2. Christopher Nolan
At an early age, Nolan began making short movies with his father's Super-8mm camera. While studying English
Literature at University College London, he shot 16mm films at UCL's film society, where he learned the guerrilla
techniques he would later use to make his first feature, Following (1998), on a budget of around $6,000. The noir
thriller was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release, and gained Nolan
enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.
Nolan's second film was Memento (2000), which he directed from his own screenplay based on a short story by his
brother Jonathan. Starring Guy Pearce, the film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and
Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Nolan went on to direct the critically-acclaimed
psychological thriller, Insomnia (2002), starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
The turning point in Nolan's career occurred when he was awarded the chance to revive the Batman franchise in 2005.
In Batman Begins (2005), Nolan brought a level of gravitas back to the iconic hero, and his gritty, modern
interpretation was greeted with praise from fans and critics alike. Before moving on to a Batman sequel, Nolan
directed, co-wrote and produced the mystery thriller The Prestige (2006), starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as
magicians whose obsessive rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.
In 2008, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced The Dark Knight (2008) which went on to gross more than a billion
dollars at the worldwide box office. Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award, Writers Guild
of America (WGA) Award and Producers Guild of America (PGA) Award, and the film also received eight Academy
Award nominations.
In 2010, Nolan captivated audiences with sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), which he directed and produced from his own
original screenplay. The thought-provoking drama was a worldwide blockbuster, earning more than $800 million
dollars and becoming one of the most discussed and debated films of the year. Among its many honors, Inception
received four Academy Awards and eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Nolan was
recognized by his peers with DGA and PGA Award nominations, as well as a WGA Award win for his work on the film.
One of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing movies of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) concluded Nolan's
Batman trilogy. Due to his success rebooting the Batman character, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to produce their
revamped Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), which is set to open in Summer 2013.

3. Quentin Tarantino
In January of 1992, Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance
Film Festival, by first-time writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film
garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend
immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp
Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the
coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was
nominated for the best picture, best director and best original
screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with
the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed
one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow
auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The
film opened on December 25th in the United States to very weak
reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a
vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George
Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

4. Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock had his first real crack at directing a film, start to finish, in 1923
when he was hired to direct the film Number 13 (1922) , though the
production wasn't completed due to the studio's closure. Hitchcock didn't
give up then. He directed a film called The Pleasure Garden (1925), a
British/German production, which was very popular. Hitchcock made his
first trademark film, The Lodger (1927) . In the same year, on the 2nd of
December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child, _Patricia
Hitchcock_ who was born on July 7th, 1928.
His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as
The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of which also
gained him fame in the USA. In 1940, the Hitchcock family moved to
Hollywood, where _David O. Selznick_ , an American producer at the
time, hired him to direct an adaptation of 'Daphne du Maurier' (av) 's
Rebecca (1940) .
It was after Saboteur (1942) was completed, as his fame as a director
grew, that films companies began to refer to his films like Alfred
Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), Alfred
Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) .

5. David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was
born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943.
He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire
variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship
in independent film-making and in Canadian television programs.
Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981)
after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood
(1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a
shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic
critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human
body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in
The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal filmmaking identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first
being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of famous American
horror movie.
With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a
mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international
critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are
prominent in the provocative Crash (1996) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ
(1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. In the last two
filmic projects Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005), Cronenberg avoids
expressing his teratologic and oniric expressionism in favour of a more psychological
exploration of human contradictions and idiosyncrasies.