The movies listed are a representative sampling of mostly their better-known works.  I used the IMDb's suggested titles to save time, and didn't always get to include my favorite films in the listing without going out of my way.  This isn't a "top films" list, just a list of well-known directors.  In some cases, listing the best films would neglect well-known artistic failures, so please regard the titles purely as memory jogs and nothing more.

The order of the films listed is neither chronological (in most cases; there are some instance where this happened to be the case) nor by any ranking.  Conversely, the directors are listed in alphabetical order by first name, simply because that was easiest to automate when I generated this list from many "best of" compilations.  The only exceptions are in the few teams of directors mentioned, all of whom are siblings, so I just filed them under their last name.

Additionally, it should be noted that many of these directors are also noted screenwriters, and in made cases their scripts have been filmed by other directors, so it is worth seeking those out as a comparison of approaches on otherwise similar projects.

Finally, no actors-turned-directors.  There are plenty directors who made their names as actors before using their clout to helm later films.  I'm not including many of them here.  Many of the directors below have appeared in front of the camera, usually in their own films, but this is a list of people best remembered as filmmakers rather than actors or even as writers.  Clint Eastwood will probably be equally remembered as a director and actor, but that's about as close to this line as I was willing to go on this list.

Many of the "hot" directors of the day are excluded.  I know you're hearing a lot about them right now, but that's simply because they're "hot."  As with the actors-turned-director, I've tried to stick to folks with an established body of work, not just a few blockbusters.