Woody Allen (USA, born 1935) has been a major comic director since the 1970s. Writer, director and actor, his self-portrayal as a neurotic,... Read more

Pedro Almodovar (Spain, born 1951) single-handedly represents the revival of Spanish cinema as part of the cultural flowering of the Movida... Read more

Stanley Kubrick (USA, 1928-99) was a master who took the art of filmmaking further than any other contemporary director, a creative perfectionist... Read more

Martin Scorsese (USA, born 1942) is among the most prolific of American directors, having made more than 25 features in a 40-year career that has... Read more

David Lynch (USA, born 1946) is perhaps the best known of all cult directors, whose Mulholland Drive marks cinema's arrival to the 21st century.... Read more

Steven Spielberg (USA, born 1946) was the boy wonder of the new Hollywood of the 1970s. Taking Orson Welles as his model, he made Duel aged only 25,... Read more

Tim Burton (USA, born 1958) is the youngest of Hollywood's most successful directors. He has the knack of making films with a very broad appeal,... Read more

Francis Ford Coppola (USA, born 1939) is the oldest of the generation of 'movie brats', including Scorsese and Spielberg, who breathed new... Read more

Alfred Hitchcock (UK, 1899-1980) is undeniably the world's most famous film director. His name has become synonymous with the cinema, and each... Read more

Orson Welles was a complete auteur, a brilliant director and scriptwriter, a prodigious actor of memorable physique and a figure of legend. Read more