Fifty Contemporary Film Directors

Fifty Contemporary Film Directors examines the work of some of today’s most popular and influential cinematic figures. It provides an accessible overview of each director’s contribution to cinema, incorporating a discussion of their career, major works and impact. Revised throughout and with twelve new entries, this second edition is an up-to-date introduction to some of the most prominent film makers of the present day. The directors, from differing backgrounds and working across a range of genres, include:

Martin Scorsese
Steven Spielberg
Sofia Coppola
Julie Dash
Shane Meadow
Michael Moore
Peter Jackson
Guillermo Del Toro
Tim Burton
Jackie Chan
Ang Lee
Pedro Almodóvar.
With further reading and a filmography accompanying each entry, this comprehensive guide is indispensable to all those studying contemporary film and will appeal to anyone interested in the key individuals behind modern cinema’s greatest achievements.

Yvonne Tasker is Professor of Film Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her books include Action and Adventure Cinema (Routledge, 2004) and Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture (Duke UP, 2007).

Pedro Almodóvar - Jose Arroyo; Wes Anderson - Devin Orgeron; Aoyama Shinji - Aaron Gerow; Gregg Araki - Glyn Davis; Luc Besson - Rosanna Maule; Kathryn Bigelow - Yvonne Tasker; Charles Burnett - Chuck Kleinhans; Tim Burton - Yvonne Tasker; James Cameron - Alexandra Keller; Jane Campion - Shelley Cobb; Gurinder Chadha - Rayna Denison; Jackie Chan - Leon Hunt; The Coen brothers - Jon Lewis; Sofia Coppola - Pam Cook; David Cronenberg - Marc O’Day; Julie Dash - Terry Moore; Guillermo Del Toro - Lindsay Steenberg; Atom Egoyan - Geoff Pevere; David Fincher - Devin Orgeron; Hal Hartley - Sebastian Manley; Todd Haynes - Justin Wyatt; Peter Jackson - Paul Malcolm; Jim Jarmusch - Jason Wood; Neil Jordan - Maria Pramaggiore; Aki Kaurismäki - Tytti Soila; Abbas Kiarostami - Sharon Lin Tay; Ang Lee - Ian Haydn Smith; Spike Lee - Yvonne Tasker; David Lynch - Marc O’Day; Michael Mann - Christopher Sharrett; Shane Meadows - Martin Fradley; Hiyao Miyazaki - Rayna Denison; Michael Moore - Diane Negra; Mira Nair - Sue Brennan; François Ozon - Ginette Vincendeau; Park Chan-Wook - Anne Ciecko and Hunju Lee; Sally Potter - Anne Ciecko; John Sayles - Marc Jancovich and James Lyons; Martin Scorsese - George S. Larke; Steven Soderbergh - Jennifer Holt; Todd Solondz - Dean DeFino; Steven Spielberg - Peter Krämer; Oliver Stone - Martin Fradley; Quentin Tarantino - Glyn White; Lars von Trier - Mette Hjort; Gus Van Sant - Harry M. Benshoff; Wong Kar-wai - Julian Stringer; John Woo - Tony Williams; Zhang Yimou - Haomin Gong; Zhang Yuan - Zhang Zhen