rating the directors is an arbitrary process, but it’s a lot easier.
And to be frank, I like adding to the long argument over who the greatest directors are, just like I like adding to the argument of what the greatest novels are.
14 May, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Great list.I agree with almost everything onthe list. However I think Bresson should make the list
16 June, 2012 at 4:16 pm
superb list, thank you and completely agree with the intro.
20 July, 2012 at 3:11 pm
I’m so glad I stumbled upon your blog I can’t stop reading, you did an amazing job on this list! However, I was a little bit disappointed to see that Lars Von Trier didn’t make it on even though I kind of expected it. Some of his films, I have to admit, are a complete mess. I had a question though, do you think his latest film “Melancholia”, which I thought was a masterpiece, will be enough to propel him into the top 100 when you update this list?
20 July, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Not a chance. I thought it was another overblown misogynistic work. He has the ability to direct and gets good work out of actors you don’t expect it from, but until he gets a writer who hates women a bit less (and can tell a coherent story), he’s not gonna come anywhere close. In other words, he needs to stop directing his own scripts.
18 November, 2012 at 4:28 pm
I think you forgot Pasolini.
18 November, 2012 at 5:57 pm
No I didn’t.
14 March, 2013 at 10:48 am
Where is Wes Anderson…
14 March, 2013 at 10:59 am
He ended up getting cut for 2.0. Moonrise Kingdom might get him back on for 3.0. He got cut more due to changes in how I calculated the score.
31 March, 2013 at 12:57 am
A great list, and a great public service you’re doing by recommending so many of these directors. However…no Antonioni? Really? Hope he makes version 3.0.
6 November, 2017 at 1:25 am
Still can’t fathom the absence of Mizoguchi. Or Ozu. Makes one wonder if you’ve seen their films…
6 November, 2017 at 8:00 am
Or, you could have read the Introduction like it said and noticed there that they were specifically mentioned as not making the list and not wonder.
5 January, 2019 at 7:13 am
I thought I’d take this chance to mark the occasion of (slightly) revising my own list of Top 20 Favourite Directors, since I’d never shared them with you before (as far as I can recall).
So – in two groups of ten, one ranked above the other, then in alphabetical order…
My Top 10 (those whose statuses I feel are least likely to change with me):
Woody Allen
Robert Altman
Paul Thomas Anderson
James Cameron
Stanley Kubrick
Mike Leigh
Terrence Malick
Steven Spielberg
Peter Weir
Robert Zemeckis
My ‘Next’ 10 (those that are more potentially flexible in their placement):
Darren Aronofsky
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Francis Ford Coppola
Sandy Harbutt
Alejandro G. Inarritu
Peter Jackson
Spike Jonze
Kenneth Lonergan
David Lynch
Christopher Nolan
I have to say, considering how at odds we sometimes are, it’s comforting to see 3/4 of those names make it at least into (this version of) your top 100 (with Cameron and Zemeckis really our only notable disagreements).
I will concede that the inclusion of Sandy Harbutt deserves an explanation -beyond that of “it’s my list and I can elevate whomever I wish for whatever reason”. It’s mainly because he’s a relative rarity in cinema: someone who made what I consider to be a strikingly successful, enjoyable, and confident cinematic debut, then for whatever reason, didn’t follow it up with a second completed feature. Thus I regard Sandy Harbutt as having a perfect record (of sorts). His status on my list reflects how surprised and impressed I was by his film Stone, and how disappointed I am that he didn’t continue directing for the cinema.
5 January, 2019 at 8:51 am
@ F.T. –
Two things I note (one with irony) which may just be a reflection of how you chose your list.
1 – There are no directors from the Studio Era with Altman and Kubrick the only directors who made a film before 1960.
2 – The day after some new commenter commented on the original version of the list about how my list was “English language only”, yours is even more so.
In my 3.0 list which I really hope to finish this year, neither Lonergan or Jonze would be eligible (nor would Harbutt though I didn’t particularly like Stone anyway) because I am pushing the required number of films up to seven.
5 January, 2019 at 7:25 pm
It’s true that I find myself connecting with (and enjoying) recent cinema generally more than older films; for instance, I’m not what you’d call a Hitchcock fan (though I do own Rebecca, Spellbound, and Strangers on a Train), while my lack of enthusiasm for what are supposedly the best film of the 70s and 80s – not to mention his Oscar winner – means that Scorsese can’t make it that far with me (though I own five titles by him). Lawrence has always been my stumbling block with Lean, while Lumet is far too hit-and-miss. Welles has never had enormous appeal to me, though Falstaff is terrific and his recent work from beyond the grave was kind of amazing. I think that just a bit too much of Wilder hasn’t dated all that well. Capra gets close for me, and Eastwood does too. Whale could be undeniably brilliant and probably deserves rewatching.
I think my tastes in foreign language cinema are wide-ranging enough, and my filmographies on too many individual directors are incomplete enough, that I find it too difficult at this point to elevate any beyond Iñárritu (who only half counts anyway). Miyazaki is usually too much for my brain to handle. Meier, Audiard, Akin, Kechiche, Weerasethakul, Panahi, and Labaki have one film I enthusiastically embrace, while Kore-eda comes very close but the lesser achievements conspire to keep him out. I may be more enthused about delving further into Truffaut if I didn’t find Léaud so annoying. Perhaps once I’ve seen a couple more Enyedi films, she may become a threat. And I’m just not a Herzog or Kieslowski fan. (I’ve tried. Not happening.) Kurosawa once had a top twenty placement, until I started burning my way through so many of the black-and-white works that didn’t keep me watching until the end (not even Ikiru). I am fond of a few Bergman films, but 7th Seal, Scenes, Cries (watched more than once), Autumn, and Fanny I collectively found less than amazing. I like some Fellinis very much but the acclaim for Dolce Vita, 8&1/2, and Amarcord I cannot share in. Lang seems brilliant but rather too much hard work (honestly, most silent cinema has that effect on me, so Griffith, Murnau and Chaplin – who I truly think comes across as an annoying narcissist too much of the time – are also in that boat).
5 January, 2019 at 7:50 pm
In addition to those I already named: Zhang, Yang, Woo, Kim, Moodysson, Saura, Alea, Axel, Buñuel, Benigni, Majidi, Tursunov, Rostotskiy, Roodt, Dornford-May, Lakhdar-Hamina, the Tavianis, and the Dardennes all each have the one (so far) non-English-Language work that I prize highly. In most cases, I need to watch more titles of theirs, but some of these I think are just the clear standout for their makers.
5 January, 2019 at 8:41 pm
You can add Kon, Panh, Chan, Wei, Shinkai, Takahata, Yonebayashi, Kawase, Menzel, Philibert, Uchitel, Trueba, Petri, Giorgelli, Hirani, Chereau, Jeunet, and Costa-Gavras to the Foreign Language artists whose work can’t yet get them into my top twenty but whom I like very much (usually one title of theirs in particular) and have hopes for.
3 March, 2019 at 8:28 am
With my re-watch of The Elephant Man slightly lessening its impact on me, I’ve decided that David Lynch’s previous position in my top twenty is no longer tenable.
To take his place, you could say I’ve gone patriotic in choosing Albie Thoms, but it’s mostly a case of wanting to deservedly promote/elevate a daring filmmaker who is not widely known or widely seen, but whose sole feature that I have watched is terrifically stimulating and enjoyable (there are two more, neither of which I know how to get hold of; one a documentary and the other non-narrative, I gather).
https://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/palm-beach
18 April, 2019 at 10:00 pm
Carl Theodor Dreyer really should be included…”Passion of Joan of Ark”, “Day of Wrath”, Ordet” … Just like Sergei Eisenstein is included, even with few films to his credit, likewise so should be with the former mentioned…
23 April, 2019 at 8:04 pm
Just remembered that i forgot to include above Dreyers “Vampyr” , another one of his profound films and perhaps the strangest Vampire movie ever made…
24 April, 2022 at 8:28 am
Just curious to know where my two favorite directors ranked. John Waters and Russ Meyer.
24 April, 2022 at 9:30 am
@coreyallenedwards –
Nowhere near my list.
15 August, 2022 at 8:11 pm
I’m curious as to how close Claude Chabrol came to making this list. I recently watched Masques (1987) and quite enjoyed it. (I think that if it had been directed by Hitchcock, instead of the “French Hitchcock,” there would be academic paper after academic paper analyzing it as a self-reflective commentary on playing roles in media and in daily life.) It got me thinking about what a good body of work together. (In addition to his fiction films, he also directed a fascinating documentary about Vichy France.)
15 August, 2022 at 8:11 pm
*what a good body of work he put together.
16 August, 2022 at 5:23 am
@ RobertW –
For the 2.0 list he didn’t make the chart at all. For the second, he was cut with the initial cutdown because he has fewer than 10 Nighthawk points and no Weighted Total points and less than 10 points at the External Top 1000 so he had zero of the needed categories.