JPRaup

Here is my top 30


1. Martin Scorcese
2. Francis Ford Coppola
3. Steven Speilberg
4. Alfonso Cuaron
5. Christopher Nolan
6. Alfred Hitchcock
7. Stanley Kubrick
8. Joel & Ethan Coen
9. David Fincher
10. Wes Anderson
11. Quentin Tarantino
12. Danny Boyle
13. Guy Ritchie
14. Alejandro González Iñárritu
15. Paul Thomas Anderson
16. Darren Aronofsky
17. Michael Mann
18. Tim Burton
19. Charles Chaplin
20. Peter Jackson
21. Michel Gondry
22. Clint Eastwood
23. Noah Baumbach
24. Andrew Stanton
25. Brad Bird
26. Pedro Almodovar
27. Guillermo Del Toro
28. Kevin Smith
29. David Cronenberg
30. David Lynch

RichC2

No particular order, currently living/working:
David Fincher
Ridley Scott
David Lynch
Guillermo Del Toro
Steven Spielberg
Alfonso Cuaron
Christopher Nolan
Martin Scorscese
Brad Bird
Quentin Tarantino
David Cronenberg
Joel & Ethan Coen
Peter Jackson
Wes Anderson
Darren Aronofsky
Paul Thomas Anderson
Edgar Wright
Danny Boyle
Chan-wook Park
Takashi Miike
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Ji-woon Kim (getting there at least)
Stephen Chow
Alex Proyas
Hayao Miyazaki
Ki-duk Kim

riotinmyskull

top 10:

david lynch
alfred hitchcock
woody allen
stanley kubrick
wes anderson
john carpenter
dario argento
david cronenberg
david gordon green
werner herzog

but i'm a fan of pretty much every director that's been listed in the 2 posts above mine. it really all depends on my mood, i go through phases.

wilky61

In terms of pure style, I like Wes Anderson, Joel Coen, Michael Mann, and Steven Solderbergh.

pjflyer

Hal Hartley
John Sayles
Mike Leigh
Ken Loach
Woody Allen
Shane Meadows
Martin Scorsese
Patrice Leconte
Coens
Robert Altman
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Preston Sturges

toddly6666

1. Emir Kusturica
2. Terry Gilliam
3. Ridley Scott
4. Hayao Miyazaki
5. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
6. Darren Aronofsky
7. Steven Speilberg
8. Stanley Kubrick
9. Alexandro Jodorowsky
10. Spike Jonze
11. Siu-Tung Ching
12. Zhang Yimou
13. Richard Linklater
14. Michael Bay
15. Mamoru Oshii
16. George Miller
17. Alan Parker
18. Christopher Gans
19. Jan Kounen
20. Paul Verhoeven
21. Terrence Malick
22. Tony Scott
23. James Cameron
24. Pan Nalin
25. S. Shankar
26. Sam Raimi

B5Erik

I can't put them in any order, but here are my favorites:

Akira Kurosawa
Anthony Mann
Martin Scorsese
John Ford
Billy Wilder
Clint Eastwood
Archie Mayo
Edward Dmytryk
John Huston
Delmer Daves
Howard Hawks
Michael Curtiz
Raoul Walsh
Steven Spielberg
James Cameron
Nicholas Meyer
Kihachi Okamoto
Kinji Fukasaku

I know I'm forgetting a few, but that's a good start.

Shannon Nutt

We've had to have had a thread on this before, right?

Anyway, here goes:

Steven Spielberg
Clint Eastwood
Martin Scorcese
Stanley Kubrick
David Lynch
James Cameron
Ridley Scott
Roman Polanski
Quentin Tarantino
Oliver Stone

Yakuza Bengoshi

Here's a few:
Dreyer
De Sica
Vigo
Cassavetes
Tarkovsky
Herzog
Wilder
Kobayashi
Hou
Murnau
Ozu
Fellini
Eisenstein
Chaplin
Teshigahara
Sokurov
Tran
Bergman
Allen

BambooLounge

Some of my favorites:
Scorsese
Fellini
Kazan
Antonioni
Kubrick
Dassin
Pasolini
Ford
Welles

Solid Snake

No Order:

Akira Kurosawa
Sergio Leone
Christopher Nolan
Guillermo Del Toro
Wes Anderson
Alfonso Cuaron
Quentin Tarantino
Robert Rodriguez
Jean-Luc Godard
Martin Scorsese
Steven Spielberg
Francious Truffaut
Terry Gilliam
Edgar Wright
Darren Aronofsky
Clint Eastwood
John Woo (Pre US)
Matthew Vaughn
David Cronenberg
Ridley Scott
James Cameron
Joel & Ethan Coen
Stanley Kubrick
Kevin Smith

I would've put in Francis Ford Coppola..but...I only really like the first 2 Godfathers and Apocalypse Now..but Damn they are good. Everything else has been too wishy washy.

aJOHNymous

In no particular order -

Quentin Tarantino
Paul Thomas Anderson
Kevin Smith
Martin Scorcese
Stanley Kubrick
Steven Spielberg

I'd watch anything these guys had their names attached to -- even a live action My Little Pony flick.

JPRaup

I don't think Kubrick is doing a live action My Little Pony anytime soon.

Double_Oh_7

I don't think he's dong a live action ANYTHING anytime soon.

Mondo Kane

Current:

Takashi Miike
Craig Brewer
Álex de la Iglesia
Terry Gilliam
Gaspar Noe
Quentin Tarantino
Toshiaki Toyoda
David Fincher
Oliver Stone
Dante Lam
Joe Carnahan
Jean-Jacques Annaud
George Romero
David Lynch
Edgar Wright
Jim Jarmusch
The Hughes Bros

R.I.P. or inactive:

Sergio Leone
F.W. Murnau
Todd Browning
Federico Fellini
Jack Hill
Akira Kurosawa
Carl Theodor Dreyer
John Huston
Sergio Corbucci
Terence Young
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Stanley Kubrick
Alex Cox
Kenji Misumi
Sam Peckinpah

An4h0ny

coens
hitchcock
scorsese

wendersfan

Some German hack.

hardercore

Marty, Brad Bird, PT Anderson ... I like Eastwood's later stuff, Speilberg of course, Ang Lee, Coppola's work in the 70s ... The Coens generally, Cuaron and del Toro.

inri222

Andrei Tarkovsky
Robert Bresson
Federico Fellini
Ingmar Bergman
Michael Haneke
Bernardo Bertolucci
Luis Buñuel
David Cronenberg
Jules Dassin
Michaelangelo Antonioni
David Lynch
Sergei Eisenstein
R W Fassbinder
J L Godard
P P Pasolini
Lars Von Trier
François Truffaut
Seijun Suzuki
Sam Peckinpah
Stanley Kubrick
Volker Schlöndorff
Werner Herzog
Akira Kurosawa
Nicolas Roeg
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Melville
Fritz Lang
Shohei Imamura
Masaki Kobayashi

PopcornTreeCt

As they are coming to me in my head...

Terrence Malick
Stanley Kubrick
Vittorio De Sica
Federico Fellini
Jean-Luc Godard
Fritz Lang
Akira Kurosawa
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Melville
Jules Dassin
Paul Thomas Anderson
Martin Scorsese
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Ingmar Bergman
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Billy Wilder
John Ford
Luis Buñuel
Andrei Tarkovsky
Robert Bresson
Bernardo Bertolucci
François Truffaut
John Huston
Carl Theodore Dreyer
F.W. Murnau
G.W. Pabst
Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
Jim Jarmusch
Alfonso Cuaron
Guy Richie
Tim Burton
Noah Baumbach
Michael Mann
David Lean
Quentin Tarantino
Wim Wenders
Steven Soderbergh
David Fincher
Howard Hawks
Luchino Visconti
Yasujiro Ozu
Jean Renoir
Robert Altman
Richard Linklater
Orson Welles
Spike Lee
Wes Anderson
Brad Anderson
Christopher Nolan
David Gordon Green

That's enough for now.

Mr.Scary

William Friedkin
Stanley Kubrick
David Fincher
Oliver Stone
John Huston
Werner Herzog
Martin Scorcese
Woody Allen
Alfred Hitchcock
Todd Solondz
Paul Thomas Anderson
John Boorman
Akira Kurosawa
Francis Ford Coppola
Jim Jarmusch
Michael Mann
David Cronenberg
Coen Bros.
Spike Lee
Steven Spielberg
Brad Anderson

NoirFan

Off the top of my head, ten favorites in no particular order:

Fuller
Preston Sturges
Mizoguchi
Carpenter
Nicholas Ray
Hitchcock
Cassavetes
Renoir
Murnau
Tarr

Norm de Plume

My criterion is any director who has made at least two films I like a lot, or three or more good ones. No particular order:

Claude Chabrol
Martin Scorsese
Andrei Tarkovsky
Michael Haneke
Abbas Kiarostami
Frank Perry
Bob Clark (for his three classic '70s horror flicks)
Francis Coppola
Peter Watkins
Eric Till
John Carpenter
Woody Allen
Ingmar Bergman
John Woo (HK output only)
Carroll Ballard
Nikolas Refn
Nicolas Roeg
Claude Miller
Ken Loach
Dario Argento
Volker Schlöndorff
Fred Walton
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Hayers
William Fruet
Joseph Larraz
Walter Hill
Anne Fontaine
Allan King
Rainer Fassbinder
John Frankenheimer
Luigi Bazzoni
Corey Yuen
Jean Pierre Lefebvre
James Foley
Robert Epstein
Martin Bell
Gianni Amelio
Henri Verneuil
George Romero
Jack Smight
Alan Pakula
Wes Craven
David Mamet
Laurent Cantet
Francesco Rosi
Robert Altman
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Dardenne Brothers

Dr Mabuse

i was about to post no one had mentioned Mizoguchi...

then right at the end someone did...

someone mentioned Kihachi Okamoto..

no mention of Hiroshi Inagaki?... that's surprising...

not one mention of Yoji Yamada?...

EDIT: oh yeah my favorite director is Andrei Tarkovsky...

Apone

You guys are amazing!

Here are my top ten favourite directors of all time:

Abbas Kiarostami
Akira Kurosawa
Andrei Tarkovsky
David Fincher
Federico Fellini
Ingmar Bergman
James Cameron
Michelangelo Antonioni
Ridley Scott
Robert Bresson