25 Greatest Active Film Directors

Made (2001)
For his feature directing debut, Favreau reunited with Swingers pal Vince Vaughn in a shaggy dog tale of two inept, low-level mob goons who get involved in a money-laundering scheme.

Elf (2003)
This unlikely, kid-friendly Christmas comedy, starring Will Ferrell as a man raised by elves in Santa's workshop who travels to New York to meet his birth father (a Scrooge-y James Caan), became an enormous hit, proving Favreau's commercial viability as a director and Ferrell's bankability as a comic leading man.

Iron Man (2008)
Favreau directed another unlikely lead, Robert Downey Jr., to box-office glory in this smart, idiosyncratic adaptation of the Marvel comic series about an industrialist and weapons designer who turns over a new leaf and fights for the downtrodden in his self-designed suit of armor. —Gary Susman

THE EVIDENCE: All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002), Bad Education (2004), Volver (2006)

WHY HIM: For the first half of his career, Almodóvar excelled at brightly colored pansexual romps as wickedly pleasurable as they were hollow of any deep feeling. With All About My Mother, the Spanish director finally used his distinctive visual skill to mine seemingly bottomless wells of emotion, and each film since has pretty much been a masterpiece. Also, for a proudly gay man, he deserves an award for the all love and care he's devoted to Penélope Cruz's bosom. —Adam B. Vary

THE EVIDENCE: Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012)

WHY HIM: One of the most dynamic directors to emerge in the last 20 years, Anderson makes movies that crackle with energy and typically showcase volcanic performances (see: Daniel Day-Lewis in Blood, Joaquin Phoenix in The Master). Anderson is particularly good at taking a well-worn genre — the Western epic, the romantic comedy — and transforming it into something modern and unforgettable. —Tim Stack

23. ANG LEE

THE EVIDENCE: The Ice Storm (1997), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Brokeback Mountain (2005)

WHY HIM: Lee is the cinematic equivalent of a renaissance man; he can tackle almost any genre or time period and never seem out of his comfort zone. The director masterfully captures, especially in Storm and Mountain, the struggle for humans to connect. — Tim Stack

Splash (1984)
Howard's charming fish tale made a big you-know-what at the box office, turning everyman Tom Hanks and mermaid Daryl Hannah into movie stars. It also made the former child star into an A-list director.

Apollo 13 (1995)
You'd think it would be hard to make a nail-biting, suspenseful film out of a crisis whose safe and successful resolution unfolded in real time in front of the whole world. But Howard pulls it off with this account of the ill-fated 1970 lunar mission, thanks in part to great teamwork from Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Howard won a Best Director Oscar for his clever misdirection here, as he and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman find a tricky way to convey real-life mathematician John Nash's (Russell Crowe) descent into schizophrenia, and a poignant way to depict his fighting his way back to sanity. —Gary Susman

Unforgiven (1992)
Eastwood had been portraying violent cowboys and trigger-happy cops for more than three decades, and directing pulpy thrillers for more than 20 years, when he directed and starred in this Western, an implicit critique of the violence so casually depicted in Hollywood movies (including his) for generations. His turn as a reformed gunslinger who falls too easily back into his old ways earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor; he won for Best Director and Best Picture.

Mystic River (2003)
Eastwood's quiet, methodical directing style pays off in this thriller about three lifelong friends (ex-con Sean Penn, cop Kevin Bacon, and childhood molestation survivor Tim Robbins) whose paths cross tragically once again after another horrible crime.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Hilary Swank won her second Best Actress Oscar as the film's striving boxer, but the emotional arc belongs to Eastwood's grizzled trainer, who risks coming out of his emotional shell only to be dealt a cruel blow. Eastwood won his second Best Picture and second Best Director Oscars. —Gary Susman

THE EVIDENCE: Trainspotting (1996), 28 Days Later... (2002), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), 127 Hours (2010)

WHY HIM: Whether shooting in England (Trainspotting), India (Slumdog), Utah (127 Hours), or Thailand (2000's The Beach); working with A-listers (The Beach's Leonardo DiCaprio) or unknowns (the kids from 2004's Millions), no director puts more energy on the screen than this music-loving Englishman. And he has the Oscar to show for it. — Dave Karger

THE EVIDENCE: The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007)

WHY HIM: At the turn of the 21st century, mainstream Hollywood comedy was in a fallow state: safe, predictable, bland. It needed a good, swift, R-rated boot in the nether regions, and Apatow — with his trademark blend of raunch and sweetness, broad humor and emotional relatability — has proven the man to deliver it. —Josh Rottenberg

12. TIM BURTON

THE EVIDENCE: Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

WHY HIM: No one can tackle a morbid fable like this former animator. Brimming with haunting visuals (who can forget the unending rows of pastel ranch houses in Scissorhands' suburbia?), Burton is at his best when the story takes us somewhere beyond our own imagination and calls for an emotional palette of dark and darker. — Tim Stack

THE EVIDENCE: Zodiac (2007), The Social Network (2010), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

WHY HIM: His taut, meticulous thrillers reflect his own irrepressible obsessiveness, but his last two films are the work of a supremely confident maestro of visual storytelling. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) earned him his first Oscar nomination, and his Social Network proved even computer-programming could be riveting when properly ''Finchian,'' and with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, he embraced the thankless task of adapting an international best-seller that we thought we knew and made it more visceral than we ever imagined. —Jeff Labrecque

THE EVIDENCE: The Devil's Backbone (2001), Hellboy (2004), Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

WHY HIM: Because this Mexican filmmaker manages to imbue geeky, fantasy, sci-fi stuff with both compelling emotion and some of the most eye-popping visuals we've ever seen. (We're still reeling from the spooky Pale Man scene in Pan's Labyrinth.) When he lost three years to The Hobbit, we really missed him, which is why it's good he's coming back with multiple projects in tow, like Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which he produced, and movies based on Frankenstein, H.P. Lovecraft, and Disney World's Haunted Mansion. —Missy Schwartz

THE EVIDENCE: The Big Lebowski (1998), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010)

WHY THEM: Like two smart-alecs in the back of a classroom, the Coens are occasionally too clever for their own good. But they've been astute students, co-opting old-school film noir and incorporating their own twisted brand of wit and irony. A Coen hero is a bumbler, so tracking down the money in a Coen film makes for a bumpy, and often deadly, ride. But they can play it straight, too, as shown by A Serious Man, 2009's quiet meditation on growing up Jewish, and 2010s nearly classical Western, True Grit. —Jeff Labrecque

THE EVIDENCE: Aliens (1986), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009)

WHY HIM: He's dubbed himself the ''the king of the world,'' and who are we to argue? After all, the man did create the two biggest blockbusters of all time. —John Young

24. MICHAEL MANN

THE EVIDENCE: Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Collateral (2004), Public Enemies (2009)

WHY HIM: No one captures the pulse of a city or the chess match between cop and con better than the master behind the classic 1980s TV cop series, Miami Vice. Stylish but never superficial, Mann's urban landscapes and sprawling action sequences have become iconic cinematic touchstones. — Jeff Labrecque

THE EVIDENCE: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012)

WHY HIM: Because no one loves movies (the good, the bad, and the obscure) more. That fanboy giddiness comes across in every single frame, every soundtrack nugget, and every baroque pop monologue. Most of all because his passion is infectious. We walk out his flicks with 100 more titles to add to our Netflix queue. —Chris Nashawaty

20. RIDLEY SCOTT

THE EVIDENCE: Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2000)

WHY HIM: Few directors can orchestrate an epic as deftly as Scott. As a former production designer, Scott excels at seamlessly blending massive sets and cutting-edge visual effects, and he is responsible for some of modern cinema's most iconic images (e.g., the cyberpunk L.A. of Blade Runner; the facehugger of Alien; Thelma and Louise driving off that cliff). — John Young

16. STEVEN SODERBERGH

THE EVIDENCE: Out of Sight (1998), Traffic (2000)

WHY HIM: The Sundance darling behind Sex, Lies, and Videotape attracted a stable of megastar collaborators with his eclectic collection of Oscar-friendly projects and crowd-pleasing blockbusters. He made Clooney a star, won Julia her Oscar, and earned enough industry goodwill to finance his four-hour, Spanish-language Che opus. — Jeff Labrecque

THE EVIDENCE: Memento (2000), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010)

WHY HIM: Nolan is the rare director determined to make you, the moviegoer, walk out of the theater after his film and gasp, ''I've never seen anything like that before.'' His movies are full of twists and riddles, and even his popcorn fare is stuffed with enough brain candy to fill up a graduate school syllabus. —Jeff Labrecque

THE EVIDENCE: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), The Departed (2006), Hugo (2011)

WHY HIM: He's Martin Scorsese. I mean, come on... —Marc Bernardin

THE EVIDENCE: The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), King Kong (2005), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

WHY HIM: The New Zealander who made his bones doing splatter-horror mapped a route into our collective fantasy dreamscape and pulled out an impossibly universal version of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, one which gave everyone everything they ever wanted from those books. No one since Spielberg has managed to combine emotional truth and whiz-bang brilliance in such a seamless way. — Marc Bernardin

THE EVIDENCE: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012)

WHY HIM: Spielberg didn't just invent the blockbuster; he invented our childhoods. Jaws, Close Encounters, and Raiders of the Lost Ark redefined horror, sci-fi, and adventure for a whole generation of moviegoers. And as we grew up, so did he, with more serious dramatic triumphs like Saving Private Ryan, Munich, and Lincoln. —Benjamin Svetkey