40 best directors?
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Moving Image

40 best directors?

See if you agree with this: a panel of experts–Peter Bradshaw, Xan Brooks, Molly Haskell, Derek Malcolm, Andrew Pulver, B Ruby Rich and Steve Rose–convened on the Guardian‘s behalf to select the “40 best directors.” Using a 20-point scale, with 20 the best, they graded each artist’s substance, look, craft, orginality, and intelligence. While Walker film audiences should recognize plenty of names, there are some surprises: no Coppola, Kurosawa, Kubrick, or Hitchcock (hmm, while it doesn’t say so, this appears to be a list of living directors.)

And the winners are (in suspense-enhancing order):

40. Gus Van Sant

39. David Fincher

38. Takashi Miike

37. Lars von Trier

36. Samira Makhmalbaf

35. Larry and Andy Wachowski

34. David O. Russell

33. Pavel Pawlikowski

32. Gaspar Noe

31. Richard Linklater

30. Takeshi Kitano

29. Wes Anderson

28. Michael Moore

27. Ang Lee

26. Aleksandr Sokurov

25. Spike Jonze

24. Alexander Payne

23. Walter Salles

22. Michael Haneke

21. Paul Thomas Anderson

20. Michael Winterbottom

19. Aki Kaurismaki

18. Tsai Ming Liang

17. Quentin Tarantino

16. Todd Haynes

15. Pedro Almodovar

14. Wong Kar-wai

13. Bela Tarr

12. Lynne Ramsay

11. Lukas Moodysson

10. Terence Davies

9. David Cronenberg

8. Hayao Miyazaki

7. Erroll Morris

6. Abbas Kiarostami

5. Terrence Malick

4. Steven Soderbergh

3. Joel and Ethan Coen

2. Martin Scorsese

1. David Lynch

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