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.
#21
Jacques Audiard
A film director and screenwriter like his father before him, France's Jacques Audiard directed his first film in 1994, and collected numerous awards for that and every single film that followed both at home and globally. His most heralded work remains his 2009 prison drama A Prophet, though it was his most recent work, Dheepan, that finally brought Audiard his first Cannes Palme d'Or.
The director will make his English-language debut in 2018 with an adaptation of The Sisters Brothers starring Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal.
| Films directed, 2000-2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| ▣ | A Prophet | 2009 |
| ▣ | Read My Lips (Sur mes lèvres) | 2001 |
| ▣ | Dheepan | 2015 |
| ▣ | The Beat That My Heart Skipped | 2005 |
| ▣ | Rust and Bone | 2012 |