10 Best Directors of All Time (According to IMDb)
IMDb Top 250 is one of the best places for movie lovers. From it, you can see the best movies according to a whole bunch of people. But did you know that almost a quarter of those movies are made by just the 10 best directors?!
Of the top 10 directors, all 10 are men, and only two are not white. It just shows how weak diversity is still in the world of movies and Hollywood. More precisely, in all 250 best films, according to IMDb, there is not a single female director. But we’re not talking about that here, so let’s take a look at the top 10 directors according to IMDb below. They are sorted by the number of movies they have on the list.
10. Quentin Tarantino (5 movies)
Since coming to the list with the movie Reservoir Dogs (# 78), Quentin Tarantino has 5 movies on that list. It’s really impressive, when we know he’s only directed nine films so far. His next film on that list is Pulp Fiction (# 7), followed by Kill Bill vol. 1 (# 174), and Inglorious Basterds (# 98) and Django Unchained (# 60). Tarantino has a fantastic success of 55% of his films that have managed to enter the top 250 of all time.
9. Billy Wilder (5 movies)
Wilder’s first film to come to this list was 1944’s Double Indemnity (# 87). It was followed by Sunset Boulevard (# 54), Witness for The Prosecution (# 68), Some Like It Hot (# 118) and The Apartment (# 108). Unlike Tarantino, he made over 25 films.
8. Akira Kurosawa (5 movies)
His first film was Rashomon (#111) from 1950, followed by a 1952 drama, Ikiru (#128). This was followed by Seven Samurai (#19), Yojimbo (#114) and Ran (#133). He has directed over 30 films.
7. Charlie Chaplin (5 movies)
The star of silent film, he first came to this list with the movie The Kid (#100) from 1921, which is also the oldest film on this list. He was followed by Gold Rush (#135), Modern Times (#39), The Great Dictator (#53) and his best on this list City Lights (1931) extremely high for such an old movie #36.
6. Hayao Miyazaki (6 movies)
The best animator of all time, behind Walt Disney (questionable), found himself on this list for the first time with the animated film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (#212). Castle In The Sky is also on the list at the moment, and we say currently because it is in 250th place. This is followed by My Neighbor Totoro (#131), Princess Mononoke (#64), Spirited Away (#29) and Howl’s Moving Castle (#137).
5. Alfred Hitchcock (6 movies)
The Master of Tension first found himself on this list in 1940, with the film Rebecca (#173). This was followed by Dial M For Murder (#155), Rear Window (#43), Vertigo (#74), North By Northwest (#75) and finally at its highest point Psycho (#35).
4. Stanley Kubrick (7 movies)
Stanley Kubrick hasn’t made too many films, but when he would normally get into the top 250. 7 of his 13 films are on this list, which makes a fantastic 54%. The first film on the list is Paths of Glory (# 59), followed by Dr. Strangelove (# 56), 2001: A Space Odyssey (# 92), A Clockwork Orange (# 84), Barry Lyndon (# 228), The Shining (# 61) and Full Metal Jacket (# 91).
3. Martin Scorsese (7 movies)
Martin Scorsese is loved by critics and viewers alike, and his first film on the list is Taxi Driver (#89), followed by Raging Bull (#123). After those there are five more films, perhaps the best mafia film of all time Goodfellas (#17), Casino (#147), The Departed (#42), Shutter Island (#181) and The Wolf of Wall Street (#151).
2. Steven Spielberg (7 movies)
Perhaps the most popular American director ever, Steven Spielberg, is credited with seven films on this list. First on the list was Jaws (#237), followed by two Indiana Jones movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark (#41) and Last Crusade (#112), Schindler’s List (#6) and Jurassic Park (#200). He later returned to the best IMDb Top 250 list with Saving Private Ryan (#28) and Catch Me If You Can (#220).
1. Christopher Nolan (8 movies)
Many would say that this is a surprise because various critics do not appreciate him as much as almost all these directors behind him on the list, but there is one thing about him, and that is that Mr. Christopher Nolan can’t make a bad movie. It could be better and even better, but he hasn’t had a bad movie yet. The first film on his list was Memento (#50), after that he made quite a solid Insomnia, which did not enter this list, but after that film, every next one is. They are followed by Batman Begins (#117), The Prestige (#49), The Dark Knight (#4), Inception (#14), The Dark Knight Rises (#65), Interstellar (#33) and Dunkirk (#141), which made this director the best of all time, at least according to this ranking, and it could be said that it is the most important considering that it is according to the viewer’s votes.
