Great list, Pitchka. Most of my favorites are on it. Okay, here's mine:
Milos Foreman
Frederico Fellinni
Bernardo Bertolucci
Luciano Visconti
Akira Kurosawa
Jean-Luc Goddard
Luis Bunuel
Louis Malle
Martin Scorsese
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Francois Truffaut
Errol Morris
Wim Wenders
Victor Fleming
Orson Welles
David Mamet
Neil LaBute
James Ivory
Vittorio De Sica
Roberto Rossellini
Michelangelo Antonioni
Lars von Trier
Jim Jarmusch
Adrian Lyne (yes, I actually like some of his films a lot)
Luchino Visconti
Eric Rohmer
Stanley Kubrick
The Coen Brothers
Ingmar Bergman
Sydney Lumet
Alfred Hitchcock
Philip Kaufman
Elia Kazan
Robert Altman
Bob Rafelson (on and off)
Billy Wilder
Preston Sturges
David Lean
Fritz Lang
Francis Ford Coppola (until "Rumble Fish")
Werner Herzog
Jacques Tati
Arthur Penn
Sydney Pollack
Mike Nichols
Roman Polanski
Terence Malick
Nicholas Roeg
Jonathan Demme
Oh, Show! How could I forget Ron Howard!!! It's like forgetting to thank your parents when you win an award! He's had some clunkers, but generally I love Ron's movies. At first you think, "No way can Opie/Richie Cunningham really 'get down' into the real dirt of life." But he does, and I love his sense of humor. In "Parenthood" when the kids are singing the diahrea song in the car and the daughter pukes right into her father's lap, I knew Ron could put real life on screen. I usually don't like fantasy movies, but between Howard's deft touch and Tom Hanks' performance, I was completely taken in. He really should have won best director for "Apollo 13," but as long as he won it for something and "A Beautiful Mind" was good enough. Thanks for reminding me.
I also can't believe I left out Steven Soderbergh. "Erin Brockvich" was overhyped, IMO, but I could watch "Ocean's Eleven" and "Solaris" all day, not to mention "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (even if the end did suck). But my absolute favorite SS movie is "The Limey." If you're fans of Terance Stamp and Peter Fonda, rent this flick. Soderbergh said he hired Stamp because, "He was the last of that group of great British actors from the '60s who can still walk into a room and cause trouble." And in "The Limey" Stamp does just that. And the direction by SS is so cool.
Rgirl
Robert Wise
Elia Kazan
Sam Mendes - "American Beauty" and "The Road to Perdition"
were beautifully made.
David Lynch - I love "Mulholland Drive"!
Hayao Miyazaki
Alfred Hitchcock - So many great films, "Rebecca" was brilliant
Ridley Scott
Martin Scorsese - He is near the top for me
Baz Luhrmann
Bernardo Bertolucci - Glad to see others enjoy him as well!