...and the best director is?

[Drexyl666]

Not THE best but certainly one of the better ones out there is Edward Zwick.

[Octavio]

ok here is my Top25

1. Luis Buñuel
2. Krzysztof Kieslowski
3. Federico Fellini
4. Ingmar Bergman
5. Akira Kurosawa
6. Stanley Kubrick
7. Alfred Hitchcock
8. Sergei Eisenstein
9. Fritz Lang
10. Andrei Tarkovsky
11. F.W. Murnau
12. Alejandro Jodorowsky
13. David Cronenberg
14. Martin Scorsese
15. Michelangelo Antonioni
16. Jean-Luc Godard
17. Pier Paolo Pasolini
18. FrançoisTruffaut
19. Jean Renoir
20. David Lean
21. Roman Polanski
22. Charlie Chaplin
23. Werner Herzog
24. Orson Welles
25. Ridley Scott

Notables (In no particular order):
Kaige Chen
Francis Ford Coppola
Alfonso Cuarón
Guillermo del Toro
Tim Burton
Quentin Tarantino
Yimou Zhang
Ang Lee
Ken Loach
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Hayao Miyazaki
Carlos Reygadas
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Robert Bresson
Emilio Fernández
Coen Bros.
Carlos Saura
Pedro Almodóvar
Héctor Babenco
Miguel Littín
Arturo Ripstein
Fernando Meirelles
Walter Salles
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Wim Wenders
Aki Kaurismäki
Peter Greenaway
Vittorio De Sica
Roberto Rossellini
Luchino Visconti
Alain Resnais
Emir Kusturica
David Lynch
Andrzej Wajda
István Szabó
Sergei Bondarchuk
Kim-Ki Duk
Takeshi Kitano
Denys Arcand
Felipe Cazals
John Ford
Costa-Gavras
Bo Widerberg
Michael Haneke
Abbas Kiarostami
Majid Majidi
Agnès Varda
John Huston
Shohei Imamura

and many more...

[Minimejer05]

Nolan
Kubrick
Tarantino

[Dogslyf]

Akira Kurisowa
Alfred Hitchcock
Stanley Kubrick
Sidney Lumet
Steven Spielberg
John Ford
Orson Welles
Francois Truffaut
Pedro Almodovar
John Huston
Martin Sorcese
Ridley Scott
Sam Peckinpah

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by fdm

No such thing as "the best director".

Pretty sure I agree...

But I'll make my non-productive contribution to the thread anyway, since I can't see Elia Kazan's name listed previously (though it may be these aging eyes of mine).

[skubrick]

Originally Posted by Octavio

ok here is my Top25

1. Luis Buñuel
2. Krzysztof Kieslowski
3. Federico Fellini
4. Ingmar Bergman
5. Akira Kurosawa
6. Stanley Kubrick
7. Alfred Hitchcock
8. Sergei Eisenstein
9. Fritz Lang
10. Andrei Tarkovsky
11. F.W. Murnau
12. Alejandro Jodorowsky
13. David Cronenberg
14. Martin Scorsese
15. Michelangelo Antonioni
16. Jean-Luc Godard
17. Pier Paolo Pasolini
18. FrançoisTruffaut
19. Jean Renoir
20. David Lean
21. Roman Polanski
22. Charlie Chaplin
23. Werner Herzog
24. Orson Welles
25. Ridley Scott

Notables (In no particular order):
Kaige Chen
Francis Ford Coppola
Alfonso Cuarón
Guillermo del Toro
Tim Burton
Quentin Tarantino
Yimou Zhang
Ang Lee
Ken Loach
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Hayao Miyazaki
Carlos Reygadas
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Robert Bresson
Emilio Fernández
Coen Bros.
Carlos Saura
Pedro Almodóvar
Héctor Babenco
Miguel Littín
Arturo Ripstein
Fernando Meirelles
Walter Salles
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Wim Wenders
Aki Kaurismäki
Peter Greenaway
Vittorio De Sica
Roberto Rossellini
Luchino Visconti
Alain Resnais
Emir Kusturica
David Lynch
Andrzej Wajda
István Szabó
Sergei Bondarchuk
Kim-Ki Duk
Takeshi Kitano
Denys Arcand
Felipe Cazals
John Ford
Costa-Gavras
Bo Widerberg
Michael Haneke
Abbas Kiarostami
Majid Majidi
Agnès Varda
John Huston
Shohei Imamura

and many more...

Wow, you listed 75 directors and didn't name Woody Allen, Steven Speilberg or DW Griffith? And I'm a little disappointed you left off PT Anderson, Anthony Minghella, Philip Kaufman and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Did you just forget some of those? I'm surprised you'd favor Cuaron or Szabo over a few of those.

But I can understand why you would add the rest. At least you didn't include any hacks like Oliver Stone. Kudos to your knowledge and independent thought!!

I wish I had time to make such a list, but I'll have to restrain myself to one vote...for Kubrick.

[Steelmaker]

Originally Posted by Octavio

ok here is my Top25

1. Luis Buñuel
2. Krzysztof Kieslowski
3. Federico Fellini
4. Ingmar Bergman
5. Akira Kurosawa
6. Stanley Kubrick
7. Alfred Hitchcock
8. Sergei Eisenstein
9. Fritz Lang
10. Andrei Tarkovsky
11. F.W. Murnau
12. Alejandro Jodorowsky
13. David Cronenberg
14. Martin Scorsese
15. Michelangelo Antonioni
16. Jean-Luc Godard
17. Pier Paolo Pasolini
18. FrançoisTruffaut
19. Jean Renoir
20. David Lean
21. Roman Polanski
22. Charlie Chaplin
23. Werner Herzog
24. Orson Welles
25. Ridley Scott

Notables (In no particular order):
Kaige Chen
Francis Ford Coppola
Alfonso Cuarón
Guillermo del Toro
Tim Burton
Quentin Tarantino
Yimou Zhang
Ang Lee
Ken Loach
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Hayao Miyazaki
Carlos Reygadas
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Robert Bresson
Emilio Fernández
Coen Bros.
Carlos Saura
Pedro Almodóvar
Héctor Babenco
Miguel Littín
Arturo Ripstein
Fernando Meirelles
Walter Salles
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Wim Wenders
Aki Kaurismäki
Peter Greenaway
Vittorio De Sica
Roberto Rossellini
Luchino Visconti
Alain Resnais
Emir Kusturica
David Lynch
Andrzej Wajda
István Szabó
Sergei Bondarchuk
Kim-Ki Duk
Takeshi Kitano
Denys Arcand
Felipe Cazals
John Ford
Costa-Gavras
Bo Widerberg
Michael Haneke
Abbas Kiarostami
Majid Majidi
Agnès Varda
John Huston
Shohei Imamura

and many more...

MAN!! Some of you on here need a life!! I dont' think I could even NAME 25 directors let alone list a TOP 25.

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

While I don't think Nolan is good enough to be mentioned here, I don't think we should discount him because he hasn't done enough movies. He hasn't done enough great movies. Stanley Kubrick only directed 10 major movies ( i'm counting Spartacus) and i think it's safe to mention his name when talking of the greats. Deep down I know Hitchcock probably "did more" for film, but Kubrick gives me goosebumps.

That is a very good point that I didn't take into consideration as I find Kubrick to be among the greats. With that being said, I still feel like its too early to start calling him great as hes still 'new to the biz'. Lets see in 10 years he can still direct just as well as he is now. For example, look at Speilberg and other directors that people feel have gone downhill. I hope that Nolan doesn't go downhill, but its still too early to tell.

[m_tyson]

i don't think Kubrick will directing too many more films in the next 10 years, since he has been dead almost a decade. Nolan, maybe.

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

That is a very good point that I didn't take into consideration as I find Kubrick to be among the greats. With that being said, I still feel like its too early to start calling him great as hes still 'new to the biz'. Lets see in 10 years he can still direct just as well as he is now. For example, look at Speilberg and other directors that people feel have gone downhill. I hope that Nolan doesn't go downhill, but its still too early to tell.

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by m_tyson

i don't think Kubrick will directing too many more films in the next 10 years, since he has been dead almost a decade.

If you were following the string of our conversation you will see that I was referring to Nolan.

[The Lion King]

Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, and whoever directed The Blair Witch Project.

[sasquatch451]

Has anyone mentioned Terry Gilliam yet? He's done some great work. And Jean-Pierre Jeunet as someone mentioned already.

[JamesKurtovich]

Nobody's mentioned Rob Zombie yet.

Kidding.

[Sussudio]

james cameron's one of my favs

[Chris66]

My favourite directors are
Stanley Kubrick
Martin Scorsese
Michael Man
John Mctiernan
Christopher Nolan
Ridley Scott
David Fincher
Steven Spielberg
Paul Greengrass
James Cameron
Brian De Palma
Francis Ford Coppola
Oliver Stone
Serigo Leone
Clint Eastwood
Wolfgang Petersen
John Carpenter
Andrew Davis
Richard Donner
The Wachowski Brothers

[JamesKurtovich]

Peter Jackson
Alfred Hitchcock
Stanley Kubrick
Clint Eastwood
Mel Gibson
Ridley Scott
Akira Kurosawa
Andrei Tarkovsky
Steven Spielberg
Martin Scorcese
James Cameron
Quentin Tarantino
Christopher Nolan
Coen bros.
David Lynch
Guillermo Del Toro
Robert Rodriguez
Edward D. Wood

[dvd_mazter]

Some of my favourites:
Christopher Nolan
Sam Raimi
Kevin Smith
Martin Scorcese
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Brad Bird
and the six directors working at Pixar studios. (their names escape me at the moment but they created some really brilliant films such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Wall.e)

[PH3AR]

Martin Scorsese!...


but there r other directors i like such as...
Tarantino
Spielberg
Lucas
Micheal Bay
Sam Raimi
Ridley Scott
Wachowski Brothers
Coen Brothers
John Carpenter

[Tcan21]

for me its a toss up between Billy Wilder and David Lean

[T-16]

Peter Greenaway, is a singular celluloid painter