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.
#18
Brad Bird
A one-time staffer on The Simpsons and other animated television shows, Bird jumped to feature filmmaking with his 1999 classic The Iron Giant. That, in turn, led him to a gig with Pixar, where he directed two of the studio's best films before turning to live action with the fourth Mission Impossible film and Bird's sole misfire so far, the 2015 Disney sci-fi film Tomorrowland. He'll step back into familiar territory with his next film: 2018's The Incredibles 2.
| Films directed, 2000-2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| ▣ | Ratatouille | 2007 |
| ▣ | The Incredibles | 2004 |
| ▣ | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol | 2011 |
| ▣ | Tomorrowland | 2015 |