Happy Tuesday, dear readers! Each week, we’ll rank the top 10 films in a specific category. While we aim to tie these lists to big releases, that won’t always be the case. Our goal? For you to enjoy, share your own lists, and join in on a lively, friendly debate. This is an interactive space to build community here at The Contending.
No fancy intros, no long essays – just a category and a list. Sound good?
This weekend, the Directors Guild of America will award its 78th Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film prize. The DGA has been handing out honors since 1948, when Joseph L. Mankiewicz won the inaugural award for A Letter to Three Wives.
Per the DGA’s own assessment, its top honor has been a near-perfect barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director. That claim largely holds up. Only eight times in the award’s history has the DGA winner failed to repeat at the Oscars, most recently in 2019, when Sam Mendes (1917) won the DGA while Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) took the Oscar. You can venture over to their site to see where the Academy differed from the DGA in other years. The award is also a strong bellwether for Best Picture, as the DGA winner’s film has gone on to win the top Oscar in 76.6 percent of cases.
This year, Paul Thomas Anderson is widely expected to win for One Battle After Another, which would mark his first DGA victory following two prior nominations. The remaining nominees are Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet). This is the first DGA nomination for Coogler and Safdie, and the second for both del Toro and Zhao, who previously won for The Shape of Water (2017) and Nomadland (2020), respectively, on their way to Oscar victories.
With directors in the spotlight this week, it felt like the right moment to step back and rank the ten greatest to ever do it. Awards can tell us who mattered in a given year; this list is about who still matters decades later.
10. Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, Persona, Scenes From a Marriage, Wild Strawberries)
9. John Ford (The Searchers, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Quiet Man)
8. Charlie Chaplin (City Lights, Modern Times, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator, Limelight)
7. Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, Stalag 17)
6. Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Ikiru, Yojimbo, Ran)
5. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Godfather Part Two, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Dracula)
4. Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street)
3. Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark)
2. Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, North by Northwest, The Birds)
1. Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Paths of Glory)
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So subjective of course. IMO: Wilder should be #1. And where are Altman, Fellini and Lean?
Kubrick at #1????
What would be your Top Ten, Frank?
Way to put me on the spot, Clarence! This is why I love these lists Mark does. Because it sparks dialogue. There are two different lists here to be made, imo. The most significant and the directors we personally feel inspired by. That would be my breakdown. I will come back with my lists soon!
I appreciate you reading! I also thought about doing a list of my favorite directors working today (or of the 21st century). Too many great ones for a list of 10.
I will do 13 because that’s always been my number
Most significant
Hitchcock
Welles
Wilder
Ford
Kurosawa
Fellini
Bergman
Lean
Altman
Scorsese
Kubrick
Coppola
Spielberg
My list
Wilder
Altman
Allen
Lumet
Lean
Von Trier
Fellini
Bergman
Bunuel
Stone
Scorsese
Coppola
Nolan
And this is really off top of my head.
Your turn, Clarence!
My Personal List because I'm not well versed in international cinema, and I do believe those directors are far more influential than typical filmgoers are willing to admit.
Scorsese
Hitchcock
Coppola
Spielberg
Wilder
Altman
Capra
Wells
Fincher
Lynch
Good list. I was Fincher vs. Nolan for that last spot but my love for DUNKIRK pushed him over.
Capra was a tough one to cut as well. So many all-timers on his resume.
Lean was my #11. So hard to leave off the list when he's made three of the most perfect films ever. Welles was right behind him. Too many great directors, you have to have a cut-off somewhere. Love Wilder. No one directed comedy as well.
The beauty of these lists, in my opinion, is that they are necessarily subjective. After all, there is no such thing as the “objectively best director.” Even though my personal favorite director is not included (Yasujiro Ozu), Mark's list includes many directors whom I also consider to be great (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Wilder, Bergman, etc.). It's probably controversial, but for me, Polanski is also one of them. And actually, one of the Nouvelle Vague directors too, but the problem for me is picking just one. I love many films by Truffaut, Resnais, Chabrol, Varda (and also a few by Godard), but not all of them. Satyajit Ray could also be on my list, but I haven't seen enough of his films yet (even though I find the 5-6 I have seen outstanding).
I would agree with you about both Polanski and Ozu. Great choices. I have a hard time with the French directors, for some reason. I can respect their work and inclusion on a list like this, though.
The ultimate subjective cinematic topic indeed..
Ozu, Lumet and Capra demand to be on this list and if possible, 3 (sadly) lesser known yet definitely worthy directors:
Mr Julien Duvivier
Mr Marcel Carné
Mr Keisuke Kinoshita
Also three well known directors that are thankfully better known (& awarded):
Mr Ken Loach (2 time Cannes Palme d'Or winner)
Mr Asghar Farhadi (2 time Best Foreign Language Oscar film director)
Mr Bong Joon Ho (2 Best pictures simultaneously: Best Picture & Best International Picture)
The 3 legends that deserve spots:
Mr Ernst Lubitsch (Mr Wyler's idol)
Mr William Wyler
Mr Elia Kazan
Finally 4 personal favorites that I'll always include:
Mr Mikio Naruse
Mr Mervyn LeRoy
Mr Stanley Kramer
Mr Douglas Sirk