Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director who is largely recognized as one of cinema's most important individuals. He directed nearly 50 feature films throughout the course of his six-decade career, many of which are being viewed and studied today. He became as well-known as any of his actors as a result of his numerous interviews, cameo performances in most of his films, and hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films received 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although, despite five nods for Best Director, he never won.

On February 8, 1960, Hitchcock was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for television and the other for his films. Two Golden Globes, eight Laurel Honors, and five-lifetime achievement awards were bestowed upon him, including the inaugural BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director five times. Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1940, after receiving 11 nominations; another Hitchcock picture, Foreign Correspondent, was also nominated that year. The US National Film Registry has chosen nine of his works for preservation by 2021.

Born: August 13, 1899, Leytonstone, London, United Kingdom
Died: April 29, 1980, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, United States

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer who lived from July 26, 1928, until March 7, 1999. He is usually referred to be one of cinema's best directors of all time. Almost all of his films are adaptations of books or short tales, and they are known for their realism, dark humor, unusual cinematography, complex set designs, and evocative use of music.

While many of Kubrick's films were controversial and received mixed reviews upon their initial release—particularly the brutal A Clockwork Orange (1971), which Kubrick pulled from circulation in the UK after a media frenzy—the majority of them were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes, or BAFTA Awards, and underwent critical reevaluation. He was one of the first filmmakers to employ a Steadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots in the horror picture The Shining (1980), a technique that was crucial to his Vietnam War epic Full Metal Jacket (1987). Eyes Wide Shut, his final picture, was finished just before his death in 1999 at the age of 70.

Born: July 26, 1928, New York, New York, United States
Died: March 7, 1999, Childwickbury, United Kingdom

Martin Charles Scorsese is a screenwriter, producer, and director from the United States. He has won an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, four British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards, among others. Scorsese was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. The Library of Congress has entered five of his works into the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important."

In 1968, Scorsese earned an MA from NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), his directorial debut, was accepted into the Chicago Film Festival. Scorsese rose to prominence as one of the leading players of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Scorsese's films are centered on macho-posturing insecure men and explore criminality, machismo, nihilism, and Catholic conceptions of guilt and atonement, and are heavily influenced by his Italian-American heritage and upbringing in New York City. Slow-motion and freeze frames are common in his work, as are vivid images of violent violence and liberal use of profanity.

Born: November 17, 1942, Flushing, New York, United States

Akira Kurosawa (March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese painter and filmmaker who directed thirty films over the course of his five-decade career. He is recognized as one of cinema's most significant and influential directors.

Following a brief spell as a painter, Kurosawa entered the Japanese cinema business in 1936. He made his directorial debut during World War II with the popular action picture Sanshiro Sugata, after years of working as an assistant director and playwright on various films. After the war, Kurosawa's position as one of Japan's most prominent young directors was confirmed with the critically praised Drunken Angel (1948), in which he cast the then-unknown actor Toshiro Mifune in a leading role.

Rashomon, which had its world debut in Tokyo, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951. Kurosawa received the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990. He was chosen "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN after his death, citing him as one of the five persons who most significantly contributed to Asia's progress in the twentieth century. Many retrospectives, critical studies, and biographies in print and television, as well as releases in consumer media, have recognized his work.

Born: March 23, 1910, Shinagawa City, Tokyo, Japan
Died: September 6, 1998, Seijo, Tokyo, Japan

Steven Allan Spielberg is a film director, producer, and screenwriter from the United States. He started his career in the New Hollywood era and is now the most financially successful director in history. Three Academy Awards (two for Best Director), a Kennedy Center distinction, a Cecil B. DeMille Award, and an AFI Life Achievement Award have all been bestowed to Spielberg.

Steven Spielberg has provided spectators with a broad array of films that capture the feeling of "Hollywood magic" in terms of pure mass appeal. From big adventures like E.T. and the renowned Indiana Jones to tense horror thrillers like Jaws, Spielberg established himself as one of "New Hollywood's" important directors. When it comes to horror and thriller films, in particular, the latter was a game-changer. His films age very well, as seen by the 1993 classic Jurassic Park, which combined awe-inspiring adventure and creativity with some appropriate terror. The careful use of real effects in Spielberg's films contributes to their ageless quality.

He also co-founded Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation and has produced several television shows and films. Spielberg is also noted for his lengthy association with composer John Williams, with whom he has collaborated on all of his feature films except five. Several of Spielberg's films are among the all-time top-grossing films. The Library of Congress has entered nine of his works into the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important."

Born: December 18, 1946, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Francis Ford Coppola is a screenwriter, producer, and director from the United States. He has five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a British Academy Film Award. He is regarded as one of the primary players of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Francis Ford Coppola, along with directors like Martin Scorsese, was responsible for the height of the mafia crime-drama genre. Coppola accomplished this by providing the media may be the finest pair of mafia films ever created. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are both widely regarded as two of the finest films ever made, with the latter particularly noteworthy for achieving the uncommon feat of outperforming its celebrated predecessor. Marlon Brando provided one of his most powerful performances in those films, and Al Pacino's career was launched.

The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, both released in 1983, are among his most well-known pictures, as are The Cotton Club (1984) and The Godfather Part III (1990), all crime dramas, and Bram Stoker's Dracula, based on the novel of the same name. His sister Talia Shire is an actress, his daughter Sofia and granddaughter Gia is directors, his son Roman is a screenwriter, and his nephews Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage are actors, among others. Coppola lives in Napa, California, and has been a winemaker since the 2010s, owning a family-branded vineyard as well as his own.

Born: April 7, 1939, Detroit, Michigan, United States

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is a director, actor, film critic, and author from the United States. His films are known for their extensive allusions to popular culture and cinema history, as well as nonlinear plots, dark comedy, stylized violence, lengthy conversation, profanity, cameos, and ensemble casts.

Tarantino has been nominated for several major prizes over his career, including seven Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards, and sixteen Saturn Awards. Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained both earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has been nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival four times, winning once in 1994 for Pulp Fiction. Tarantino has gotten five Grammy Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in addition to his honors for writing and directing films.

Tarantino received the honorary Icon of the Decade award at the 10th Empire Awards in 2005. In 2007, he was honored with lifetime achievement honors from two organizations: Cinemanila and the Rome Film Festival. Tarantino received the Honorary César Award from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma in 2011.

Born: March 27, 1963, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States

The Coen brothers are two American filmmakers named Joel Daniel Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen. Their films include a wide range of genres and techniques, which they usually spoof or mock.

The brothers create, direct, and produce their films together, however, Joel earned sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing until The Ladykillers (2004). They were nominated for 13 Academy Awards collectively and one Oscar each individually, with Fargo winning Best Original Screenplay and No Country for Old Men winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. For Barton Fink, the pair also won the Palme d'Or (1991).

The Coen brothers have written several films that they did not direct. They're noted for their distinct stylistic signatures, which include genre hybridity. A Serious Man, No Country for Old Men, and Inside Since 2000, Llewyn Davis has been listed in the BBC's poll of the best film pictures. Fargo was named one of the 100 finest American films ever made by the American Film Institute (AFI) in 1998.

Born: Joel Daniel Coen - November 29, 1954

Ethan Jesse Coen - September 21, 1957
Place: St. Louis Park, Minnesota, U.S. (both)

George Orson Welles was a legendary American director, actor, screenwriter, and producer known for his groundbreaking work in radio, theater, and cinema. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of all time. Welles directed high-profile theatrical performances for the Federal Theatre Project while still in his twenties, including an all-African-American cast interpretation of Macbeth and the political musical The Cradle Will Rock. He and John Houseman formed the Mercury Theatrical in 1937, an independent repertory theatre company that staged a number of Broadway shows.

Citizen Kane (1941), which he co-wrote, produced, directed, and acted in as the titular character, Charles Foster Kane, is routinely recognized as one of the finest films ever made. His particular directing approach included layered and nonlinear narrative structures, chiaroscuro lighting, strange camera angles, radio-inspired sound methods, deep focus views, and extended takes. "The supreme auteur" has been spoken about him.

Born: May 6, 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States

Died: October 10, 1985, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States

Christopher Nolan is a screenwriter, producer, and director of British-American films. His films have made over $5 billion worldwide and have received 11 Academy Awards nominations out of 36 total.

Nolan's films often explore human morality, the formation of time, and the flexible nature of memory and personal identity through epistemological and metaphysical themes. Mathematics-inspired imagery and concepts, unorthodox narrative structures, practical special effects, experimental soundscapes, large-format film photography, and materialistic attitudes are all present in his work. He and his brother Jonathan co-wrote several of his films, and he and his wife Emma Thomas manage the production business Syncopy Inc.

Nolan is up for five Academy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards as of 2021. His films have been nominated for 36 Academy Awards and have won 11 of them. In 2006, Nolan was designated an Honorary Fellow of UCL, and in 2017, he received an honorary doctorate in literature. He received a hand-and-footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles in 2012, making him the youngest filmmaker to do so. In 2015, Nolan was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world. In the 2019 New Year Honours, Nolan was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his contributions to film.

Born: 30 July 1970, Westminster, London, England