25 Best Film Directors of the 21st Century (So Far)
Which directors have received the best reviews from professional critics since 2000? Find out below, where we rank this century's top filmmakers by their average Metascores.
To be included, a director must have four or more eligible films. Such films have seven or more reviews from professional critics and were first released (in any country) on or after January 1, 2000, and must have been released (including as a straight-to-Netflix streaming release) at some point in the USA. Multi-director anthology films are excluded, as are theatrical re-releases of older films. Averages were calculated using Metascores from July 12, 2017, and include films released through July 7, 2017.
#25 (tie)
Bahman Ghobadi
The Kurdish-Iranian director has spent much of his film career (which kicked off in earnest with his debut feature, 2000's A Time for Drunken Horses) depicting the lives of modern-day Kurds living in Iran and Iraq.
Note that Ghobadi's most recent films, Flag Without a Country and Rhino Season, are omitted because they were neither released nor reviewed in the U.S.
| Films directed, 2000-2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| ▣ | Marooned in Iraq | 2002 |
| ▣ | Turtles Can Fly | 2004 |
| ▣ | A Time for Drunken Horses | 2000 |
| ▣ | Half Moon | 2006 |
| ▣ | No One Knows About Persian Cats | 2009 |