You’ll never find an accurate top 300 directors list. Never. Sorry if you’re looking for one. Instead, the best we can do is pontificate what our biases are or try to predict what cinephile opinion is. This list attempts to interpret the top 300 directors by looking at various sources, such as Letterboxd, TSPDT, etc. By looking at these, I hope to determine the rise and fall of multiple directors’ standings. Is Spike Lee always going to be in the 80s, or will he escape it? He’ll probably move at some point, but will he go down or up? Hopefully, time and this list will tell. So, without further adieu, here’s the list.

Look through it, insult it and nitpick away!

1. Alfred Hitchcock 🇬🇧
2. Ingmar Bergman 🇸🇪
3. Akira Kurosawa 🇯🇵
4. Martin Scorsese 🇺🇸
5. Luis Bunuel 🇪🇸
6. Jean-Luc Godard 🇫🇷
7. John Ford 🇺🇸
8. Stanley Kubrick 🇺🇸
9. Yasujiro Ozu 🇯🇵
10. Howard Hawks 🇺🇸
11. Steven Spielberg 🇺🇸
12. Jean Renoir 🇫🇷
13. Charles Chaplin 🇬🇧
14. Robert Bresson 🇫🇷
15. Michael Powell 🇬🇧
16. Federico Fellini 🇮🇹
17. Fritz Lang 🇩🇪
18. David Lynch 🇺🇸
19. Billy Wilder 🇦🇹
20. Andrei Tarkovsky 🇷🇺
21. Orson Welles 🇺🇸
22. Coen Brothers 🇺🇸
23. Roberto Rossellini 🇮🇹
24. Carl Theodor Dreyer 🇩🇰
25. Kenji Mizoguchi 🇯🇵
26. Satyajit Ray 🇮🇳
27. Abbas Kiarostami 🇮🇷
28. Michelangelo Antonioni 🇮🇹
29. Ernst Lubitsch 🇩🇪
30. Paul Thomas Anderson 🇺🇸
31. Woody Allen 🇺🇸
32. Hayao Miyazaki 🇯🇵
33. Quentin Tarantino 🇺🇸
34. John Cassavetes 🇺🇸
35. Wong Kar-wai 🇭🇰
36. F. W. Murnau 🇩🇪
37. Francis Ford Coppola 🇺🇸
38. Sergei Eisenstein 🇷🇺
39. Buster Keaton 🇺🇸
40. Luchino Visconti 🇮🇹
41. Terrence Malick 🇺🇸
42. Agnes Varda 🇫🇷
43. Francois Truffaut 🇫🇷
44. John Huston 🇺🇸
45. Krzysztof Kieslowski 🇵🇱
46. David Lean 🇬🇧
47. Werner Herzog 🇩🇪
48. Hou Hsiao-hsien 🇹🇼
49. D. W. Griffith 🇺🇸
50. Rainer Werner Fassbinder 🇩🇪
51. Sergio Leone 🇮🇹
52. Christopher Nolan 🇬🇧
53. William Wyler 🇩🇪🇨🇭
54. Wim Wenders 🇩🇪
55. Michael Haneke 🇦🇹
56. Max Ophuls 🇩🇪
57. Robert Altman 🇺🇸
58. Roman Polanski 🇵🇱
59. Ridley Scott 🇬🇧
60. Lars von Trier 🇩🇰
61. Alain Resnais 🇫🇷
62. David Fincher 🇺🇸
63. Clint Eastwood 🇺🇸
64. Apichatpong Weerasethakul 🇹🇭
65. Frank Capra 🇺🇸
66. Preston Sturges 🇺🇸
67. Nicholas Ray 🇺🇸
68. David Cronenberg 🇨🇦
69. Eric Rohmer 🇫🇷
70. Michael Curtiz 🇭🇺
71. Vincente Minnelli 🇺🇸
72. Sidney Lumet 🇺🇸
73. Vittorio De Sica 🇮🇹
74. Edward Yang 🇹🇼
75. Bela Tarr 🇭🇺
76. Leo McCarey 🇺🇸
77. James Cameron 🇺🇸
78. Richard Linklater 🇺🇸
79. Jean-Pierre Melville 🇫🇷
80. Wes Anderson 🇺🇸
81. George Cukor 🇺🇸
82. Elia Kazan 🇺🇸🇬🇷
83. Jacques Rivette 🇫🇷
84. Josef von Sternberg 🇦🇹
85. Spike Lee 🇺🇸
86. Mikio Naruse 🇯🇵
87. Pier Paolo Pasolini 🇮🇹
88. Chantal Akerman 🇧🇪
89. Jacques Tourneur 🇫🇷
90. Theo Angelopoulos 🇬🇷
91. Brian De Palma 🇺🇸
92. Alfonso Cuaron 🇲🇽
93. Joseph L. Mankiewicz 🇺🇸
94. Tsai Ming-liang 🇲🇾
95. Chris Marker 🇫🇷
96. Bernardo Bertolucci 🇮🇹
97. Jim Jarmusch 🇺🇸
98. Pedro Almodovar 🇪🇸
99. Rob Reiner 🇺🇸
100. Claire Denis 🇫🇷
101. Douglas Sirk 🇩🇪
102. Nicolas Roeg 🇬🇧
103. Peter Jackson 🇳🇿
104. Marcel Carne 🇫🇷
105. Jacques Tati 🇫🇷
106. Sam Peckinpah 🇺🇸
107. Robert Wise 🇺🇸
108. Jacques Demy 🇫🇷
109. Hirokazu Koreeda 🇯🇵
110. Milos Forman 🇨🇿
111. Bong Joon-ho 🇰🇷
112. John Carpenter 🇺🇸
113. Louis Malle 🇫🇷
114. Masaki Kobayashi 🇯🇵
115. Erich Von Stroheim 🇦🇹
116. Stanley Donen 🇺🇸
117. King Vidor 🇺🇸
118. Ang Lee 🇹🇼
119. Victor Fleming 🇺🇸
120. Victor Erice 🇪🇸
121. Zhang Yimou 🇨🇳
122. George Stevens 🇺🇸
123. Raoul Walsh 🇺🇸
124. Henri-Georges Clouzot 🇫🇷
125. Jean Vigo 🇫🇷
126. Denis Villeneuve 🇨🇦
127. Pedro Costa 🇵🇹
128. Jane Campion 🇳🇿
129. Mike Leigh 🇬🇧
130. Victor Sjostrom 🇸🇪
131. Nuri Bilge Ceylan 🇹🇷
132. Terry Gilliam 🇺🇸🇬🇧
133. Lucrecia Martel 🇦🇷
134. Robert Zemeckis 🇺🇸
135. Otto Preminger 🇦🇹
136. Carol Reed 🇬🇧
137. Andrzej Wajda 🇵🇱
138. Lee Chang-dong 🇰🇷
139. Mario Monicelli 🇮🇹
140. Mikhail Kalatazov 🇷🇺
141. Gus Van Sant 🇺🇸
142. James Whale 🇬🇧
143. Emir Kusturica 🇷🇸
144. Michael Mann 🇺🇸
145. Park Chan-wook 🇰🇷
146. Darren Aronofsky 🇺🇸
147. William Friedkin 🇺🇸
148. Raul Ruiz 🇨🇱
149. Peter Bogdanovich 🇺🇸
150. George Miller 🇦🇺
151. Glauber Rocha 🇧🇷
152. George A. Romero 🇺🇸
153. Dardenne Brothers 🇧🇪
154. Michael Cimino 🇺🇸
155. Todd Haynes 🇺🇸
156. Tim Burton 🇺🇸
157. Fred Zinnemann 🇦🇹
158. Steve McQueen 🇬🇧
159. Aleksandr Sokurov 🇷🇺
160. Jia Zhangke 🇨🇳
161. Asghar Farhadi 🇮🇷
162. Peter Weir 🇦🇺
163. Peter Greenaway 🇬🇧
164. G. W. Pabst 🇦🇹
165. Jean Cocteau 🇫🇷
166. Hal Ashby 🇺🇸
167. King Hu 🇨🇳
168. Sergei Parajanov 🇦🇲🇬🇪
169. Jules Dassin 🇺🇸
170. Frank Borzage 🇺🇸
171. Shohei Imamura 🇯🇵
172. Anthony Mann 🇺🇸
173. Arthur Penn 🇺🇸
174. Robert Flaherty 🇺🇸
175. Abel Gance 🇫🇷
176. Guillermo Del Toro 🇲🇽
177. Mike Nichols 🇺🇸
178. George Lucas 🇺🇸
179. Jean Eustache 🇫🇷
180. Ken Loach 🇬🇧
181. Jacques Becker 🇫🇷
182. Wang Bing 🇨🇳
183. Terence Davies 🇬🇧
184. Isao Takahata 🇯🇵
185. Leos Carax 🇫🇷
186. Satoshi Kon 🇯🇵
187. Aki Kaurismaki 🇫🇮
188. Spike Jonze 🇺🇸
189. Bob Fosse 🇺🇸
190. Celine Sciamma 🇫🇷
191. Maurice Pialat 🇫🇷
192. John Woo 🇭🇰
193. Sam Mendes 🇬🇧
194. Elem Klimov 🇷🇺
195. Oliver Stone 🇺🇸
196. Mervyn LeRoy 🇺🇸
197. Samuel Fuller 🇺🇸
198. Alejandro G. Inarritu 🇲🇽
199. Robert Aldrich 🇺🇸
200. Frederick Wiseman 🇺🇸
201. John Landis 🇺🇸
202. Kathryn Bigelow 🇺🇸
203. Thomas Vinterberg 🇩🇰
204. Peter Watkins 🇬🇧
205. Jonathan Demme 🇺🇸
206. Dario Argento 🇮🇹
207. Kelly Reichardt 🇺🇸
208. Danny Boyle 🇬🇧
209. Mel Brooks 🇺🇸
210. Pete Docter 🇺🇸
211. Andrew Stanton 🇺🇸
212. Don Siegel 🇺🇸
213. Julien Duvivier 🇫🇷
214. Ettore Scola 🇮🇹
215. Louis Feuillade 🇫🇷
216. William A. Wellman 🇺🇸
217. Luis Garcia Berlanga 🇪🇸
218. Ermanno Olmi 🇮🇹
219. Dziga Vertov 🇷🇺
220. Ousmane Sembene 🇸🇳
221. Paul Verhoeven 🇳🇱
222. John Boorman 🇬🇧
223. George Roy Hill 🇺🇸
224. Tobe Hooper 🇺🇸
225. Edgar Wright 🇬🇧
226. Jonas Mekas 🇱🇹🇺🇸
227. Hideaki Anno 🇯🇵
228. Damien Chazelle 🇺🇸
229. Humphrey Jennings 🇬🇧
230. Barry Jenkins 🇺🇸
231. Sydney Pollack 🇺🇸
232. Brad Bird 🇺🇸
233. Michael Snow 🇨🇦
234. Jean-Pierre Jeunet 🇫🇷
235. Ryusuke Hamaguchi 🇯🇵
236. John McTiernan 🇺🇸
237. Gillo Pontecorvo 🇮🇹
238. Alejandro Jodorowsky 🇨🇱
239. Alexander Mackendrick 🇬🇧
240. Manoel de Oliveira 🇵🇹
241. Alexander Dovzhenko 🇷🇺
242. Sofia Coppola 🇺🇸
243. Nagisa Oshima 🇯🇵
244. Taika Waititi 🇳🇿
245. Robert Hamer 🇬🇧
246. Eduardo Coutinho 🇧🇷
247. Costa-Gavras 🇬🇷
248. Giuseppe Tornatore 🇮🇹
249. Takeshi Kitano 🇯🇵
250. Sion Sono 🇯🇵
251. Edgar G. Ulmer 🇦🇹
252. Ron Howard 🇺🇸
253. Errol Morris 🇺🇸
254. Cristian Mungiu 🇷🇴
255. Charles Laughton 🇬🇧
256. Claude Lanzmann 🇫🇷
257. Franklin J. Schaffner 🇺🇸
258. Nelson Pereira Dos Santos 🇧🇷
259. Jan Troell 🇸🇪
260. Sam Raimi 🇺🇸
261. Majid Majidi 🇮🇷
262. Maya Deren 🇺🇸🇺🇦
263. David Hand 🇺🇸
264. Paul Schrader 🇺🇸
265. John Frankenheimer 🇺🇸
266. Jan Svankmajer 🇨🇿
267. René Clair 🇫🇷
268. Kenneth Lonergan 🇺🇸
269. Kon Ichikawa 🇯🇵
270. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet 🇫🇷
271. Joseph Losey 🇺🇸
272. Alexander Payne 🇺🇸
273. Chen Kaige 🇨🇳
274. Robert Rossen 🇺🇸
275. Kaneto Shindō 🇯🇵
276. Frank Darabont 🇺🇸
277. Michel Gondry 🇫🇷
278. Charles Burnett 🇺🇸
279. Anthony Asquith 🇬🇧
280. Francesco Rosi 🇮🇹
281. Hiroshi Teshigahara 🇯🇵
282. Maysles Brothers 🇺🇸
283. Joshua Oppenheimer 🇺🇸🇬🇧
284. Alan J. Pakula 🇺🇸
285. Stanley Kramer 🇺🇸
286. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack 🇺🇸
287. Lee Unkrich 🇺🇸
288. Patricio Guzmán 🇨🇱
289. Alan Parker 🇬🇧
290. Robert Wiene 🇩🇪
291. Harold Ramis 🇺🇸
292. Jafar Panahi 🇮🇷
293. The Wachowskis 🇺🇸
294. Andrew Dominik 🇦🇺
295. František Vláčil 🇨🇿
296. Martin McDonagh 🇮🇪🇬🇧
297. Mel Gibson 🇺🇸
298. John Sturges 🇺🇸
299. Guru Dutt 🇮🇳
300. Shūji Terayama 🇯🇵