I believe these 25 film-makers would count as my current top 25 of all time, although there are many near misses that I didn't include due to not having seen a good enough percentage of their work. I tried to only focus on film-makers with a reasonable body of work, with a few exceptions for directors with only two or three movies, if those movies have consistently blown me away. My current 25 are all men, but I hope that one down a number of promising female directors who have impressed me with a brilliant movie will find their way here. All directors here presented with what I consider to be their best movie. Some are obvious picks, some will raise eyebrows, nevertheless they are my favourites.
Honourable mentions: Mario Bava, John Huston, Don Siegel, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Robert Zemeckis, Jordan Peele and many others.