Best Directors of All Time – Gokul Prasad

Here is the ranking of best directors. For this classification, different criteria has been taken into account in order to remain as objective as possible. It comprises directors of all kind – young and old, known and less known – to confirm the diversity and richness of cinema as an exemplary art form. A book will also be written on the same to provide a wider perspective of my choices.

1. Vittorio De Sica (Italy)
2. Bela Tarr (Hungary)
3. Masaki Kobayashi (Japan)
4. Luis Bunuel (Spain)
5. Zoltan Fabri (Hungary)
6. Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan)
7. Akira Kurusowa (Japan)
8. Federico Fellini (Italy)
9. Carl Theodor Dryer (Denmark)
10. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Germany)
11. Michael Haneke (Germany)
12. Im Kwon-taek (South Korea)
13. Robert Bresson (France)
14. Jacques Rivette (France)
15. Andrei Tarkovsky (Russia)
16. F W Murnau (Germany)
17. Helma Sanders-Brahms (Germany)
18. Ingmar Bergman (Sweden)
19. Theo Angelopoulos (Greece)
20. Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan)
21. Jia Zhangke (China)
22. Lav Diaz (Philippines)
23. Dardenne Brothers (Belgium)
24. Francesco Rosi (Italy)
25. Edgar Reitz (Germany)
26. Luchino Visconti (Italy)
27. Josef Von Sternberg (Austria)
28. Istvan Szabo (Hungary)
29. Aki Kaurismaki (Finland)
30. Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
31. Humberto Solas (Cuba)
32. Krzysztof Zanussi (Poland)
33. Zhang Yimou (China)
34. Andrei Zvyaginstev (Russia)
35. Jan Troell (Sweden)
36. Shohei Imamura (Japan)
37. Jean Pierre Melville (France)
38. Raul Ruiz (Chile)
39. Elia Kazan (Greece-USA)
40. Chantal Akerman (Belgium)
41. Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thai)
42. Sergei Parajanov (Russia)
43. Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan)
44. Roy Andersson (Sweden)
45. Leni Riefenstahl (Germany)
46. Richard Linklater (USA)
47. Kon Ichikawa (Japan)
48. Miklos Jancso (Hungary)
49. Frantisek Vlacil (Czech)
50. Lars Von Trier (Denmark)
51. Alexander Sokurov (Russia)
52. Pedro Costa (Portugal)
53. John Ford (USA)
54. Claude Lanzmann (France)
55. Erich Von Stroheim (Austria)
56. Werner Herzog (Germany)
57. Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan)
58. Ermanno Olmi (Italy)
59. Terrence Malick (USA)
60. Dusan Makavejev (Serbia)
61. Celine Sciamma (France)
62. Jacques Tati (France)
63. Bi Gan (China)
64. Volker Schlondorff (Germany)
65. Claire Denis (France)
66. Christian Petzold (Germany)
67. Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland)
68. Hong Sang-soo (South Korea)
69. Marta Meszaros (Hungary)
70. Miguel Gomes (Portugal)
71. Jean Cocteau (France)
72. Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy)
73. Yasujiro Ozu (Japan)
74. Denis Villeneuve (France-Canada)
75. Cristian Mungui (Romania)
76. Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)
77. Joshua Oppenheimer (Denmark)
78. Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong)
79. Wim Wenders (Germany)
80. Rituparno Ghosh (India)
81. Victor Erice (Spain)
82. Jean-Marie Straub & Daniele Huilet (France)
83. Ken Loach (Britain)
84. Emir Kusturica (Serbia)
85. Ritwik Ghatak (India)
86. Edward Yang (Taiwan)
87. Hu Bo (China)
88. Asghar Farhadi (Iran)