ICM Forum's Favourite Directors 2021: Due Mon Jan 10

[pitchorneirda]

It's time to make out favourite directors list again. Submit an imdb list, or a list of imdb urls if you can't make an imdb list, with as many directors as you like. You have until end of day Monday Jan 10 to submit your lists.

Half life will be 29, like last year.

I will assume your list is ranked unless you specify otherwise.
Other than a ranked list you can submit your list in one of the following ways:
- Unranked: All directors get the same number of points.
- Partially ranked: Top X is ranked, rest is unranked
- Group ranked: You have to specify the groups that go together, all films in the group get the same number of points. (eg: 11-20, 21-30, 31-50, 51-100)


I want to try to be consistent with directorial teams so we'll pick a director to represent each pair, the first one alphabetically. If there are any pairs that I missed let me know and I'll update this list:

Coen Brothers: Ethan Coen
Powell & Pressburger: Michael Powell
Dardenne Brothers: Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Maysles Brothers:Albert Maysles
Huillet & Straub: Danièle Huillet
Wachowskis: Lana Wachowski
Farrelly Brothers: Bobby Farrelly
Duplass Brothers: Jay Duplass
Hughes Brothers: Albert Hughes
Neveldine & Taylor: Mark Neveldine
Quay Brothers: Stephen Quay
Taviani Brothers: Paolo Taviani
Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi:Yervant Gianikian
Margarida Cordeiro & António Reis: Margarida Cordeiro
Geronimi, Jackson, & Luske: Clyde Geronimi
Trousdale & Wise: Gary Trousdale
Clements & Musker: Ron Clements
Dayton & Faris: Jonathan Dayton
DeBlois & Sanders Dean DeBlois
Gilliam & Jones Terry Gilliam
Weitz Brothers Chris Weitz
Nicole Rittenmeyer & Seth Skundrick - Nicole Rittenmeyer
Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur & Lee Garmes (optional)- Ben Hecht
Wilhelm Hein & Birgit Hein - Birgit Hein
Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani - Hélène Cattet
Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel - Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Lucas Leyva & Jillian Mayer - Lucas Leyva
Phil Lord & Christopher Miller - Phil Lord

Previous years' Top directors:
Dec 2020
Dec 2019
Dec 2018
Dec 2017
Dec2016
Dec 2015
Dec2014
Dec 2013
Dec 2012
Dec 2011
A couple of other directors lists to look at: From the book 501 Directors
From TSPDT: Top 250 Directors

Lists:

49 participants

Teproc
Torgo
St.Gloede
joachimt
DudeLanez
Caracortada
Perception de Ambiguity
zzzorf
pitchorneirda (unranked23)
matthewscott8
Silga (unranked25)
peeptoad
Onderhond
frbrown
RolandKirkSunglasses (IMDb link still to create)
Gordon_Gekko
Gorro
tobias
perceval
paul281f
insomnius
Lakigigar (IMDB link still to create)
1SO
Opio
AB537 (unranked50)
Mochard
PeacefulAnarchy (unranked100)
psychotronicbeatnik (unranked)
murnaunosferatu (IMDB link still to create)
Fergenaprido
clemmetarey
tommy_leazaq
jvv (unranked)
blocho (group ranks)
beasterne (unranked)
klaus78
Lonewolf2003
Melvelet
jeff_v
Smoover
OldAle1 (group ranks)
lineuphere
Panunzio
sol
zuma
ororama
Mifune
Rufus-T
Jimi Antiloop

[Teproc]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls027790977/

[Torgo]

I'll just re-use my unedited "Top 50 Directors" from 2020 (and ongoing), which is in fact a Top 60.
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls055577708/

[St. Gloede]

My list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000238472/

Note, the ratings are a little outdated.

[Torgo]

Note, the ratings are a little outdated.

Especially for Bresson

[joachimt]

I don't think I'll try to make time to update my list, so this'll have to do.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls047031687/

[jeff_v]

Now that Joel Coen is directing films without his brother, I think it makes more sense to have him be the representative Coen brother.

[DudeLanez]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls054600706/

[Caracortada]

ICM Poll: Directors' Cut

[peeptoad]

I want to try to be consistent with directorial teams so we'll pick a director to represent each pair, the first one alphabetically. If there are any pairs that I missed let me know and I'll update this list:

Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado
Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund

[Perception de Ambiguity]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls027736571/

(alternatively here is the version for potentially greater and prettier browsing pleasure)

[zzzorf]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls047348641/

[Lakigigar]

I'll likely participate next year, i don't feel confident enough to justify making a list for this edition. I haven't seen enough from many directors I do like. Listing your favourite movies is easier than listing favourite directors if you have seen just over 1000 movies. But i'll follow the results.

[pitchorneirda]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls573626659/

Top 23 ranked, rest unranked

[matthewscott8]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls573647451/

[Perception de Ambiguity]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls573647451/

I forbid you to hang out with that Perecption de Ambiguity chap! That no-good jester seems to be a bad influence on you.

PS:

No disclaimer to discount the male portions of directorial teams and to count them not as teams but as individual women directors? How inconsequent of you.

[St. Gloede]

Note, the ratings are a little outdated.

Especially for Bresson

Yeah, Bresson shot into my top 100 when I rewatched his filmography last year (before that I had not been able to connect with half his films, now all are at 8+). The directors added over the last 1-2 years don't have ratings yet. I should sit down and do it when I have time.

[matthewscott8]

Note, the ratings are a little outdated.

Especially for Bresson

Yeah, Bresson shot into my top 100 when I rewatched his filmography last year (before that I had not been able to connect with half his films, now all are at 8+). The directors added over the last 1-2 years don't have ratings yet. I should sit down and do it when I have time.

I've been on a journey with Bresson, I found his stuff completely opaque at the start but then got into it. However my view is now, that like many miserablist directors (Tarr and Tarkovsky are two others, but most miserablists seem to have it as a go to lever), he seems to be self important enough to believe that animal torture is fine for his movies. Admittedly in Balthazar it's somewhat paradoxical as he tortures the donkey in order to inspire compassion for it but he does it in Mouchette too.

[St. Gloede]

Especially for Bresson

Yeah, Bresson shot into my top 100 when I rewatched his filmography last year (before that I had not been able to connect with half his films, now all are at 8+). The directors added over the last 1-2 years don't have ratings yet. I should sit down and do it when I have time.

I've been on a journey with Bresson, I found his stuff completely opaque at the start but then got into it. However my view is now, that like many miserablist directors (Tarr and Tarkovsky are two others, but most miserablists seem to have it as a go to lever), he seems to be self important enough to believe that animal torture is fine for his movies. Admittedly in Balthazar it's somewhat paradoxical as he tortures the donkey in order to inspire compassion for it but he does it in Mouchette too.

Morality involving the production of films rarely enter into how I view films luckily - if that ever happens I think a lot of my favourite films would be in trouble.

[matthewscott8]

Yeah, Bresson shot into my top 100 when I rewatched his filmography last year (before that I had not been able to connect with half his films, now all are at 8+). The directors added over the last 1-2 years don't have ratings yet. I should sit down and do it when I have time.

I've been on a journey with Bresson, I found his stuff completely opaque at the start but then got into it. However my view is now, that like many miserablist directors (Tarr and Tarkovsky are two others, but most miserablists seem to have it as a go to lever), he seems to be self important enough to believe that animal torture is fine for his movies. Admittedly in Balthazar it's somewhat paradoxical as he tortures the donkey in order to inspire compassion for it but he does it in Mouchette too.

Morality involving the production of films rarely enter into how I view films luckily - if that ever happens I think a lot of my favourite films would be in trouble.

main losses from my top list were Heaven's Gate, The Wild Bunch and Andrei Rublev. I didn't fully realize at the time, but journey towards veganism has been happening for about four years and removing those films was part of it. Still have some questionable ones around, but for example watching half an hour of Death Laid an Egg a couple of years back made me stop eating eggs for a week, given it's overall effect is to promote veganism, I kept it on. Also Roselyne et les Lions is just unclassifiable for me. Like I don't believe in caging lions, but it's certainly not archetypal as an issue.

[Silga]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls573169167/ (Top 25 ranked)

[peeptoad]

ranked

[Onderhond]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls027762524/ (ranked)

[frbrown]

Ranked

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls054333283/

[RolandKirkSunglasses]

1. Alain Resnais
2. Yasujiro Ozu
3. Jean Renoir
4. Eric Rohmer
5. Kenji Mizoguchi
6. Jacques Rivette
7. Agnes Varda
8. Ingmar Bergman
9. Luchino Visconti
10. Edward Yang

11. Andrei Tarkovsky
12. Max Ophuls
13. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
14. Fritz Lang
15. Luis Garcia Berlanga
16. Nagisa Oshima
17. Abbas Kiarostami
18. Masahiro Shinoda
19. Victor Erice
20. Michelangelo Antonioni

21. Mikio Naruse
22. Werner Herzog
23. Shohei Imamura
24. Yuzo Kawashima
25. Michael Powell
26. Kon Ichikawa
27. Carl Theodor Dreyer
28. Hirokazu Koreeda
29. Louis Malle
30. Martin Scorsese

31. Marcel Carne
32. Roman Polanski
33. Tomu Uchida
34. Julien Duvivier
35. John Huston
36. Kaneto Shindo
37. Maurice Pialat
38. Yasuzo Masumura
39. Michael Haneke
40. Ermanno Olmi

41. Raul Ruiz
42. Jacques Feyder
43. F.W Murnau
44. Hou Hsiao Hsien
45. Jacques Becker
46. Rene Clair
47. Jacques Demy
48. Jacques Tati
49. William Wyler
50. Marcel Pagnol

51. Karel Zeman
52. Robert Altman
53. Yuri Norstein
54. Claude Autant-Lara
55. Victor Sjostrom
56. Kihachi Okamoto
57. Jean Epstein
58. Josef von Sternberg
59. Sacha Guitry
60. Vittorio de Sica

[Gordon_Gekko]

I don't know if it make sense to do a Top300 with a half life of 29... but anyway:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls091893654/

[Gorro]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls082649719/

Mostly the same methodology as last year: My ranking is done purely statistics based. I took my ratings for all movies by directors of which I've seen at least 5 movies and calculated the average rating. However, this punishes directors I took the effort to watch complete filmographies, since their duds drag the average down. So, the final score is calculated by the following z-score based formula:

score = mean(rating) + (# films - mean(# films) / 4 * standard_dev(# films))

Cut-off is 7.00

This is year I decided to make the cutoff for female directors of at least 3 (instead of 5) movies seen and calculating the Standerd_dev and average separately to reflect the traditionally fewer opportunities they receive(d) and to have more representation in my list. I have 15 female directors now instead of 5 without this preferential treatment, which is still low.

[tobias]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls053073641

Highest climbers compared to last year:
- Dominik Graf (shot up over 100 spots and is now in the top 15)
- Jacques Tourneur
- Maurice Pialat
- Olivier Assayas
- Lucio Fulci
- Chris Marker
- Jean Eustache
- Josef von Sternberg
- FF Coppola
- Louis Feuillade
- Abbas Kiarostami
- John Cassavetes
- Mariano Llinás
- Kelly Reichardt

[Torgo]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls082649719/

Mostly the same methodology as last year: My ranking is done purely statistics based. I took my ratings for all movies by directors of which I've seen at least 5 movies and calculated the average rating. However, this punishes directors I took the effort to watch complete filmographies, since their duds drag the average down. So, the final score is calculated by the following z-score based formula:

score = mean(rating) + (# films - mean(# films) / 4 * standard_dev(# films))

Cut-off is 7.00

This is year I decided to make the cutoff for female directors of at least 3 (instead of 5) movies seen and calculating the Standerd_dev and average separately to reflect the traditionally fewer opportunities they receive(d) and to have more representation in my list. I have 15 female directors now instead of 5 without this preferential treatment, which is still low.

Interesting that the top of the list looks like any other favorite directors list without this strict methodology. (No offense - I like it very much, many of my very own top dogs there)

[Gorro]

...

Interesting that the top of the list looks like any other favorite directors list without this strict methodology. (No offense - I like it very much, many of my very own top dogs there)

I'm planning to use a similar methodology for actors/actrices next year and the list looks a lot less traditional. Many actors/actrices I wouldn't think of to rank and others way higher or lower than I would rank them without such a methodology. For instance: Garret Dillahunt is the highest ranking American actor on that list currently at #26.

[perceval]

Ranked
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000032664/

[Torgo]

Ranked
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000032664/

Only 5 favorites listed for each, meh :|

[paul281f]

My ranked list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls031162550/

[insomnius]

At the moment
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls501157259/ (ranked)

[Lakigigar]

1. Ki-Duk Kim
2. Sion Sono
3. Nicolas Winding Refn
4. Quentin Tarantino
5. Stanley Kubrick
6. Hayao Miyazaki
7. Felix Van Groeningen

Spoiler

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1104118
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0814469
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0716347
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0886976

I only included ones that i have seen a minimum of 5 films (as of now, might change that criteria next year) just to be sure, and i've been selective with those as well.

[1SO]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls031335819/

Ranked

[Opio]

Ranked:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls045820356/

[pitchorneirda]

Thanks to those who already have submitted a list!

I'm at my parents' house for the week and don't have all my "tools" to tabulate the results so I'll extend the deadline to one week later:

New deadline January 10

[AB537]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls093507538/

1-50 ranked, 51-124 unranked.

Quite a few changes for me this year after barely revisiting my rankings last year, with general trends towards more recent and more international. These changes are mostly based on a mix of new viewings, rewatches, reevaluation of past viewings/directors' overall bodies of work and increased rigour against ranking films/directors primarily because other people think they're good. In general, I require a minimum of 3 viewings per director for inclusion, with occasional exceptions for directors where I've seen two and thoroughly enjoyed both, e.g. Lee Chang-dong, Pietro Germi, Mario Monicelli.

Newcomers: Kleber Mendonca Filho, Luca Guadagnino, Leos Carax, Claude Chabrol, Aki Kaurismaki, Kim Jee-woon, Andrzej Wajda

Notable rising directors: Guillermo del Toro, Francois Truffaut, Park Chan-wook, Alain Resnais, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Thomas Vinterberg, Andrey Zvyagintsev

Notable drops: Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, Max Ophuls, Michael Curtiz

26 directors cut, with particular damage to classic Hollywood types. Sadly, this group also includes Charles Laughton, a superb actor whose sole directoral effort I rank among the all time great films, but who could not survive my revised list's more stringent administrative criteria.

[Mochard]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls073099621/

I may have a play with how they are ranked as mine is purely statistics based but like Gorro said, it punishes the directors that you have seen more films by. I will try out Gorro's formula once my brain wakes up and see what it looks like.