30 Film Directors Who Have Never Made a Bad Movie

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – June 9, 2018

Recently, we looked at 30 filmmakers who made only one well-reviewed movie over their entire careers, and then 25 great directors who missed out on perfection by just one film. But there is an even more elite group of film directors who have received critical acclaim for every single film they ever directed. In other words, they've never received anything but a green Metascore for one of their features.

How many of those directors can you guess? Check them all out in the gallery above. Note that we only looked at directors who have made at least five films since 1980.

12 of 30

Asghar Farhadi

The Iranian filmmaker has directed a pair of Oscar foreign-language winners, including A Separation, which remains one of the most heralded films of the 21st century. Farhadi's new film Everybody Knows, a drama starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz that doesn't yet have an American release date, doesn't appear to be his best work. Still, critics gave the film a somewhat positive reception when it opened the Cannes Film Festival in May, so the director's streak should be intact for another year.

Because Farhadi's 2003 debut Dancing in the Dust was not released in the United States, we are unable to calculate a score, and it is omitted below. (That film did win several awards on the international festival circuit, however, and has received positive mentions in the press in subsequent years.)

The full filmography (as director):
69 The Beautiful City (2004)
95 A Separation (2011)
85 The Past (2013)
87 About Elly (2009) (2009)
84 Fireworks Wednesday (2006) (2006)
85 The Salesman (2016)

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