| # | Nom | Pays | Films phares | Époque d’activité |
| 1 | Alfred Hitchcock | Royaume-Uni/USA | Psycho, Vertigo | 1930s–1970s |
| 2 | Stanley Kubrick | USA | 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining | 1950s–1990s |
| 3 | Orson Welles | USA | Citizen Kane | 1930s–1980s |
| 4 | Akira Kurosawa | Japon | Seven Samurai, Ran | 1940s–1990s |
| 5 | Ingmar Bergman | Suède | Persona, The Seventh Seal | 1950s–2000s |
| 6 | Federico Fellini | Italie | La Dolce Vita, 8½ | 1950s–1990s |
| 7 | Jean-Luc Godard | France | À bout de souffle | 1960s–2010s |
| 8 | François Truffaut | France | Les 400 coups | 1950s–1980s |
| 9 | Martin Scorsese | USA | Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Irishman | 1970s–présent |
| 10 | Francis Ford Coppola | USA | The Godfather, Apocalypse Now | 1970s–présent |
| 11 | Steven Spielberg | USA | E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List | 1970s–présent |
| 12 | George Lucas | USA | Star Wars | 1970s–présent |
| 13 | Ridley Scott | Royaume-Uni | Alien, Gladiator | 1970s–présent |
| 14 | Quentin Tarantino | USA | Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill | 1990s–présent |
| 15 | Christopher Nolan | Royaume-Uni | Inception, The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer | 2000s–présent |
| 16 | James Cameron | Canada | Titanic, Avatar | 1980s–présent |
| 17 | Peter Jackson | Nouvelle-Zélande | The Lord of the Rings | 1990s–présent |
| 18 | Wong Kar-wai | Hong Kong | In the Mood for Love | 1980s–présent |
| 19 | Zhang Yimou | Chine | Hero, House of Flying Daggers | 1980s–présent |
| 20 | Bong Joon-ho | Corée du Sud | Parasite | 2000s–présent |
| 21 | Guillermo del Toro | Mexique | Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water | 1990s–présent |
| 22 | Alfonso Cuarón | Mexique | Gravity, Roma | 1990s–présent |
| 23 | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Mexique | Birdman, The Revenant | 2000s–présent |
| 24 | Lars von Trier | Danemark | Breaking the Waves, Melancholia | 1990s–présent |
| 25 | Roman Polanski | France/Pologne | Chinatown, The Pianist | 1960s–présent |
| 26 | David Lynch | USA | Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet | 1980s–présent |
| 27 | Terrence Malick | USA | The Tree of Life | 1970s–présent |
| 28 | Robert Altman | USA | Nashville, The Player | 1960s–2000s |
| 29 | John Ford | USA | The Searchers | 1930s–1960s |
| 30 | Howard Hawks | USA | His Girl Friday, Rio Bravo | 1930s–1960s |
| 31 | Billy Wilder | USA | Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot | 1940s–1980s |
| 32 | Vittorio De Sica | Italie | Bicycle Thieves | 1940s–1970s |
| 33 | Roberto Rossellini | Italie | Rome, Open City | 1940s–1970s |
| 34 | Sergei Eisenstein | Russie | Battleship Potemkin | 1920s–1940s |
| 35 | Andrei Tarkovski | Russie | Solaris, Stalker | 1960s–1980s |
| 36 | Yasujiro Ozu | Japon | Tokyo Story | 1930s–1960s |
| 37 | Kenji Mizoguchi | Japon | Ugetsu | 1930s–1950s |
| 38 | Satyajit Ray | Inde | Pather Panchali | 1950s–1990s |
| 39 | Spike Lee | USA | Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X | 1980s–présent |
| 40 | Kathryn Bigelow | USA | The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty | 1990s–présent |
| 41 | Sofia Coppola | USA | Lost in Translation | 2000s–présent |
| 42 | Greta Gerwig | USA | Lady Bird, Barbie | 2010s–présent |
| 43 | Chloé Zhao | Chine/USA | Nomadland, Eternals | 2010s–présent |
| 44 | Denis Villeneuve | Canada | Arrival, Dune | 2000s–présent |
| 45 | Paul Thomas Anderson | USA | Magnolia, Licorice Pizza | 1990s–présent |
| 46 | Darren Aronofsky | USA | Requiem for a Dream, The Whale | 2000s–présent |
| 47 | Joel & Ethan Coen | USA | Fargo, No Country for Old Men | 1980s–présent |
| 48 | Ang Lee | Taïwan/USA | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain | 1990s–présent |
| 49 | Pedro Almodóvar | Espagne | Talk to Her, Pain and Glory | 1980s–présent |
| 50 | Michelangelo Antonioni | Italie | L’Avventura, Blow-Up | 1950s–2000s |
Notes clés
- Classiques : Hitchcock, Ford, Eisenstein, Ozu ont posé les bases du langage cinématographique.
- Modernes : Kubrick, Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovski ont révolutionné la narration et l’esthétique.
- Contemporains : Nolan, Villeneuve, Bong Joon-ho, Gerwig incarnent la nouvelle génération.
- Diversité mondiale : Europe, Asie, Amérique latine et Afrique contribuent à un cinéma global.

