
Ever since the film critics of the Cahiers du cinéma began to look back on prior generations of filmmakers to apply the auteur theory (the idea originally pioneered by director Max Reinhardt in the 1910’s of the director as author of a film conveying a unique artistic vision throughout their filmography), a brighter spotlight has been shone on the role of the director as the nexus of the movie production, viewing the film as a conduit for the director’s vision and the actors and crew merely puppets of a master’s complex machinations.
Of course not all directors are created equal. Some like Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron truly are known to be the exacting “my way or the highway” type of filmmaker honored by the French New Wave while some directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and John Cassavetes have much more of a collaborative relationship of empowerment with their actors and crew. Of course, many directors fall somewhere in between as well. Some are more journeymen for hire, churning out filmed spec scripts for a studio looking to make a quick buck. Some have had their original sensibilities twisted by the studio system in a more marketable product for the masses. Some just gravitate to whatever they can get made whether they’re passionate about it or not. But at the end of the day, any of the types of director mentioned above may have some interest to be gleaned from a dive into their works.
For this challenge, we’re taking a page from Cahiers du cinéma and putting that spotlight on directors throughout film history. The goal of this challenge is to explore a director’s cinematic achievements and observe and highlight the common artistic themes and recurring motifs that the director may employ throughout their career.
Now let’s pay close attention to the rules on this one. They are a little more involved than the typical challenge here!
Lists to Check Out?
I’m afraid we don’t currently have any official full director filmographies. There are lots of unofficial ones on ICM for those looking for ideas. For some general guidance on directors to check out, please see the list of Top 250 Directors in Bonus Challenge #1 for additional ideas.
Rules:
- When beginning a new run, please declare the director the run is for and post a minimum of three films from the director to start the run. Future consecutive posts tied to the same director can be less than three entries as long as the director does not change. If you change directors and return to a previous director, then the 3-entry initial post rule would apply again.
Examples
Post #1
Frenzy (Hitchcock,1972)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
The Lodger (Hitchcock, 1927)
Post #2
Dial M For Murder (Hitchcock, 1954)
Post #3
Ninja Terminator (Godfrey Ho, 1985)
Robo Vampire (Godfrey Ho, 1988)
Scorpion Thunderbolt (Godfrey, 1988)
Post #4
Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945)
The Trouble With Harry (Hitchcock, 1955)
The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)
Not Correct:
Post #1
Frenzy (Hitchcock,1972)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
The Lodger (Hitchcock, 1927)
Post #2
Ninja Terminator (Godfrey Ho, 1985)
Dial M For Murder (Hitchcock, 1954)
Scorpion Thunderbolt (Godfrey, 1988)
Robo Vampire (Godfrey Ho, 1988)
Post #3
Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945)
- A total of 60 minutes of short films and/or tv episodes under 40 minutes from a single director count as one entry.
Examples
1a. Tales From The Crypt: Yellow (Zemeckis, 1991) 37 min
1b. Tales from the Crypt: And All Through the House (Zemeckis, 1989)
1c. Tales from the Crypt: You Murderer (Zemeckis, 1995)
2. Amazing Stories: Go to the Head of the Class (Zemeckis, 1986) 60 min.
3. Death Becomes Her (Zemeckis, 1992)
Not Correct: (Tales from the Crypt is used in two separate entries, both 1. and 2.)
1a. Tales From The Crypt: Yellow (Zemeckis, 1991) 37 min
1b. The Lift (Zemeckis, 1972) 8 min.
1c. Field of Honor (Zemeckis, 1973) 15 min.
2a. Tales from the Crypt: You Murderer (Zemeckis, 1995)
2b. Tales from the Crypt: And All Through the House (Zemeckis, 1989)
2c. Back to the Future: Doc Brown Saves the World (2015)
3. What Lies Beneath (Zemeckis, 2000)
-Any television series or mini-series can only count toward one entry for a given director. This means that whether you watch two episodes or two seasons of The Knick for Soderbergh, it will still only count as one entry.
-Episodes of a TV series can count toward more than one director if they are different episodes. So if you wanted to do a run of Vincenzo Natali and include an episode of Hannibal and then later do a run of Neil Marshall also include a different episode of Hannibal, that would be allowed.
- Rewatches are allowed (as long as it isn’t the same film more than once in the same month).
-Please include year the film was released and director (obviously) in your posts.
Pshew...

I know these seem like curiously stringent rules for a challenge on here, but keep in mind that this challenge has quite possibly the largest pool of films of any challenge this forum has ever held (with the only criterion being that a director had to have made enough to constitute at least three entries). So basically these rules are being instituted to truly maintain the spirit of the challenge of really exploring a director’s output rather than just lumping together movies you might have happened to watch during the month. So in that spirit, I hope everyone who participates finds some new favorites as well as gain additional appreciation in previously familiar filmmakers.
Overall Leaderboard
Rank | Participant | Count |
1 | flavo5000 | 270 |
2 | psychotronicbeatnik | 161 |
3 | allisoncm | 154 |
4 | Obgeoff | 108 |
5 | zuma | 82 |
6 | RogerTheMovieManiac88 | 81 |
7 | OldAle1 | 74 |
8 | jdidaco | 72 |
9 | sol | 59 |
10 | St. Gloede | 50 |
11 | Lonewolf2003 | 42 |
12 | frbrown | 34 |
13 | peeptoad | 29 |
14 | morrison-dylan-fan | 28 |
15 | vortexsurfer | 25 |
16 | 72aicm | 24 |
17 | klaus78 | 23 |
18 | shugs | 21 |
18 | hurluberlu | 21 |
18 | Daviddoes | 21 |
21 | AB357 | 20 |
22 | Melvelet | 17 |
23 | 3eyes | 15 |
24 | Cinepolis | 12 |
24 | blueboybob | 12 |
26 | cinephage | 10 |
27 | Mochard | 9 |
27 | connordenney | 9 |
29 | maxwelldeux | 8 |
29 | blocho | 8 |
31 | nimimerkillinen | 7 |
32 | albajos | 6 |
33 | sebby | 3 |
BONUS CHALLENGE #1: ICM Watches the TSPDT Top 250 Directors!
In the spirit of continuing the exploration of They Shoot Pictures Don’t They from last month, let’s as a group see how many of the Top 250 Directors according to TSPDT (2016 edition) we can hit during July! I will highlight in bold completed directors in the list below along with the name of the user who first completed them.
List of Directors 98/250
2. Orson Welles: Flavo5000
3. Stanley Kubrick
4. Federico Fellini
5. Jean-Luc Godard: Melvelet
6. Francis Ford Coppola: flavo5000
7. Akira Kurosawa: 3eyes
8. Ingmar Bergman: klaus78
9. Jean Renoir:St. Gloede
10. John Ford:flavo5000
11. Yasujiro Ozu
12. Martin Scorsese: 72aicm
13. Luis Buñuel
14. Andrei Tarkovsky
15. Charles Chaplin
16. Billy Wilder: LoneWolf2003
17. Carl Theodor Dreyer
18. Robert Bresson
19. F.W. Murnau
20. Michelangelo Antonioni
21. Howard Hawks: Obgeoff
22. Fritz Lang: Obgeoff
23. Sergei Eisenstein
24. François Truffaut: zuma
25. Steven Spielberg: maxwelldeux
26. Kenji Mizoguchi
27. Woody Allen: flavo5000
28. Roberto Rossellini
29. David Lean
30. David Lynch: flavo5000
31. Vittorio De Sica
32. Alain Resnais
33. Luchino Visconti
34. Roman Polanski
35. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger: Melvelet
36. John Cassavetes: Daviddoes
37. Sergio Leone: Mochard
38. Satyajit Ray
39. Wong Kar-wai
40. Jean Vigo
41. Ernst Lubitsch
42. Ridley Scott: flavo5000
43. Robert Altman: allisoncm
44. Max Ophüls
45. Werner Herzog: allisoncm
46. Abbas Kiarostami: zuma
47. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
48. Dziga Vertov
49. D.W. Griffith: flavo5000
50. Chris Marker
51. Krzysztof Kieslowski: 3eyes
52. Buster Keaton
53. John Huston: Melvelet
54. Terrence Malick: Obgeoff
55. Hou Hsiao-hsien: peeptoad
56. Rainer Werner Fassbinder: flavo5000
57. Edward Yang
58. Jacques Tati
59. Pier Paolo Pasolini
60. Bernardo Bertolucci
61. Sam Peckinpah: flavo5000
62. Michael Curtiz: Obgeoff
63. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
64. Frank Capra: Obgeoff
65. Victor Fleming
66. Quentin Tarantino: cinepolis
67. Preston Sturges
68. Marcel Carné
69. Vincente Minnelli
70. Carol Reed
71. Wim Wenders: flavo5000
72. Nicholas Ray
73. Béla Tarr
74. Leo McCarey
75. Erich von Stroheim
76. Douglas Sirk: flavo5000
77. Elia Kazan
78. Lars von Trier: hurluberlu
79. Nicolas Roeg:allisoncm
80. Eric Rohmer:peeptoad
81. Claude Lanzmann
82. Jean-Pierre Melville
83. Gillo Pontecorvo
84. David Cronenberg: flavo5000
85. Chantal Akerman: allisoncm
86. Theo Angelopoulos
87. Milos Forman" AB537
88. George Cukor: Obgeoff
89. Hayao Miyazaki
90. Josef von Sternberg
91. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
92. Jacques Rivette
93. Jacques Demy
94. Michael Haneke
95. William Wyler: Obgeoff
96. Jacques Tourneur:flavo5000
97. Victor Erice
98. James Cameron
99. Sidney Lumet:allisoncm
100. Paul Thomas Anderson
101. George Lucas
102. Brian De Palma: flavo5000
103. Clint Eastwood: AB537
104. Pedro Almodóvar:morrison-dylan-fan
105. Robert Flaherty
106. Spike Lee:shugs
107. Jean Eustache
108. Claire Denis
109. Mikio Naruse:allisoncm
110. Glauber Rocha
111. Ken Loach: zuma
112. King Vidor: allisoncm
113. Jim Jarmusch
114. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet
115. Terry Gilliam
116. George A. Romero
117. John Carpenter:flavo5000
118. Jean Cocteau
119. Hal Ashby
120. Zhang Yimou
121. William Friedkin: flavo5000
122. Aleksandr Sokurov: flavo5000
123. Agnès Varda: flavo5000
124. Michael Cimino
125. Michael Snow: sol
126. Stan Brakhage: Obgeoff
127. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
128. Jane Campion
129. Otto Preminger
130. Sergei Parajanov
131. Abel Gance:allisoncm
132. Alexander Dovzhenko
133. Alexander Mackendrick
134. Ang Lee
135. Nagisa Oshima
136. Fei Mu
137. Emir Kusturica
138. Peter Weir: Cinepolis
139. Rob Reiner
140. Mike Leigh: blocho
141. Elem Klimov
142. Errol Morris
143. Henri-Georges Clouzot
144. Samuel Fuller: flavo5000
145. Andrzej Wajda
146. Robert Wise
147. Arthur Penn
148. Raoul Walsh: allisoncm
149. Andy Warhol
150. Robert Zemeckis: OldAle1
151. Mike Nichols
152. Frederick Wiseman allisoncm
153. Michael Powell: RogerTheMovieManiac88
154. Maurice Pialat
155. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
156. Robert Aldrich: Obgeoff
157. Michael Mann: shugs
158. Luis García Berlanga
159. John Boorman: flavo5000
160. Louis Malle: Obgeoff
161. Tsai Ming-liang
162. Ousmane Sembene
163. David Fincher
164. James Whale: Obgeoff
165. G.W. Pabst: flavo5000
166. George Stevens: Daviddoes
167. Ritwik Ghatak
168. Mikhail Kalatozov
169. Jia Zhangke
170. King Hu:LoneWolf2003
171. Georges Méliès
172. Jean Rouch: zuma
173. Humphrey Jennings
174. Anthony Mann
175. Tobe Hooper: flavo5000
176. Maya Deren
177. Joseph Losey: zuma
178. Manoel de Oliveira:zuma
179. Gus Van Sant
180. Paul Verhoeven
181. Tod Browning
182. Chen Kaige
183. Robert Wiene
184. Terence Davies
185. Sydney Pollack
186. Djibril Diop Mambéty: St. Gloede
187. Tim Burton
188. Richard Linklater
189. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne
190. Peter Bogdanovich: flavo5000
191. Georges Franju
192. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
193. René Clair: hurluberlu
194. Bob Fosse
195. John Schlesinger
196. Shohei Imamura
197. Don Siegel
198. Robert Hamer
199. Ben Sharpsteen: flavo5000
200. Peter Jackson: Obgeoff
201. Harold Ramis
202. John Woo
203. Robert Mulligan
204. Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin
205. Peter Watkins
206. Fred Zinnemann
207. Lindsay Anderson
208. Blake Edwards: flavo5000
209. Ken Russell: allisoncm
210. David Hand: flavo5000
211. Mel Brooks
212. Leni Riefenstahl
213. George Roy Hill
214. Victor Sjöström: 3eyes
215. Charles Burnett
216. Ermanno Olmi
217. Guru Dutt
218. Oliver Stone: Flavo5000
219. Todd Haynes
220. Frank Borzage: allisoncm
221. Marcel Ophüls
222. Aki Kaurismäki
223. Irvin Kershner
224. Giuseppe Tornatore
225. Nelson Pereira dos Santos
226. Peter Greenaway
227. Wes Anderson
228. Dario Argento: flavo5000
229. Jonathan Demme: allisoncm
230. D.A. Pennebaker:flavo5000
231. Jonas Mekas
232. John Hughes
233. Kenneth Anger
234. Francesco Rosi:flavo5000
235. Jacques Becker: Mochard
236. John Landis
237. Claude Chabrol: flavo5000
238. Monte Hellman: flavo5000
239. Christopher Nolan: peeptoad
240. Alan J. Pakula:allisoncm
241. Pedro Costa
242. Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
243. Alejandro Jodorowsky
244. Danny Boyle
245. Jack Clayton
246. Bob Rafelson
247. John Frankenheimer: flavo5000
248. Louis Feuillade
249. Masaki Kobayashi
250. Takeshi Kitano
Here I will award the user who watches the most films from a single director and the user who completes the broadest variety of directors.
DEEP
Rank | Participant | Count | Director |
1 | allisoncm | 39 | Alfred E. Green |
2 | psychotronicbeatnik | 32 | Mark Polonia |
3 | morrison-dylan-fan | 19 | Seijun Suzuki |
4 | OldAle01 | 14 | Roger Corman |
5 | zuma | 12 | Joseph Losey |
5 | LoneWolf2003 | 12 | Brian De Palma |
7 | St. Gloede | 9 | Christian Petzold |
7 | Obgeoff | 9 | Stan Brakhage |
7 | flavo5000 | 9 | Sion Sono |
10 | sol | 8 | David Cronenberg |
11 | Melvelet | 6 | John Huston |
11 | klaus78 | 6 | Ingmar Bergman |
11 | albajos | 6 | Edgar Wright |
14 | peeptoad | 5 | Eric Rohmer |
14 | maxwelldeux | 5 | Steven Spielberg |
14 | Daviddoes | 5 | Werner Herzog |
14 | blocho | 5 | Mike Leigh |
14 | AB357 | 5 | Miloš Forman |
19 | vortexsurfer | 4 | |
19 | nimimerkillinen | 4 | |
19 | frbrown | 4 | |
19 | cinephage | 4 | |
19 | blueboybob | 4 | |
24 | shugs | 3 | |
24 | sebby | 3 | |
24 | RogerTheMovieManiac88 | 3 | |
24 | Mochard | 3 | |
24 | jdidaco | 3 | |
24 | hurluberlu | 3 | |
24 | connordenney | 3 | |
24 | Cinepolis | 3 | |
24 | 72aicm | 3 | |
24 | 3eyes | 3 |
WIDE
Rank | Participant | Count |
1 | flavo5000 | 70 |
2 | allisoncm | 32 |
3 | Obgeoff | 28 |
4 | RogerTheMovieManiac88 | 27 |
5 | psychotronicbeatnik | 24 |
5 | jdidaco | 24 |
7 | zuma | 23 |
8 | sol | 15 |
8 | OldAle01 | 15 |
10 | St. Gloede | 12 |
11 | frbrown | 11 |
12 | peeptoad | 9 |
13 | 72aicm | 8 |
14 | shugs | 7 |
14 | hurluberlu | 7 |
16 | vortexsurfer | 6 |
16 | LoneWolf2003 | 6 |
16 | klaus78 | 6 |
19 | Daviddoes | 5 |
19 | AB357 | 5 |
19 | 3eyes | 5 |
22 | morrison-dylan-fan | 4 |
22 | Melvelet | 4 |
22 | Cinepolis | 4 |
25 | Mochard | 3 |
25 | connordenney | 3 |
25 | cinephage | 3 |
25 | blueboybob | 3 |
29 | nimimerkillinen | 2 |
29 | maxwelldeux | 2 |
29 | blocho | 2 |
32 | sebby | 1 |
32 | albajos | 1 |