Postmodernist filmmakers

Heywood "Woody" Allen is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and comedian. In a career spanning eight decades, he has written for film, television, and theater. Allen has received many accolades, including the most wins and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for an Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen has also received numerous honors, including an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to popular culture. His work has earned a cult following alongside critical and commercial success; he has been named by some as the most influential director of his generation and has received numerous awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. His films have grossed more than $1.9 billion worldwide.

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker and deep-sea explorer. His films combine cutting-edge film technology with classical filmmaking techniques and have grossed over $10 billion worldwide, making him the second-highest-grossing film director of all time. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, Cameron has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for six British Academy Film Awards.

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of cinema. He has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, producer, actor, painter, and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, with his films often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility that gave rise to the adjective "Lynchian". In a career spanning more than five decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, a Palme d'Or and Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, two César Awards, and a (posthumous) Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.

Sir Christopher Edward Nolan is a British and American filmmaker. A significant auteur of his generation, he has been a major figure in the 21st century Hollywood. Nolan's films have earned over $6 billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing film director. His accolades include two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two British Academy Film Awards. Nolan was appointed as a CBE in 2019 and was knighted in 2024 for his contributions to film.

Timothy Walter Burton is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for pioneering goth subculture in Hollywood, with his films employing a distinctive style that blends gothic horror and dark fantasy aesthetics with whimsical and surreal elements. He has received numerous accolades, including one Emmy Award and nominations for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three BAFTA Awards. He was honored with the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2007 and France's Order of Arts and Letters in 2010.

Spanish filmmaker (born 1949)

English filmmaker (born 1937)

American film director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1946)

Italian filmmaker (1929–1989)

American born-British filmmaker, comedian, and actor (born 1940)

American screenwriter, film producer and director (born 1952)

Danish film director and screenwriter (born 1956)

Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 28 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

German filmmaker (born 1945)

American filmmaker (born 1963)

American filmmaker and author (born 1954)

Robert Reiner was an American filmmaker, actor, and political activist. He directed a series of acclaimed studio films in a career that spanned comedy, drama, romance, and documentary. Reiner received numerous accolades, including winning two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Hugo Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and nine Golden Globe Awards. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and received the Chaplin Gala Tribute at the Film at Lincoln Center in 2014. Three of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry.

American film director

Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer (1940-2016)

American filmmaker (1925–2006)

Canadian filmmaker (born 1943)

American filmmaker (born 1971)

American film director and screenwriter

American film director and writer (1941–2012)

American filmmaker (1939–2015)

American film director, screenwriter and actor

American filmmaker (born 1969)

British stage and film director (born 1965)

American filmmaker (born 1959)

Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian and writer (1942–2020)

American filmmaker (born 1968)

American filmmaker (born 1969)

Dutch film director (born 1938)

Canadian-American filmmaker (1940–2017)

Chinese-born Hong Kong filmmaker (born 1958)

Paul Thomas Anderson, also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. Often described as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation, he is the recipient of three Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTAs, three Critics Choice Awards, and nominations for a Grammy. He is the only person to have won the Academy Award for Best Director and directorial prizes at Europe's three major film festivals: Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival. In addition to those accolades, he won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

American film directors, screenwriters, and producers

American filmmaker (born 1970)

American actor, animator and filmmaker (born 1969)

American film director (1939–2022)

American film director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1943)

American director and screenwriter (born 1960)

American filmmaker

American actor, comedian and filmmaker (born 1979)

British film director and video artist (born 1969)

Welsh film director (born 1942)

American filmmaker (born 1969)

Australian writer, director, and producer (born 1962)

American filmmaker and novelist

American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer (born 1946)

Rian Craig Johnson is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Going on to make higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012) to critical and commercial success. Johnson landed his largest project when he wrote and directed the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which grossed over $1 billion. He returned to the mystery genre with the Knives Out film series (2019–present), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.

German film director, screenwriter, film producer and film composer

Willard Tobe Hooper was an American filmmaker, best known for his work in the horror genre. The British Film Institute cited Hooper as one of the most influential horror filmmakers of all time.

Argentine director, screenwriter, cinematographer and film producer (born 1963)

French film director, screenwriter and producer (born 1963)

Japanese animator, film director, businessman

British film director, screenwriter and producer

American filmmaker (born 1969)