25 Best Film Directors of the 21st Century (So Far)

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – July 19, 2017

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.

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79.8

#16 (tie)

Hou Hsiao-hsien

Taiwan's sole representative on this list was already considered one of the world's top directors by the end of the 1990s. All he has done since then is maintain his stellar reputation with internationally shot films like Flight of the Red Balloon (which which references the classic French short film) and his most recent work, The Assassin, for which Hou was named best director at Cannes in 2015. The latter, however, is his only film from the past decade.

Films directed, 2000-2017
▣	Flight of the Red Balloon	2007
▣	Café Lumière	2003
▣	Three Times	2005
▣	The Assassin	2015
▣	Millennium Mambo	2001

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