Peter Bogdanovich was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started his career as a film critic for Film Culture and Esquire before becoming a prominent filmmaker as part of the New Hollywood movement. He received accolades including a BAFTA Award and Grammy Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
Frank Oz is an American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theater.
Arthur Hiller, was a Canadian television and film director with over 33 films to his credit during a 50-year career. He began his career directing television in Canada and later in the U.S. By the late 1950s he began directing films, most often comedies. He also directed dramas and romantic subjects, such as Love Story (1970), which was nominated for seven Oscars.
Neil N. LaBute is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, In the Company of Men (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. He wrote and directed the films Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Possession (2002), The Shape of Things (2003), The Wicker Man (2006), Some Velvet Morning (2013), and Dirty Weekend (2015). He directed the films Nurse Betty (2000), Lakeview Terrace (2008), and the American adaptation of Death at a Funeral (2010). LaBute created the TV series Billy & Billie, writing and directing all of the episodes. He is also the creator of the TV series Van Helsing. Recently, he executive produced, co-directed and co-wrote Netflix's The I-Land. He also directed several episodes for shows such as Hell on Wheels and Billions.
Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016); and the romantic comedy Hit Man (2023).
The Beaver Trilogy (2001) is a documentary film directed by Trent Harris, featuring Richard LaVon Griffiths, Sean Penn, Crispin Glover and co-starring Courtney Gains and Elizabeth Daily.
James Richard Kelly is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He wrote and directed the films Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and The Box.
Peter Hans Docter is an American filmmaker and animator. He was credited as the director for the Pixar animated feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Soul (2020), and has served as the company's chief creative officer (CCO) since 2018. From his nine Academy Award nominations, he is a record-three time recipient of Best Animated Feature for Up, Inside Out and Soul. Docter has also won six Annie Awards from nine nominations, a BAFTA Children's Film Award and a Hochi Film Award. He describes himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".
Henry David Jaglom is an English-born American actor, film director and playwright.
Steve James is an American film producer and director of several documentaries, including Hoop Dreams (1994), Stevie (2002), The Interrupters (2011), Life Itself (2014), and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016).
John Dahl is an American film and television director and writer, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre.
Philip Alexander Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time."
Brian Scott Herzlinger is an American film director who directed and starred in My Date with Drew, a documentary released in 2005. Herzlinger graduated from Ithaca College (NY) with a film degree in 1997.
Robert K. Elder is an American journalist, author, and film columnist. He is currently the President and CEO of the Outrider Foundation. He has written more than a dozen books on topics ranging from the death penalty and movies to Ernest Hemingway and Elvis Presley.
Christopher Matthew Miller is an American animator and voice actor employed by Paramount Animation and formerly DreamWorks Animation. He is best known for directing Shrek the Third and Puss in Boots and for voicing Kowalski the penguin in the Madagascar film series.
Mark Polish and Michael Polish, known informally as the Polish brothers, are American twin filmmakers. Michael usually directs their films, and Mark often has an acting role.
Lawrence Jay Duplass Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor and author widely known for his films The Puffy Chair (2005), Cyrus (2010), and Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), made in collaboration with his younger brother, Mark Duplass.
Timothy Sean Durkin is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Durkin is known for directing the critically acclaimed independent films Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), The Nest (2020), and The Iron Claw (2023). He is also known for directing episodes of the Channel 4 series Southcliffe (2013) and the Amazon Prime Video miniseries Dead Ringers (2023).
The Best Film You've Never Seen: 35 Directors Champion the Forgotten or Critically Savaged Movies They Love is a book by the journalist and editor Robert K. Elder.
