My 50 Favourite Directors *UPDATED*

Back in March 2012 I made a list of my 40 Favourite Directors and the 'Essential Viewing' (4 Stars+) from their filmographies.

This list stretched from early cinema pioneers like Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin to present-day masters like David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson - and the skilled auteurs like Robert Bresson, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkvosky and Ingmar Bergman who were at their peak in between.

 I thought that I should update that list, see who would still make the cut and who I would add.

Trends
More currently-working directors, including a few with only a couple of features to their name. 
More female filmmakers.
I have seen several more films from directors Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Howard Hawks, Sidney Lumet and Steven Soderbergh, which strengthen my admiration for them.
Several filmmakers were added to this list as a result of films released in 2013 - Alexander Payne, Jeff Nichols, Edgar Wright, Paul Greengrass, Spike Jonze amongst them.

Check out the list after the jump:
Sergei Eisenstein

Strike (1924), The Battleship Potemkin (1925), Ivan the Terrible Part 1 (1944)

Charlie Chaplin

The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940)

Howard Hawks 

Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948), Rio Bravo (1959) 

Alfred Hitchcock 

Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on A Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963)

Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger

Black Narcissus (1946), The Red Shoes (1948), Peeping Tom (1960)

Billy Wilder

Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960)

Akira Kurosawa

Stray Dog (1949), Rashomon (1950), The Seven Samurai (1954), Ran (1985)

Jacques Tati

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Playtime (1967) 

Robert Bresson

A Man Escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1958), Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Ingmar Bergman

The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Through A Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972)

Stanley Kubrick

The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957) Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Sidney Lumet

12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) 
 

Jean Luc Godard

Breathless (1959), A Woman is a Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Contempt (1963), Band A'Part (1964), Pierrot Le Fou (1965), Masculine Feminine (1966)

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Rublev (1969), Solaris (1972), The Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979)

Dario Argento

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), Deep Red (1975), Suspiria (1977), Tenebre (1982)

Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979)

Terrence Malick

Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011), To The Wonder (2013)

Martin Scorsese

Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010), Hugo (2011), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Steven Spielberg

Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005)

Woody Allen

Sleeper (1973), Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Match Point (2005), Midnight in Paris (2011), Blue Jasmine (2013)

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Camera Buff (1979), Dekalog (1989-90), The Double Life of Veronique (1991), Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993), Trois Couleurs: Blanc (1994), Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994)

David Cronenberg
 

Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), Naked Lunch (1991), Crash (1996), eXistenZ (1999), A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007)

Jim Jarmusch

Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999), Broken Flowers (2005)

Michael Mann

Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Collateral (2004), Miami Vice (2006)

Oliver Stone

Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), The Doors (1991), JFK (1991), Any Given Sunday (1999)

Joel and Ethan Coen

Blood Simple (1984), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Hayao Miyazaki

Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001)

Steven Soderbergh

Sex Lies and Videotape (1989), Out of Sight (1998), The Limey (1999), Traffic (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Solaris (2002), Contagion (2011), Magic Mike (2012)

Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012)

Richard Linklater

Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), Bernie (2011), Before Midnight (2013) 

David Fincher

Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), The Social Network (2010), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Danny Boyle

Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996), 28 Days Later (2002), Millions (2004), Sunshine (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), 127 Hours (2010)

Paul Thomas Anderson

Hard Eight (1995), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012)

Michael Haneke

The Seventh Continent (1989), Funny Games (1997), Code Unknown (2000), Hidden (2005), The White Ribbon (2009), Amour (2012)

Wes Anderson

Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

David O. Russell

Flirting With Disaster (1996), Three Kings (1999), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013) 

Kathryn Bigelow 

Point Break (1991), The Hurt Locker (2008) Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Sofia Coppola

 Lost in Translation (2001), Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010)

Alexander Payne

Election (1999), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013)

Spike Jonze 

Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), Her (2013)

Darren Aronofsky

 Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), The Wrestler (2008), Black Swan (2010)

Lynne Ramsay

Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002), We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) 

Denis Villeneuve 

Maelstrom (2000), Polytechnique (2009), Incendies (2011), Prisoners (2013)

Alfonso Cuaron

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), Gravity (2013)

Paul Greengrass 

The Bourne Supremacy (2004), United 93 (2006), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Captain Phillips (2013) 

Edgar Wright

Shaun of the Dead (2005), Hot Fuzz (2007), Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (2009), The World's End (2013) 

Kelly Reichhardt

Wendy and Lucy (2008), Meek's Cutoff (2011)

Steve McQueen 

Hunger (2008), Shame (2011), 12 Years A Slave (2013) 

Tomas Alfredson

Let the Right One In (2008), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) 

Jeff Nichols

Take Shelter (2011), Mud (2013)