North America, Central America

Lino Brocka (1939–1991) was one of Asia and the Global South’s most celebrated filmmakers. A versatile talent, he was at once a bankable director of genre movies, an internationally acclaimed auteur …

Spanning five decades and twenty-four films, director Michael Haneke’s career is one of the most significant in the history of European art cinema. However, critical reception has long lagged behind …

During his forty-five-year career, William Wyler (1902–1981) pushed the boundaries of filmmaking with his gripping storylines and innovative depth-of-field cinematography. With a body of work that in …

David Fincher (b. 1962) did not go to film school and hates being defined as an auteur. He prefers to see himself as a craftsman, dutifully going about the art and business of making film. Trouble is …

Taiwanese born, Ang Lee (b. 1954) has produced diverse films in his award-winning body of work. Sometimes working in the West, sometimes in the East, he creates films that defy easy categorization an …

The long and prolific career of Steven Soderbergh (b. 1963) defies easy categorization. From his breakout beginnings in 1989 with sex, lies, and videotape to 2013, when he retired from big-screen stu …

After a robust career in the Netherlands as the country’s most successful director, Paul Verhoeven (b. 1938) built an impressive career in the United States with such controversial blockbusters as Ro …

The legendary Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) had many identities. He first broke into Hollywood as a fresh-faced young actor in the 1950s, redefined himself as a rebel director with Easy Rider in the late …

More than four decades after the premiere of his first film, Steven Spielberg (b. 1946) continues to be a household name whose influence on popular culture extends far beyond the movie screen. Now in …

Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) is the only popular American dramatic star to have shaped his own career almost entirely through films of his own producing, frequently under his own direction; no other dram …