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.
#12
Ava DuVernay
The highest-ranking African-American filmmaker on our list, DuVernay is perhaps best known for her 2014 drama Selma, which was an Oscar best picture nominee though the director herself was snubbed by the Academy. Her follow-up, the Netflix documentary 13th, also received an Oscar nomination, while her next feature is an adaptation of the classic children's novel A Wrinkle in Time, due in early 2018. (Note that DuVernay has one other feature-length documentary, 2008's This Is the Life, which did not have enough reviews to be included.)
| Films directed, 2000-2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| ▣ | 13th | 2016 |
| ▣ | Selma | 2014 |
| ▣ | Middle of Nowhere | 2012 |
| ▣ | I Will Follow | 2011 |