Masters of Cinema
Long-form studies of the directors, cinematographers, editors, composers, and sound designers who shaped modern cinema. 202 filmmakers across 9 departments, drawing on critical texts and verified filmography rather than biography pages.
The Full Roster
Directing (112)
- Abbas Kiarostami : Close-Up, Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us
- Abderrahmane Sissako : Timbuktu, Bamako, Waiting for Happiness
- Agnès Varda : Cléo from 5 to 7, Vagabond, The Gleaners and I
- Aki Kaurismäki : The Match Factory Girl, Le Havre, Fallen Leaves
- Akira Kurosawa : Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Ran
- Alejandro González Iñárritu : Birdman, The Revenant, Babel
- Alejandro Jodorowsky : El Topo, The Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre
- Aleksandr Sokurov : Russian Ark, Faust, Mother and Son
- Aleksei German : Hard to Be a God, My Friend Ivan Lapshin, Khrustalyov, My Car!
- Alfonso Cuarón : Roma, Gravity, Children of Men
- Alfred Hitchcock : Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window
- Andrea Arnold : Fish Tank, American Honey, Cow
- Andrei Tarkovsky : Stalker, Solaris, Mirror
- Andrey Zvyagintsev : Leviathan, Loveless, The Return
- Andrzej Wajda : Ashes and Diamonds, Man of Marble, Kanal
- Asghar Farhadi : A Separation, The Salesman, About Elly
- Barry Jenkins : Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Underground Railroad
- Billy Wilder : Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment
- Bong Joon-ho : Parasite, Memories of Murder, Mother
- Brian De Palma : Blow Out, Carrie, Scarface
- Carl Theodor Dreyer : The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet, Day of Wrath
- Chantal Akerman : Jeanne Dielman, News from Home, No Home Movie
- Chen Kaige : Farewell My Concubine, Yellow Earth, Life on a String
- Christopher Nolan : Oppenheimer, Dunkirk, Interstellar
- Claire Denis : Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, High Life
- D.W. Griffith : The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms
- Damien Chazelle : Whiplash, La La Land, First Man
- David Cronenberg : Videodrome, The Fly, Crash
- David Fincher : Se7en, Zodiac, The Social Network
- David Lean : Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago
- David Lynch : Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: The Return
- Denis Villeneuve : Dune, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049
- Edward Yang : Yi Yi, A Brighter Summer Day, Taipei Story
- Éric Rohmer : My Night at Maud's, Claire's Knee, The Green Ray
- F.W. Murnau : Nosferatu, Sunrise, The Last Laugh
- Federico Fellini : 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Amarcord
- Francis Ford Coppola : The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation
- François Truffaut : The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, Day for Night
- Greta Gerwig : Lady Bird, Little Women, Barbie
- Guillermo del Toro : Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, The Devil's Backbone
- Hayao Miyazaki : Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro
- Hirokazu Kore-eda : Shoplifters, Nobody Knows, Still Walking
- Hong Sang-soo : Right Now, Wrong Then, The Woman Who Ran, In Front of Your Face
- Hou Hsiao-hsien : A City of Sadness, The Assassin, Flowers of Shanghai
- Howard Hawks : Rio Bravo, His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep
- Ingmar Bergman : Persona, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries
- Isao Takahata : Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Only Yesterday
- Jacques Tati : Playtime, Mon Oncle, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
- Jafar Panahi : The White Balloon, Taxi, This Is Not a Film
- Jane Campion : The Piano, The Power of the Dog, Bright Star
- Jean Renoir : The Rules of the Game, Grand Illusion, The River
- Jean Vigo : L'Atalante, Zero de Conduite, A Propos de Nice
- Jean-Luc Godard : Breathless, Contempt, Pierrot le Fou
- Jean-Pierre Melville : Le Samouraï, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge
- Jia Zhangke : Still Life, A Touch of Sin, Platform
- John Cassavetes : A Woman Under the Influence, Faces, Shadows
- John Ford : The Searchers, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath
- Jordan Peele : Get Out, Us, Nope
- Kathryn Bigelow : The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, Point Break
- Kelly Reichardt : First Cow, Certain Women, Wendy and Lucy
- Kenji Mizoguchi : Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, The Life of Oharu
- Kim Ki-duk : Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, 3-Iron, Pieta
- King Hu : A Touch of Zen, Come Drink with Me, Dragon Inn
- Kiyoshi Kurosawa : Cure, Pulse, Tokyo Sonata
- Krzysztof Kieślowski : Three Colors trilogy, The Double Life of Véronique, Dekalog
- Lars von Trier : Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Melancholia
- Lee Chang-dong : Burning, Poetry, Secret Sunshine
- Luchino Visconti : The Leopard, Rocco and His Brothers, Death in Venice
- Luis Buñuel : Un Chien Andalou, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Belle de Jour
- Lynne Ramsay : We Need to Talk About Kevin, You Were Never Really Here, Ratcatcher
- Martin Scorsese : Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull
- Mati Diop : Atlantics, Dahomey, A Thousand Suns
- Michael Haneke : Amour, The White Ribbon, Caché
- Michael Mann : Heat, The Insider, Collateral
- Michelangelo Antonioni : L'Avventura, Blow-Up, The Passenger
- Mikio Naruse : When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Floating Clouds, Repast
- Mohsen Makhmalbaf : Gabbeh, Kandahar, A Moment of Innocence
- Nagisa Oshima : In the Realm of the Senses, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Cruel Story of Youth
- Nicolas Winding Refn : Drive, Only God Forgives, Bronson
- Nuri Bilge Ceylan : Winter Sleep, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Distant
- Orson Welles : Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, The Magnificent Ambersons
- Ousmane Sembène : Black Girl, Moolaadé, Xala
- Park Chan-wook : Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave
- Paul Thomas Anderson : There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, Boogie Nights
- Pedro Almodóvar : All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Volver
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder : Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Marriage of Maria Braun
- Ridley Scott : Blade Runner, Alien, Gladiator
- Ritwik Ghatak : The Cloud-Capped Star, Subarnarekha, A River Called Titas
- Robert Altman : Nashville, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Player
- Robert Bresson : Pickpocket, A Man Escaped, Au Hasard Balthazar
- Roberto Rossellini : Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero
- Ruben Östlund : Force Majeure, The Square, Triangle of Sadness
- Satyajit Ray : Pather Panchali, The Apu Trilogy, Charulata
- Sergei Loznitsa : Donbass, In the Fog, My Joy
- Sergei Parajanov : The Color of Pomegranates, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Ashik Kerib
- Shohei Imamura : The Ballad of Narayama, Vengeance Is Mine, The Eel
- Sidney Lumet : 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network
- Souleymane Cissé : Yeelen, Finye, Waati
- Spike Lee : Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, BlacKkKlansman
- Stanley Kubrick : 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Barry Lyndon
- Steven Spielberg : Jaws, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan
- Takeshi Kitano : Hana-bi, Sonatine, Zatoichi
- Terrence Malick : The Tree of Life, Days of Heaven, Badlands
- Theo Angelopoulos : Eternity and a Day, The Travelling Players, Landscape in the Mist
- Tsai Ming-liang : Vive L'Amour, What Time Is It There?, Goodbye, Dragon Inn
- Víctor Erice : The Spirit of the Beehive, El Sur, Close Your Eyes
- Vittorio De Sica : Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D., Shoeshine
- Werner Herzog : Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man
- Wim Wenders : Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas, The American Friend
- Wong Kar-wai : In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, Happy Together
- Yasujiro Ozu : Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Early Summer
- Zhang Yimou : Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, To Live
Cinematography (27)
- Bradford Young : Arrival, Selma, A Most Violent Year
- Christopher Doyle : In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, Hero
- Conrad L. Hall : American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- Darius Khondji : Se7en, The City of Lost Children, Midnight in Paris
- Emmanuel Lubezki : The Revenant, Birdman, Children of Men
- Geoffrey Unsworth : 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cabaret, Superman
- Giuseppe Rotunno : Amarcord, All That Jazz, The Leopard
- Gordon Willis : The Godfather, Manhattan, All the President's Men
- Gregg Toland : Citizen Kane, The Grapes of Wrath, Wuthering Heights
- Greig Fraser : Dune, The Batman, Rogue One
- Harris Savides : Zodiac, Elephant, Birth
- Hoyte van Hoytema : Oppenheimer, Dunkirk, Interstellar
- Janusz Kamiński : Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln
- Jean-Yves Escoffier : Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Good Will Hunting, Gummo
- John Alcott : Barry Lyndon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining
- Kazuo Miyagawa : Rashomon, Ugetsu, Yojimbo
- László Kovács : Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon
- Michael Ballhaus : Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Bram Stoker's Dracula
- Néstor Almendros : Days of Heaven, The Story of Adele H., Sophie's Choice
- Philippe Rousselot : A River Runs Through It, Diva, The Bear
- Rachel Morrison : Mudbound, Black Panther, Fruitvale Station
- Robert Richardson : Kill Bill, Hugo, The Aviator
- Roger Deakins : 1917, Blade Runner 2049, No Country for Old Men
- Sven Nykvist : Persona, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander
- Tak Fujimoto : The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Philadelphia
- Vilmos Zsigmond : McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter
- Vittorio Storaro : Apocalypse Now, The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris
Editing (14)
- Anne V. Coates : Lawrence of Arabia, The Elephant Man, Out of Sight
- Dede Allen : Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, The Hustler
- Dylan Tichenor : There Will Be Blood, Brokeback Mountain, Phantom Thread
- Hank Corwin : The Tree of Life, The Big Short, Vice
- Joe Walker : Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Dune
- Kirk Baxter : The Social Network, Gone Girl, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Lee Smith : Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight
- Margaret Sixel : Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa, Happy Feet
- Michael Kahn : Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Pietro Scalia : Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, JFK
- Sally Menke : Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds
- Thelma Schoonmaker : Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed
- Verna Fields : Jaws, American Graffiti, Paper Moon
- Walter Murch : Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient
Composers (15)
- Alexandre Desplat : The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water, Philomena
- Bernard Herrmann : Vertigo, Psycho, Taxi Driver
- Ennio Morricone : The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Cinema Paradiso, The Mission
- Georges Delerue : Jules and Jim, Contempt, Platoon
- Hans Zimmer : Inception, Interstellar, The Dark Knight
- Hildur Guðnadóttir : Joker, Chernobyl, Women Talking
- Howard Shore : The Lord of the Rings, The Silence of the Lambs, Crash
- Jerry Goldsmith : Chinatown, Alien, Planet of the Apes
- Jóhann Jóhannsson : Arrival, Sicario, The Theory of Everything
- John Williams : Jaws, Star Wars, Schindler's List
- Michel Legrand : The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of '42
- Nino Rota : The Godfather, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2
- Ryuichi Sakamoto : The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Revenant
- Toru Takemitsu : Ran, Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan
- Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross : The Social Network, Gone Girl, Soul
Writing (10)
- Aaron Sorkin : The Social Network, A Few Good Men, Steve Jobs
- Charlie Kaufman : Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche, New York
- Joel & Ethan Coen : Fargo, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski
- Nora Ephron : When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail
- Paddy Chayefsky : Network, The Hospital, Marty
- Paul Schrader : Taxi Driver, First Reformed, Raging Bull
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge : Fleabag, Killing Eve, No Time to Die
- Robert Towne : Chinatown, Shampoo, The Last Detail
- Tony Kushner : Angels in America, West Side Story, Lincoln
- William Goldman : Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Princess Bride
Sound (7)
- Anna Behlmer : Braveheart, L.A. Confidential, Road to Perdition
- Ben Burtt : Star Wars, Wall-E, Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Gary Rydstrom : Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2
- Randy Thom : The Revenant, Ratatouille, Contact
- Ren Klyce : Fight Club, Gone Girl, The Social Network
- Richard King : Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight
- Skip Lievsay : No Country for Old Men, Gravity, Inside Llewyn Davis
Production Design (7)
- Adam Stockhausen : The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, West Side Story
- Catherine Martin : Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby, Elvis
- Dante Ferretti : Hugo, Sweeney Todd, The Aviator
- Hannah Beachler : Black Panther, Moonlight, Creed
- Jack Fisk : The Tree of Life, There Will Be Blood, The Revenant
- Ken Adam : Dr. Strangelove, Goldfinger, Barry Lyndon
- Stuart Craig : Harry Potter, The English Patient, Dangerous Liaisons
Producers (6)
- Carlo Ponti : Doctor Zhivago, La Strada, Blow-Up
- Christine Vachon : Far from Heaven, Boys Don't Cry, Carol
- David O. Selznick : Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, A Star Is Born
- Irving G. Thalberg : Grand Hotel, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Good Earth
- Jeremy Thomas : The Last Emperor, Naked Lunch, Only Lovers Left Alive
- Kathleen Kennedy : Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
VFX (4)
- Dennis Muren : Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, The Abyss
- Douglas Trumbull : 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Phil Tippett : RoboCop, Starship Troopers, Jurassic Park
- Ray Harryhausen : Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad