EW’s Top 25 Greatest Working Directors

Posted by on February 25th, 2011   Filed under: Lists
Source: EW

With the Oscars just days away and the showdown between The King’s Speech and The Social Network intensifying, the staff over at Entertainment Weekly decided to put together a list of the filmmakers that they consider to be the 25 Greatest Working Directors. It certainly seems that they are pushing for David Fincher to finally win Best Director this year, as he ended up at the very top of the list, right above the likes of Spielberg, Scorsese and Nolan. Overall, the list is pretty tough to argue with, although it does skew heavily towards big name American directors.

If anything, I would mainly take issue with some of the ordering they came up with. James Cameron all the way down at #18 seems a bit strange, especially when Kathryn Bigelow is at #15 (yeah, I know she won the Oscar last year, but seriously). Clint Eastwood being in the top 10 also seems a bit excessive, considering the quality of his last few films and all of the other great names mentioned here. What do you think, do you agree with this list? Is there anyone important that they left out? Check out the top 25 after the jump, or head over to Entertainment Weekly to read their justifications for each choice.

25. Wes Anderson
24. Mike Leigh
23. Brad Bird
22. J.J. Abrams
21. Spike Lee
20. Edgar Wright
19. Peter Jackson
18. James Cameron
17. David Lynch
16. David O. Russell
15. Kathryn Bigelow
14. Danny Boyle
13. Roman Polanski
12. Guillermo del Toro
11. P.T. Anderson
10. Pedro Almodóvar
9. Clint Eastwood
8. Terrence Malick
7. Quentin Tarantino
6. Joel and Ethan Coen
5. Darren Aronofsky
4. Martin Scorsese
3. Steven Spielberg
2. Christopher Nolan
1. David Fincher

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  • Smitty

    An alright list. I’d like to see the Coen Brothers and P.T. Anderson ranked higher. Also, where is Steven Soderbergh??

  • Bocuma

    Spike Lee? Seriously? 25th hour was impressive and Inside Man was entertaining, but still… Do the Right Thing came out a long time ago.

    And J.J. Abrams? C’mon…

    It also seems that EW hasn’t seen any foreign films at all…

  • FoxMulder

    Where is Michael Bay?????????

    Just kidding… :-)

  • Double_A

    I’d drop Wright and Abrams to put in Ridley Scott and David Cronnenberg.

  • patrik

    I would move Cameron, Danny Boyle, Del Toro and P.T. Anderson higher up that list..

  • http://ahealthydisdain.wordpress.com Julian Carrington

    No Michael Haneke? No Claire Denis? Not one Asian filmmaker? What a joke.

    The fact that they have Almodóvar and Del Toro on their makes the other international omissions even more egregious.

  • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/226d821c77d3c502426774727ef2826e.png Juan Costrada

    Cronenberg definitely deserves an inclusion. I watched eXistenZ yesterday (essentially a remake of Videodrome)and this seems more an inspiration for Inception than anything else. The concept of levels, numerous shots of tactile elements and themes are presented better in this film. If not for a woefully ill-conceived finale, where character development is abandoned, it would be a masterful accomplishment.

    He still continues to make films of an extremely high quality, even if he has changed course.

    It would be interesting to think who else should be included. Chan Wook Park and Adam Spiegel are worthy.

  • dirrrtyfrank

    Kathryn Bigelow being on this list is an absolute joke.

    Aside from the order, I would drop David Lynch, Brad Bird, and J.J. Abrams.

    Possible additions would be Spike Jonze, Alexander
    Payne, David Gordon Green, Mel Gibson, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Michael Mann, Steven Soderbergh, Werner Herzog, Sam Raimi, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Frank Darabont, David Cronenberg …

    and of course ..

    John Turtletaub!

  • Darksiders

    eXistenZ is such a great film and Chronenberg should definitely be on there.

    What about Michael Mann? Heat alone beats most of the directors on the lists best film.

  • Justice

    Yeah, some of this is ridiculous. Nolan above Spielberg, Aronofsky, Coens, Tarantino and Scorsese?! Katherine Bigalow? David O. Russel? And plenty of omissions mentioned above.

  • http://rowthree.com Andrew James

    Nice to see Almodovar on there. But no Soderbergh? Yeah Kathryn Bigelow is amazing… oh wait, no she’s not.

    This list is a fail.

  • Werner

    just another useless list

  • Captain N

    Considering David Fincher just released his first great film after 20 or so years of being a film director, he probably shouldn’t be at the top of the list. This really just seems like a list of “popular” directors. Del Toro, really one of the top 25 working directors? Edgar Wright? JJ Abrams? Peter Jackson?

  • Drewsifer

    Wake up people these are directors who made something in 2010. And there is no way these list is a rank thing, it’s just a list.

  • Duke Togo

    Personally I’d add Miike to the list, he’s certainly the most prolific. How about Jonnie To? What no Park Chan Wook?

  • Duke Togo

    Three more Japanese directors:

    Yoichi Sai, Takeshi Kitano. Rokuro Mochizuki

  • Strand0410

    Sam Mendes….

  • http://www.ryanmarlow.com Ryan M.

    What is all this talk of eXistenZ being a good movie?

  • Andrew

    Can SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME THE HYPE OVER JJ ABRAMS? Somehow JJ Abrams is a name put on a superbowl commercial credit, is a top 25 top working directors in the industry and is somehow talked about constantly.
    But he has directed two movies, Mission Impossible 3 and Star Trek. Are those really better resume builders than Videodrome, Dead Ringers, History of Violence and Eastern Promises? Are those two movies worthy of putting it’s director in a list of the top 50 directors let alone top 25.

  • http://www.rowthree.com Kurt

    eXistenZ is pretty damn magnificent, glad some people are starting to notice this, and are coming into the small fold of people who appreciate it as VideoDrome Part Deux.

  • Less Lee Moore

    I agree that excluding Cronenberg is pretty egregious as is excluding Ken Loach, but only ONE female director? That’s just sad. Mary Harron, Julie Taymor, Lisa Cholodenko, and Allison Anderson are all greatly talented.

  • http://www.google.com sopgepo

    james cameron must be the first
    he is THE GREATEST DIRECTOR EVER.

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