Directors

Directors

(in order of date of birth)

Lost Generation

1883 – 1901

- D. W. Griffith (1875-1948)
- Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968)

- Charles Chaplin (1889-1977)

- Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

- Fritz Lang (1890-1976)

- Jean Renoir (1894-1979)

- Buster Keaton (1895-1966)
- Dziga Vertov (1896-1954)

- Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948)

- Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956)

- Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)

- Luis Buñuel (1900-1983)

G.I. Generation

1901 – 1927

- Yasujirō Ozu (1903-1963)

- Jean Vigo (1905-1934)

- Mikio Naruse (1905-1969)

- Billy Wilder (1906-2002)

- Jacques Tati (1907-1982)

- Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015)
- Rattana Pestonji (1908-1970)

- Kinuyo Tanaka (1909-1977)
- Joseph Losey (1909-1984)

- Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

- Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007)
- Keisuke Kinoshita (1912-1998)
- Mario Bava (1914-1980)
- Mario Monicelli (1915-2010)

- Kon Ichikawa (1915-2008)

- Masaki Kobayashi (1916-1996)

- Maya Deren (1917-1961)

- Jean-Pierre Melville (1917-1973)

- Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007)

- Éric Rohmer (1920-2010)

- Federico Fellini (1920-1993)

- Satyajit Ray (1921-1992)

- Chris Maker (1921-2012)

- Alain Resnais (1922-2014)

- Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975)
- Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1922-2007) 

- Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017)
- Irvin Kershner (1923-2010)

- Yasuzo Masumura (1924-1986)
- Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990)

- Robert Altman (1925-2006)

- Guru Dutt (1925-1964)
- Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976)

- Maurice Pialat (1925-2003)

- Shôhei Imamura  (1926-2006)
- Margot Benacerraf (1926-?)
- Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016)

- Koreyoshi Kurahara (1927-2002)

- Hiroshi Teshigahara (1927-2001)

Silent Generation

1928 – 1945

- Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999)
- Pierre Étaix (1928-2016)

- Jacques Rivette (1928-2016)

- Agnès Varda (1928-2019)

- Sergio Leone (1929-1989)

- John Cassavetes (1929-1989)
- Elio Petri (1929-1982)

- Frederick Wiseman (1930-?)
- Clint Eastwood (1930-?)

- Claude Chabrol (1930-2010)

- Kinji Fukasaku (1930-2003)

- Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)

- Masahiro Shinoda (1931-?)
- Paolo & Vittorio Taviani (1931-2024; 1929-2018)
- Jan Troell (1931-?)
- Ermanno Olmi (1931-2018)

- Ettore Scola (1931-2016)

- Louis Malle (1932-1995)

- Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986)

- Elaine May (1932-?)
- George Sluizer (1932-2014)
- Carlos Saura (1932-2023)

- Yoshishige Yoshida (1933-2022)

- Costa-Gavras (1933-?)

- Lau Kar-leung (1934-2013)
- Kira Muratova (1934-2018)

- Woody Allen (1935-?)

- Theo Angelopoulos (1935-2012)
- Ken Loach (1936-?)

- Andrei Konchalovsky (1937-?)
- Yilmaz Güney (1937-1984)

- Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (1938-2020)

- Paul Verhoeven (1938-?)

- Aleksey German (1938-2013)
- Larisa Shepitko (1938-1979)

- Jerzy Skolimowski (1938-?)

- João César Monteiro (1939-2003)

- Francis Ford Coppola (1939-?)
- Nikos Nikolaidis (1939-2007)
- Wes Craven (1939-2015)
- Dariush Mehrjui (1939-2023)

- Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016)

- Víctor Erice (1940-?)

- Brian De Palma (1940-?)
- George A. Romero (1940-2017)
- Dario Argento (1940-)
- Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1941-?)

- Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996)

- Michael Haneke (1942-?)

- Werner Herzog (1942-?)

- Martin Scorsese (1942-?)

- David Cronenberg (1943-?)

- Roy Andersson (1943-?)

- Michael Mann (1943-?)
- George Lucas (1944-?)
- Charles Burnett (1944-?)
- Lamberto Bava (1944-?)
- Jean-Claude Brisseau (1944-2019)

- Mani Kaul (1944-2011)

- Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982)

- Wim Wenders (1945-?)
- Ágnes Hranitzky (1945-?)

Baby Boomer

1946 – 1964

- Claire Denis (1946-?)

- David Lynch (1946-?)
- Slobodan Sijan (1946-?)
- Steven Spielberg (1946-?)

- Edward Yang (1947-2007)

- Takeshi Kitano (1947-?)

- Hou Hsiao-hsien (1947-?)

- Shinji Sōmai (1948-2001)

- Diane Kurys (1948-?)

- John Carpenter (1948-?)

- Pedro Almodóvar (1949-?)

- Zhang Yimou (1950-?)
- Yoshimitsu Morita (1950-2011)

- Tsui Hark (1951-?)

- Dardenne Brothers (1951-?, 1954-?)

- Ulrich Seidl (1952-?)
- Chen Kaige (1952-?)

- Lee Chang-dong (1954-?)

- Ang Lee (1954-?)

- Coen Brothers (1954-?, 1957-?)

...The Beginning of Generation Jones

- Alex Cox (1954-?)

- Jane Campion (1954-?)
- James Cameron (1954-?)
- Philippe Grandrieux  (1954-?)
- Chantal Akerman (1955-2015)

- Kiyoshi Kurosawa (1955-?)

- Olivier Assayas (1955-?)

- Béla Tarr (1955-?)

- Ringo Lam (1955-2018)

- Lars von Trier (1956-?)

- Gakuryū Ishii (1957-?)
- Mohsen Makhmalbaf (1957-?)

- Tsai Ming-liang (1957-?)

- Spike Lee (1957-?)

- Wong Kar-wai (1958-?)

- Charlie Kaufman (1958-?)

- Nuri Bilge Ceylan (1959-?)
- Pedro Costa (1959-?)

- Shinya Tsukamoto (1960-?)

- Richard Linklater (1960-?)

- Takashi Miike (1960-?)

- Hong Sang-soo (1960-?)
- Jafar Panahi (1960-?)
- Christian Petzold (1960-?)

- Kim Ki-duk (1960-2020)

- Panna Rittikrai (1961-2014)

- Sion Sono (1961-?)

- Alfonso Cuarón (1961-?)

- Hirokazu Kore-eda (1962-?)
- David Fincher (1962-?)
- Pen-ek Ratanaruang (1962-?)

- Stephen Chow (1962-?)

- Gaspar Noé (1963-?)

- Quentin Tarantino (1963-?)

- Alejandro González Iñárritu (1963-?)

- Andrey Zvyagintsev (1964-?)

- Kelly Reichardt (1964-?)

- Guillermo del Toro (1964-?)
- Šarūnas Bartas (1964-?)
- Zeki Demirkubuz (1964-?)

Gen X

1965 – 1980

- The Wachowskis (1965-?, 1967-?)

- Stefano Sollima (1966-?)

- Denis Villeneuve (1967-?)

- François Ozon (1967-?)
- Wang Bing (1967-?)

- Cristian Mungiu (1968-?)

- Kleber Mendonça Filho (1968-?)

- Matteo Garrone (1968-?)

- Lukas Moodysson (1969-?)

- Jennifer Kent (1969-?)

- Kirill Serebrennikov (1969-?)

- Diao Yi’nan (1969-?)

- Spike Jonze (1969-?)

- Benedikt Erlingsson (1969-?)

- Darren Aronofsky (1969-?)
- Naomi Kawase (1969-?)
- Marziyeh Meshkiny (1969-?)
- Thomas Vinterberg (1969-?)

- Paul Thomas Anderson (1970-?)

- Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1970-?)

- Nicolas Winding Refn (1970-?)

- Jia Zhangke (1970-?)

- Kogonada (1970*-?)

- Luca Guadagnino (1971-?)
- Sofia Coppola (1971-?)

- Shane Caruth (1972-?)

- Miguel Gomes (1972-?)
- Asghar Farhadi (1972-?)
- Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (1972-?)

- Rian Johnson (1973-?)

- J. C. Chandor (1973-?)

- Steven Craig Zahler (1973-?)

- S. S. Rajamouli (1973-?)

- Sebastián Lelio (1974-?)

- Ruben Östlund (1974-?)

- Joshua Oppenheimer (1974-?)

- Jasmila Zbanic (1974-?)

- Joachim Trier (1974-?)

- Na Hong-jin (1974-?)

- Quentin Dupieux (1974-?)

- Corneliu Porumboiu (1975-?)
- Márta Mészáros (1975-?)
- Mariano Llinás (1975-?)

- Albert Serra  (1975-?)

- Pablo Larraín (1976-?)

- Anocha Suwichakornpong (1976-?)

- Jeremy Saulnier (1976-?)

- Aleksey German Jr. (1976-?)

...Beginning of Xennials

- Radu Jude (1977-?)
- Malik Bendjelloul (1977-2014)

- Cary Joji Fukunaga (1977-?)

- Maggie Gyllenhaal (1977-?)

- Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (1978-?)

- Jeff Nichols (1978-?)

- Valdimar Jóhannsson (1978-?)

- Céline Sciamma (1979-?)

- Berry Jenkins (1979-?)

- Jordan Peele (1979-?)
- Ti West (1980-?)
- Samira Makhmalbaf (1980-?)

Millennials

1981 – 1996

- Mia Hansen-Løve (1981-?)

- Ciro Guerra (1981-?)

- Alice Rohrwacher (1981-?)

- Bora Kim (1981-?)

- Mati Diop (1982-?)

- Robert Eggers (1983-?)

- Greta Gerwig (1983-?)

- Lulu Wang (1983-?)

- Julia Ducournau (1983-?)

- Safdie Brothers (1984-?, 1986-?)

- Hlynur Pálmason (1984-?)

- Kristoffer Borgli (1985-?)

...The End of Xennials

- Ari Aster (1986-?)

- Carla Simón (1986-?)
- Dea Kulumbegashvili (1986-?)

- The Daniels (1987-?, 1988-?)
- Trey Edward Shults (1988-?)

- Bo Hu (1988-2017)

- Xavier Dolan (1989-?)
- Bing Liu (1989-?)
- Bi Gan (1989-?)

- Raam Reddy (1989-?)

- Kateryna Gornostai (1989-?)

- Kantemir Balagov (1991-?)

- Lukas Dhont (1991-?)

...The Beginning of Zillennials

- Danny and Michael Philippou (1992-?)
- Antonio Lukich (1992-?)

Gen Z
1997 – 2012

- Kane Parsons (2005-?)