1. Orson Welles
2. Jean Renoir
3. Alfred Hitchcock
4. Fritz Lang
5. Yasujiro Ozu
6. David Lean
7. Michelangelo Antonioni
8. John Ford
9. Federico Fellini
10. Kenji Mizoguchi
11. D. W. Griffith
12. Paul Thomas Anderson
13. Stanley Kubrick
14. Alexander Payne
15. Jacques Tati
16. Martin Scorsese
17. David Lynch
18. Vittorio De Sica
19. Sergei Eisenstein
20. Alexander Dovzhenko
Kenneth Anger
Sergei Parajanov
The Quay Brothers
Yuriy Norshteyn
Maya Deren
Buster Keaton
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Guy Maddin
Tsai Ming-Liang
Chris Marker
Andrei Tarkovsky
David Lynch
Agnès Varda
Philippe Garrel
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Frans Zwartjes
Wim Wenders
Lee Chang-dong
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Dušan Makavejev
…there are still so many more directors whose work i need to look into, and i’m not completely familiar with all of these directors’ films, but i feel that they’re nevertheless more than worthy of attention.
OXY—Yes, I think the women on my list are all high-quality film makers, and some of their films would provoke good conversations one would hope, but I erred in choosing some women directors without John Ford-like numbers of great films under their belts (for depth later on if chosen); perhaps that’s a trade-off when backing less popular filmmakers (though certainly not always). Perhaps bad strategy on my part. It’s also the reason I didn’t chose the women you mentioned, feeling they’re already well known so that their more famous work is already over-reviewed, hyped, championed. I’d love to see Germaine Dulac compete or Claire Denis. They’re included in quite a few lists. Who knows?
There are some very cool lists featuring lots of directors I like, or don’t even know; my fear is that even with some eclectic mixes, we’ll be flappin’ our gums at the same old faces—who, though canonical through merit, aren’t always as interesting as names I don’t know well, new films I’ll be startled to view. I’m excited to see the list of accepted directors. Go Kuxa.
BD – Perhaps bad strategy on my part. It’s also the reason I didn’t chose the women you mentioned, feeling they’re already well known so that their more famous work is already over-reviewed, hyped, championed.
Agreed – that’s what was refreshing in your list – not the usual female suspects. Of course, certain key names will predominate, but I am also more interested in those that don’t immediately spring to mind. I purposefully included directiors on my list who I knew wouldn’t be appearing on that many other lists – just to bring some attention to them. Not a strategy for inclusion in the final list, but one I’m still happy to support.
Who knows how many less well-known filmmakers will make the cut, but these lists will point any of us to some different directions re filmmakers we may need to explore at some point – including the talented female directors out there. Thanks to everyone for some varied and interesting lists.
No one can deny Tarkovsky, Bergman, Kubrick et al. their reputation, but do they really need any more promotion?
Wim Wenders
Akira Kurosawa
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Masaki Kobayashi
Francois Truffaut
Buster Keaton
Michelangelo Antonioni
Aki Kaurismaki
Terrence Malick
Yasujiro Ozu
Frank Capra
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Richard Linklater
Ingmar Bergman
Stanley Kubrick
Robert Bresson
Hiroshi Inagaki
Alfred Hitchcock
Andrei Tarkovsky
No one can deny Tarkovsky, Bergman, Kubrick et al. their reputation, but do they really need any more promotion?
There was the same discussion on PolarisDiB’s Top 20 Poll.
And I agree with you to a certain degree. But a Hall of Fame without any famous or well-known directors wouldn’t be a Hall of Fame after all.
I think we will see many familiar faces in the final picks. It is my intention to not reveal any directors before I start their threads. Hopefully this will cause some sense of anticipation. I also plan to use fifty directors, one thread a week that will basically last nearly a year. Unlike cup events it doesn’t require a match where users have to see both films. Of course to vote in a director’s thread it would necessary to watch several films from that director to be able to decide which one to vote into the MUBI Hall of Fame. PLEASE THOUGH do not feel you can’t vote beacause you haven’t seen ten or more films by someone. The idea of this thread is about discovery, taking a fresh look at the canon and discovering possibilities outside this. I am perfectly fine with a user voting if they have only seen three or four films by someone. This is not a best film by each director game, rather a film which you think deserves a place in the Hall of Fame either because it displays the director’s themes or styles perfectly or it is a film that echoes what we at MUBI believe in.
The first phase of this project highlights many directors who will not compete later, but I will make an alphabetical list of all filmmakers nominated so users have a chance to look back through them. For this to be a success and promote discussion we do need those canonical names. A Bergman thread is going to produce more conversation than Jerzy Kawalerowicz for instance by the fact that people have seen more names. The World Cup and previous Director’s Cups have proved that discovery or rather discovery on a mass scale is not for everyone. It is too much of a commitment, time consuming and requires many hours of viewing. This project is about inclusion and was an idea developed in response to the thread that highlighted the lack of participation on the forums these days.
Despite the presence of many big names… I predict there will be some less known directors taking part. I also think that the director’s threads hopefully can bring insight into the director’s body of work and other less well known films by them can be discussed too. If we looks at Bergman’s work; the Seventh Seal, Persona, Wild Strawberries come to the fore, but how many discussions on Face To Face or Life of the Marionettes exist? We might have some usual suspects but this is a chance to re-examine and maybe watch a few of those films that don’t appear in “the canon” from respected filmmakers.
After spending a year on the sidelines of cinema, promoting very rare films… I have decided I want to reconnect with “the canon” and re-watch a few films that I haven’t seen for years and see if my opinion on them has changed. With all this said it is not looking good for minorities at the moment for the final stages. Certainly women, animators, African, and experimental directors need more votes if they are to feature in the final rounds. I am impressed though by the number of older directors from the silent period and 30’s. 40’s and 50’s that have been nominated. So at least chronologically we will have great variation for the second round.
M. Hulot – But a Hall of Fame without any famous or well-known directors wouldn’t be a Hall of Fame after all.
Ha – good point! Btw – those are probably my top three favorites (see the Noodles top 3 director’s thread), so I was being a bit facetious, I guess. Bring on the discussion, folks!
Seeing Kuxa’s detailed explanation above, I fully support the inclusion of some ‘canon’ names, too. Should promote some decent discussion of particular films, I hope. I think 50 names will give us ample opportunity to explore. Also, since Kuxa is giving us a complete alphabetical list, there is nothing to stop anyone from starting a thread on any director who doesn’t make the cut. So, it’s all good!
My vote isn’t going to decide whether God, Rohmer, Bresson, Buñuel, Ozu, Ford etc get in, is it? Anyway, I don’t think I’ve chosen anyone who was in any Directors Cup, apart from Straub/Huillet who got knocked out by a fucking flying pig, and Rossellini because I want someone to tell me if I should watch his Apostles, and, he’s beautiful. Oh, and Lubitsch. But I don’t need a reason for him.
Chris Marker
Eugène Green
Straub/Huillet
Manoel de Oliveira
Roberto Rossellini
Ernst Lubitsch
Mani Kaul
Otar Iosseliani
Peter Hutton
Angela Schanelec
Pavel Juráček
Sohrab Shahid Saless
Alexander Kluge
Kidlat Tahimik
Jørgen Leth
Sacha Guitry
Patrick Keiller
Tengiz Abuladze
Pierre Étaix
Jia Zhangke
I hope Eugene Green, Huston, Bresson and Borowczyk all get in. Then we can have a sexy medieval frenzy. Let’s have one anyway. Who else could we invite to the clink-and-wimple party? Hmmm.
Philippe Garrel
Shuji Terayama
Yoshishige ‘Kiju’ Yoshida
Jean-Luc Godard
Tsai Ming-Liang
Glauber Rocha
Straub/Huillet
Manuel de Oliveira
Lisandro Alonso
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Chantal Akerman
Gregory J. Markopoulos
Jia Zhangke
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Kenneth Anger
Pedro Costa
Andrzej Zulawski
Werner Schroeter
Béla Tarr
Andrei Tarkovsky
@ OXY, I agree about the attention just being on a list may give to a lesser known director (and a gift to a viewer). I think others have done this in their lists as well. I’ve found so many of my favorite films just that way. And yes, it was fun to think of some women directors (there are actually so many) not usually used to bolster a roster as a needed quotient to combat attacks of misogyny—those you mentioned and a few others. If Kuxa goes with 50 choices, I’m sure there will be some women—his idea of not publishing the directors until the week of their competition is kinda sneaky.
@ KUXA, I also think that the director’s threads hopefully can bring insight into the director’s body of work and other less well known films by them can be discussed too. If we looks at Bergman’s work; the Seventh Seal, Persona, Wild Strawberries come to the fore, but how many discussions on Face To Face or Life of the Marionettes exist? We might have some usual suspects but this is a chance to re-examine and maybe watch a few of those films that don’t appear in “the canon” from respected filmmakers.
I agree. Seeing and discussing lesser known films, although perhaps equally as potent as the Master director’s ubiquitously defined “best” films, is a wonderful opportunity. Recently, a thread on Tag Gallagher by Jerry Johnson encouraged me to watch some John Ford I’ve never seen, films not as well known as his most easily accessible top 10. Some of them are great as well, and some fall a little lower perhaps, but we see the wily director attack subject matter and film technique in original and varied ways. It will also encourage people like myself who have viewed many directors, but often have not worked deeply into their body of work to do so. Good ideas Kuxa.
damn, i need to revise my list. went from seeing 2 rohmers to seeing 5 rohmers over the past two days AND THAT CHANGES THINGS
Wim Wenders
Akira Kurosawa
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Masaki Kobayashi
Francois Truffaut
Buster Keaton
Michelangelo Antonioni
Aki Kaurismaki
Terrence Malick
Yasujiro Ozu
Frank Capra
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Richard Linklater
Ingmar Bergman
Andrei Tarkovsky
Stanley Kubrick
Eric Rohmer
Robert Bresson
Alfred Hitchcock
RIP inagaki, dude probably just lost 100% of his votes ):
Stanley Kubrick
Alfred Hitchcock
Park Chan-wook
Chris Marker
Frank Capra
Fritz Lang
George Cukor
Buster Keaton
John Hughes
Lino Brocka
Yasujiro Ozu
John Ford
John Huston
Terrence Malick
Ingmar Bergman
Jacques Tati
David Lynch
James Cameron
Steven Spielberg
Robert Zemeckis
Jean Renoir
Akira Kurosawa
Ingmar Bergman
Luis Bunuel
Robert Altman
Michelangelo Antonioni
Orson Welles
Jean Pierre Melville
Werner Herzog
Wong Kar Wai
Alfred Hitchcock
Howard Hawks
Buster Keaton
Jean Luc Godard
Max Ophuls
Woody Allen
Yasujiro Ozu
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Theo Angelopolus
Hayao Miyazaki
Yasujiro Ozu
Jean Pierre Melville
Nicolas Ray
Chris Marker
Alfred Hitchcock
Andrei Tarkovsky
Francois Truffaut
Billy Wilder
FW Murnau
Ingmar Bergman
Robert Bresson
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Joseph Losey
Josef von Sternberg
Jacques Tati
Luis Bunuel
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Stanley Kubrick
Bump
The voting ends in on Saturday at 12pm GMT….
There has been a great turnout and over 450 directors were chosen so far….. I am going to choose roughly the top seventy directors as many of them are drawn on seven votes each and this seems to be the logical cutoff point. A lot of the canon names are in there, but there are plenty of surprises and a few big names look as if they will not make it through.
Sharunas Bartas
Maya Deren
Carl Th. Dreyer
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Hollis Frampton
Peter Greenaway
Werner Herzog
Hou Hsiao-hsien
Aki Kaurismäki
David Lynch
Tsai Ming-liang
F.W. Murnau
Yasujiro Ozu
Jacques Rivette
Eric Rohmer
Hong Sang-soo
Kaneto Shindo
Andreij Tarkovskij
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Jia Zhangke
Ok the first part of this project is now over….. VOTING CLOSED I have counted the votes and narrowed selection down to 58 directors as there was a ten way tie….. I will have a list of all the directors nominated up by tomorrow and the first voting session will begin on Wednesday at 4pm GMT ….. I will give the exact details in the coming days…
Oxymoron
Good one, BrotherDeacon! You gave the gals some much needed credit and didn’t even require the likes of Chantal Akerman, Agnès Varda, Věra Chytilová, Leni Riefenstahl, or Agnieszka Holland for your list. Will any female directors make the final cut???