TOP 50 Directors Working Today: 2017 (less than 5 years since last movie)

Well, I publish my TOP 35 Actors and Actresses Under 35 every year. Recently I did the same with best young directors and best actors/actresses (no matter their age)... So, I think it was about time to publish TOP 50 Working Today!

An important note: working today means they still are prolific directors, so I considered directors who released their latest production 5 years ago (maximum!).

From great Hollywood masters, to young promising directors and indie auteurs, let me present you my TOP 50 Directors Working Today:

1. Martin Scorsese

Born: November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA - age 75
Academy Award recognition for directing: 12 nominations | 1 win (The Departed)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• The Aviator (2004)
• The Departed (2006)
• Hugo (2011)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

2. Christopher Nolan

Born: July 30, 1970 in London, England, UK - age 47
Academy Award recognition for directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Memento (2000)
• The Prestige (2006)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• Inception (2010)
• Interstellar (2014)
• Dunkirk (2017)

3. Steven Spielberg

Born: December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA - age 70
Academy Award recognition for directing: 7 nominations | 2 wins (Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Jaws (1975)
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• The Color Purple (1985)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Munich (2005)
• Lincoln (2012)

4. Joel Coen

Born: November 29, 1954 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - age 62 (Joel Coen)
Academy Award recognition for directing: 3 nominations | 1 win (No Country for Old Men)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Fargo (1996)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
• The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• A Serious Man (2009)
• True Grit (2010)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

5. Pedro Almodóvar

Born: September 25, 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain - age 68
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
• Live Flesh (1997)
• All About My Mother (1999)
• Talk to Her (2002)
• Bad Education (2004)
• Volver (2006)
• Broken Embraces (2009)
• Julieta (2016)

6. Paul Thomas Anderson

Born: June 26, 1970 in Studio City, California, USA - age 47
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Boogie Nights (1997)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
• There Will Be Blood (2007)
• The Master (2012)
• Inherent Vice (2014)
• Phantom Thread (2017)

7. Ang Lee

Born: October 23, 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan - age 63

Academy Award recognition in directing: 3 nominations | 2 wins (Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi)

Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• The Wedding Banquet (1993)
• Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Brokeback Mountain (2005)
• Life of Pi (2012)

8. Noah Baumbach

Born: September 3, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA - age 48
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• The Squid and the Whale (2005)
• Greenberg (2010)
• Frances Ha (2012/13)
• While We're Young (2014)
• Mistress America (2015)
• The Meyerowitz Memories (New and Selected) (2017)

9. David Fincher

Born: August 28, 1962 in Denver, Colorado, USA - age 55
Academy Award recognition in directing: 2 nominations
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Se7en (1995)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Zodiac (2007)
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
• The Social Network (2010)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
• Gone Girl (2014)

10. Woody Allen

Born: December 1, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA - age 81
Academy Award recognition in directing: 7 nominations | 1 win (Annie Hall)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Annie Hall (1977)
• Manhattan (1979)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
• Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
• Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
• Match Point (2005)
• Midnight in Paris (2011)

11. Wes Anderson

Born: May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas, USA - age 48
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Rushmore (1998)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
• Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

12. Sofia Coppola

Born: May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA - age 46
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• The Virgin Suicides (1999)
• Lost in Translation (2003)
• Somewhere (2010)
• The Beguiled (2017)

13. Jonathan Glazer

Born: March 26, 1965 in London, England, UK - age 52
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Sexy Beast (2000)
• Birth (2004)
• Under the Skin (2014)

14. Jacques Audiard

Born: April 30, 1952 in Paris, France - age 65
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Read My Lips (2001)
• The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)
• A Prophet (2009)
• Rust and Bone (2012)
• Dheepan (2015)

15. Quentin Tarantino

Born: March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA - age 54
Academy Award recognition in directing: 2 nominations
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
• Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
• Inglorious Basterds (2009)
• Django Unchained (2012)

16. Roman Polanski

Born: August 18, 1933 in Paris, France - age 84
Academy Award recognition in directing: 3 nominations | 1 win (The Pianist)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Knife in the Water (1962)
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Tess (1979)
• Death and the Maiden (1994)
• The Pianist (2002)
• The Ghost Writer (2010)
• Venus in Fur (2014)

17. Alejandro González Iñárritu

Born: August 15, 1963 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico - age 54

Academy Award recognition in directing: 3 nominations | 2 wins (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant)

Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Amores perros (2000)
• 21 Grams (2003)
• Babel (2006)
• Biutiful (2010)
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
• The Revenant (2015)

18. Spike Jonze

Born: October 22, 1969 in Rockville, Maryland, USA - age 48
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Bein John Malkovich (1999)
• Adaptation (2002)
• Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
• Her (2013)

19. Clint Eastwood

Born: May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, California, USA - age 87
Academy Award recognition in directing: 4 nominations | 2 wins (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Bird (1988)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• Mystic River (2003)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Letter from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
• Gran Torino (2008)
• American Sniper (2014)

20. Kathryn Bigelow

Born: November 27, 1951 in San Carlos, California, USA - age 66
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination | 1 win (The Hurt Locker)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Near Dark (1987)
• Point Break (1991)
• The Hurt Locker (2008)
• Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
• Detroit (2017)

21. Michael Haneke

Born: March 23, 1942 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany - age 75
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Funny Games (1997)
• La pianiste (2001)
• Caché (2005)
• The White Ribbon (2009)
• Amour (2012)

22. Denis Villeneuve

Born: October 3, 1967 in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada - age 50
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Maelström (2000)
• Polytechnique (2009)
• Incendies (2010)
• Enemy (2013)
• Sicario (2015)
• Arrival (2016)
• Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

23. Steve McQueen

Born: October 9, 1969 in London, England, UK - age 48
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Hunger (2008)
• Shame (2011)
• 12 Years a Slave (2013)

24. Joe Wright

Born: August 25, 1972 in London, United Kingdom - age 45
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Pride & Prejudice (2005)
• Atonement (2007)
• Hanna (2011)
• Anna Karenina (2012)
• Darkest Hour (2017)

25. Sam Mendes

Born: August 1, 1965 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK - age 52
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination | 1 win (American Beauty)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• American Beauty (1999)
• Road to Perdition (2002)
• Revolutionary Road (2008)
• Skyfall (2012)

26. Yorgos Lanthimos

Born: 1973 in Athens, Greece - age 44
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Dogtooth (2009)
• Alps (2011)
• The Lobster (2015)
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

27. Todd Haynes

Born: January 2, 1961 in Los Angeles, California, USA - age 56
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Poison (1991)
• Safe (1995)
• Far from Heaven (2002)
• I'm Not There (2007)
• Carol (2015)

28. Ava DuVernay

Born: August 24, 1972 in Long Beach, California, USA - age 45
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Middle of Nowhere (2012)
• Selma (2014)
• 13th (2016)

29. Guillermo del Toro

Born: October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico - age 53
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Cronos (1993)
• Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
• Crimson Peak (2015)
• The Shape of Water (2017)

30. Park Chan-wook

Born: August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea - age 54
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• JSA: Joint Security Area (2000)
• Oldboy (2005)
• I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006)
• Stoker (2013)
• The Handmaiden (2016)

31. Alfonso Cuarón

Born: November 28, 1961 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico - age 56
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination | 1 win (Gravity)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Y tu mamá también (2001)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
• Children of Men (2006)
• Gravity (2013)

32. Damien Chazelle

Born: January 19, 1985 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA - age 32
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination | 1 win (La La Land)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Whiplash (2014)
• La La Land (2016)

33. Lars von Trier

Born: April 30, 1956 in Copenhagen, Denmark - age 61
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Europa (1991)
• Breaking the Waves (1996)
• Dancer in the Dark (2000)
• Dogville (2003)
• Antichrist (2009)
• Melancholia (2011)

34. Darren Aronofsky

Born: February 12, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA - age 48
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Pi (1998)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)
• The Wrestler (2008)
• Black Swan (2010)
• mother! (2017)

35. Emir Kusturica

Born: November 24, 1954 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia - age 63
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• When Father Was Away on Business (1985)
• Time of the Gypsies (1990)
• Underground (1995)
• Black Cat, White Cat (1999)
• The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000)
• Life is a Miracle (2004)

36. Peter Jackson

Born: October 31, 1961 in Pukerua Bay, North Island, New Zealand - age 56
Academy Award recognition in directing: 2 nominations | 1 win (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Heavenly Creatures (1994)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• King Kong (2005)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

37. Cary Fukunaga

Born: July 10, 1977 in Oakland, California, USA - age 40
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Sin Nombre (2009)
• Jane Eyre (2011)
• Beasts of No Nation (2015)

38. David Cronenberg

Born: March 15, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada - age 74
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• The Fly (1986)
• Dead Ringers (1988)
• Spider (2002)
• A History of Violence (2005)
• Eastern Promises (2007)
• A Dangerous Method (2011)
• Maps to the Stars (2014)

39. Tom Ford

Born: August 27, 1961 in Austin, Texas, USA - age 56
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• A Single Man (2009)
• Nocturnal Animals (2016)

40. Stephen Daldry

Born: May 2, 1960 in Dorset, England, UK - age 57
Academy Award recognition in directing: 3 nominations
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Billy Elliot (2000)
• The Hours (2002)
• The Reader (2008)
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

41. Steven Soderbergh

Born: January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA - age 54
Academy Award recognition in directing: 2 nominations | 1 win (Traffic)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
• Out of Sight (1998)
• Traffic (2000)
• Erin Brokovich (2000)
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)
• Bubble (2005)
• Contagion (2011)
• Logan Lucky (2017)

42. David O. Russell

Born: August 20, 1958 in New York City, New York, USA - age 59
Academy Award recognition in directing: 3 nominations
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Spanking the Monkey (1994)
• Flirting with Disaster (1996)
• Three Kings (1999)
• The Fighter (2010)
• Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
• American Hustle (2013)

43. Danny Boyle

Born: October 20, 1956 in Manchester, England, UK - age 63
Academy Award recognition in directing: 1 nomination | 1 win (Slumdog Millionaire)
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Shallow Grave (1994)
• Trainspotting (1996)
• 28 Days Later (2002)
• Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
• 127 Hours (2010)
• Steve Jobs (2015)

44. Jeff Nichols

Born: December 7, 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA - age 39
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Shotgun Stories (2007)
• Take Shelter (2011)
• Mud (2012)
• Midnight Special (2016)
• Loving (2016)

45. Dee Rees

Born: February 7, 1977 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. - age 40
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Pariah (2011)
• Bessie (2015)
• Mudbound (2017)

46. Tim Burton

Born: August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California, USA - age 59
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Corpse Bride (2005)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
• Frankenweenie (2012)

47. James Gray

Born: April 14, 1969 in New York City, New York, USA - age 48
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Little Odessa (1995)
• The Yards (2000)
• Two Lovers (2008)
• The Immigrant (2013)
• The Lost City of Z (2017)

48. Jason Reitman

Born: October 19, 1977 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada - age 40
Academy Award recognition in directing: 2 nominations
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Thank You For Smoking (2005)
• Juno (2007)
• Up in the Air (2009)
• Young Adult (2011)

49. Ridley Scott

Born: November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, UK - age 80
Academy Award recognition in directing: 3 nominations
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Alien (1979)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Thelma & Louise (1991)
• Gladiator (2000)
• Black Hawk Down (2001)
• American Gangster (2007)
• The Martian (2015)
• All the Money in the World (2017)

50. Debra Granik

Born: February 6, 1963 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - age 54
Academy Award recognition in directing: none
Distinguished works in filmmaking:

• Down to the Bone (2004)
• Winter's Bone (2010)
• Stray Dog (2014)