No particular order to names
TOP TENS
Top Ten Documentary Filmmakers
Werner Herzog
Errol Morris
Alex Gibney
D.A. Pennebaker
Barbara Koppel
Frederick Wiseman
Steve James
Terry Zwigoff
Albert and David Maysles
Ken Burns
Top Ten Women Film Directors
Debra Granik
Lisa Cholodenko
Kimberly Pierce
Liliana Cavani
Sophia Coppola
Sarah Polley
Katherine Bigelow
Claire Denis
Liv Ullman
Nicole Holofcener
Lesser Known Indie Directors to Watch
Ryan Coogler
Ana Lily Amirpour
David Mackenzie
Destin Daniel Cretton
David Gordon Green
Jeff Nichols
David Michôd
Michael Cuesta
J. C. Chandor
Benh Zeitlin
Top Ten Living American Film Directors
Martin Scorsese
David Lynch
Woody Allen
Quentin Tarantino
Jim Jarmusch
Spike Lee
Darren Aronofsky
Clint Eastwood
Oliver Stone
Terrence Malick
Top Ten Dead American Film Directors
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Charlie Chaplin
Buster Keaton
John Ford
Sidney Lumet
Sam Peckinpah
John Cassavettes
Elia Kazan
Stanley Kubrick
Top Ten Television Writers
Dennis Potter
David Simon
David Chase
Matthew Weiner
Aaron Sorkin
Vince Gilligan
Mitchell Hurwitz
Frank Darabont
Paul Feig
Terence Winter
Top European Film Directors
Abel Gance
Ingmar Bergman
Federico Fellini
Maurice Pialat
Louis Malle
Jean Pierre Melville
Jean Luc Goddard
Francois Truffaut
Ken Loach
Wim Wenders
Emir Kusturica
Michelangelo Antonioni
Andrzej Wajda
Vittorio De Sica
Roman Polanski
Mike Leigh
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Andrei Tarkovsky
Jean Renoir
Alfred Hitchcock
Dziga Vertov
Sergio Leone
Milos Forman
Lars Von Trier
Terry Gilliam
Dardenne Brothers
Paolo Sorrentino
Pedro Almodóvar
Theo Angelopoulos
Paul Greengrass
Jim Sheridan
Abdellatif Kechiche
Michael Haneke
Patrice Leconte
Bernardo Bertolucci
Aki Kaurismaki
Non-American – Non-European
Yasujiro Ozu
Akira Kurosawa
Kar Wai Wong
Satyajit Ray
Guru Dutt
John Woo
Asghar Farhadi
Ari Folman
Yimou Zhang
Nagisa Ôshima
Top Indie Directors
Paul Thomas Anderson
Richard Linkleter
Spike Jonze
Wes Anderson
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Vincent Gallo
Danny Boyle
John Waters
Abel Ferrara
Todd Solondz
Gus Van Sant
Joel and Ethan Coen
Alexander Payne
Steven Soderbergh
Harmony Korine
Noah Baumbach
Julian Schnabel
Steve McQueen
Todd Haynes
Paul Schrader
David O Russell
David Fincher
Alex Cox
Bennett Miller