Filmography matters; but the more important considerations that we made to come up with this list were: Is the director at top of his or her game ? Is his/her next movie waited by critics and audiences alike? And does he/she have the ability to experiment and improve the horizons of cinema? Therefore, you will observe, a Steven Spielberg or even Woody Allen, who have the best filmography among all in the list, figure lower in comparison to someone like Scorsese or David Fincher who are still at the top of his game and are not shy to take the risks. Overall, the shortest way possible to summarize the method we utilized to rank down the list is asking this question to ourselves, “Who are the top directors in Hollywood?”
Keith Ridley Scott
Scott is known for his atmospheric, highly concentrated visual style.Though his films range widely in setting and period, they frequently showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, whether 2nd century Rome (Gladiator), 12th century Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), Medieval England (Robin Hood), contemporary Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down), or the future cityscapes of Blade Runner. His films are also known for their strong female characters.Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing (for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down). In 1995, both Ridley and his brother Tony received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2003, Scott was knighted for his “services to the British film industry”. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in London.
Notable films:
1 Alien
2 Blade Runner
3 The Martian
David Alfred Hitchcock
English film director and producer, at times referred to as “The Master of Suspense”. He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as England’s best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939, and became a US citizen in 1955.
Hitchcock became a highly visible public figure through interviews, movie trailers, cameo appearances in his own films, and the ten years in which he hosted the television programme Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1965). He also fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. Hitchcock’s stylistic trademarks include the use of camera movement that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative forms of film editing. His work often features fugitives on the run alongside “icy blonde” female characters. In 1978, film critic John Russell Taylor described Hitchcock as “the most universally recognizable person in the world”, and “a straightforward middle-class Englishman who just happened to be an artistic genius”.
Notable films:
1 Psycho
2 The Birds
3 Rear Window
Keith Peter Jackson
Jackson began his career with the “splatstick” horror comedy Bad Taste (1987) and the black comedy Meet the Feebles (1989) before filming the zombie comedy Braindead (1992). He shared a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh for Heavenly Creatures, which brought him to mainstream prominence in the film industry. Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards in his career, including the award for Best Director in 2003. He has also received a Golden Globe, four Saturn Awards and three BAFTAs amongst others.
Notable films:
1 The Lord Of the Rings (trilogy)
2 King Kong
3 The Lovely Bones
David John Ford
American film director. He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as the film The Grapes of Wrath (1940). His four Academy Awards for Best Director (in 1935, 1940, 1941, and 1952) remain a record. One of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films (although most of his silent films are now lost) and he is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential film-makers of his generation. Ford’s work was held in high regard by his colleagues, with Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman among those who have named him one of the greatest directors of all time.
Ford made frequent use of location shooting and long shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh and rugged natural terrain.
Notable films:
1 The Searchers
2 How Green Was my Valley
3 They Were Expendable
Keith Tim Burton
Burton’s success tramples the notion that audiences insist on golden twaddle. After 1985’s unexpected hit PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE led to the smash BEETLEJUICE, which led to the critical and box office success, BATMAN, the onetime Disney animator really pledged himself to the dark fable. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is for every kid who can’t stand to look in the mirror, BATMAN RETURNS is the blockbuster as freak show, and ED WOOD is a mainstream valentine to a movie pariah. Six features, and Burton’s wildly visual, startlingly tender sensibility is emblazoned on every frame.
Notable films:
1 Beetlejuice
2 Edward Scissorhands
3 The Nightmare Before Christmas
David Akira Kurosawa
Japanese filmmaker. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years.
Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director in 1943, during World War II, with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (a.k.a. Judo Saga). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director’s reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another 15 films. His wife Y?ko Yaguchi was also an actress in one of his films.
Notable films:
1 The Hidden Fortress (inspiration for Star Wars)
2 The Seven Samurai (remade into The Magnificent Seven)
3 Yojimbo (remade into A Fistfull of Dollars)
Keith Christopher Nolan
Unquestionably, the biggest moneymaker in Hollywood now. Also, the only director on the list with a near superstar status and following. With films like ‘Inception’, ‘The Dark Knight trilogy’ and Interstellar’, Christopher Nolan has found out the formula to have a massive audience as well as stay within realms of serious cinema. He is taking on a different challenge with the World War-II based with next film ‘Dunkirk’.
Notable films:?
1. Memento
2. Inception
3. The Dark Knight
David the Coen Brothers
If there are two names that reeks quality, they are Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. For the last 25 years, they have given us one great film after another. From ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’ to ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, the Coen brothers have such an individualistic artistic stamp over every film of theirs that you don’t need more than a scene to realize who directed them.
Notable films:?
1. Fargo
2. The Big Lebowski
3. No Country for Old Men
Keith Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino is one of those directors who has studied film history in detail and derived a completely new style of his own. Tarantino also has the added advantage of being a very talented writer as we have seen in cult classics like ‘Pulp Fiction’ or any other film of his as a matter of fact. Every single film in his filmography is nothing short of brilliant and calls for multiple viewings. He has legions of followers who in themselves are a proof of his immense talent.
Notable films:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2
David Orson Welles
American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; in radio, the legendary 1938 broadcast “The War of the Worlds”; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films.
Welles directed a number of high-profile stage productions for the Federal Theatre Project in his early twenties, including an adaptation of Macbeth with an entirely African American cast, and the political musical The Cradle Will Rock. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds performed for his radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually occurring. Although some contemporary sources claim these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to notoriety.
Notable films:
1 Citizen Kane
2 The Third Man
3 Chimes At Midnight
Keith the Coen Brothers
If there are two names that reeks quality, they are Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. For the last 25 years, they have given us one great film after another. From ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’ to ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, the Coen brothers have such an individualistic artistic stamp over every film of theirs that you don’t need more than a scene to realize who directed them.
Notable films:?
1. Fargo
2. The Big Lebowski
3. No Country for Old Men
David Martin Scorsese
Right up from ‘Mean Streets’ up to his latest ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Scorsese generally takes challenging projects and genres and makes it his own. He is the only director working for more than 40 years and yet hasn’t lost the touch with either the audiences or the critics. His 70 and 80s peers like Coppola may have gotten lost in the oblivion, but he continues to produce movies that collect more than 100 million dollars at the box-office and also, get nominated for ton of Oscars. Unarguably, one of the greatest directors of all time, Scorsese knows how to reinvent himself with every film and that’s why he sits at the top of this pile of directors.
Notable films:
1. Taxi Driver
2. Raging Bull
3. Goodfellas
Keith Clint Eastwood
From the very early days of his career Eastwood was frustrated by directors’ insistence that scenes be re-shot multiple times and perfected, and when he began directing in 1970, he made a conscious attempt to avoid any aspects of directing he had been indifferent to as an actor. As a result, Eastwood is renowned for his efficient film directing and ability to reduce filming time and control budgets. He usually avoids actors’ rehearsing and prefers to complete most scenes on the first take.
Notable films:
1 Million Dollar Baby
2 American Sniper
3 Mystic River
David Stanley Kubrick
American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor, and photographer. He is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential directors in cinematic history. His films, which are mostly adaptations of novels or short stories, cover a wide range of genres, and are noted for their realism, dark humor, unique cinematography, extensive set designs, and evocative use of music.
Notable films:
1 The Shining
2 A Clockwork Orange
3 2001: A Space Odyssey
Keith Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck was all but written-off as an actor. His second innings started when he turned director with ‘Gone Baby Gone’ where he showed his directing chops, which he was, and still is, great at. That also resurrected his movie-career, and soon he became one of the names to reckon with, so much so, that when he was snubbed by the Academy [remember he didn’t get nominated for Best Director for Argo] a wave of sympathy allowed him to take Best Picture prize.
Notable films:?
1. Argo
2. The Town
3. Gone Baby Gone
David Christopher Nolan
Unquestionably, the biggest moneymaker in Hollywood now. Also, the only director on the list with a near superstar status and following. With films like ‘Inception’, ‘The Dark Knight trilogy’ and Interstellar’, Christopher Nolan has found out the formula to have a massive audience as well as stay within realms of serious cinema. He is taking on a different challenge with the World War-II based with next film ‘Dunkirk’.
Notable films:?
1. Memento
2. Inception
3. The Dark Knight
Keith Steven Spielberg
Spielberg since the beginning has been a visionary with the consistently interesting subject matters he chooses for his films. His filmography is long and although some may not be as successful as others, he still is relevant even today. Though, arguably, his films don’t invoke the same excitement as it did a decade back.
Notable films:
1. Schindler’s List
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Jaws
David James Cameron
Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and deep-sea explorer. He first found major success with the science fiction action film The Terminator (1984). He then became a popular Hollywood director and was hired to write and direct Aliens (1986); three years later he followed up with The Abyss (1989).
Notable films:
1 The Terminator
2 Aliens
3 Avatar
Keith James Cameron
Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and deep-sea explorer. He first found major success with the science fiction action film The Terminator (1984). He then became a popular Hollywood director and was hired to write and direct Aliens (1986); three years later he followed up with The Abyss (1989).
Notable films:
1 The Terminator
2 Aliens
3 Avatar
David Steven Spielberg
Spielberg since the beginning has been a visionary with the consistently interesting subject matters he chooses for his films. His filmography is long and although some may not be as successful as others, he still is relevant even today. Though, arguably, his films don’t invoke the same excitement as it did a decade back.
Notable films:
1. Schindler’s List
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Jaws
And there you have it – another fine top 10 list! What did you think? Did we get all your favorites? We want to know, so comment below! Let us know if we missed any great ones. Listen to our podcast at www.podcastunlimited.com. Go to our archive section and look for episode 97! Listen to us discuss this list! To see our list of Honorable Mentions, check out our (big) sister blog. This is the engineer signing off. “cut”.