u/Federal-Lettuce9716

Wanted to do a similar list to Sean and Amanda’s movie star lists but focused on directors. I’m weighing critical acclaim/accolades above commercial success but making money is still a big factor in my rankings. Also didn’t include anyone who has only made 1 movie/hasn’t made a movie in a while. I’m also taking into account producing/screenwriting for other directors, hence the “Filmmaker” title instead of director. And I’m heavily weight what they’ve done lately over stuff they may have done a decade or more ago, otherwise guys like Scorcese or Spielberg would obviously be at the top.

Here’s the list, feel free to yell at my in the comments:

Honorable Mentions I didn’t know what to do with: Clint Bentley/Greg Kwedar and Brady Corbet/Mona Fastvold (duos who switch off directorial duties confuse me cause I didn’t know if I should put them together or separate so I just didn’t put them on at all)

35. Guillermo Del Toro (not a big Frankenstein guy)

36. Sam Raimi

37. Ethan Coen (need to see his new movie before putting him any higher)

38. Kristofer Borgli

39. Sofia Copolla

40. Luca Guadagnino (one of my favorites, but After the Hunt was a distaster)

41. Chloe Zhao

42. Barry Jenkins

43. Martin McDonagh

44. Joseph Kosinski

45. Rian Johnson

46. Richard Linklater

47. Park Chan Wook

48. Steven Spielberg

49. Wes Anderson

50. Joachim Trier

51. David Fincher

52. Quentin Tarantino

53. Bong Joon Ho

54. Phil Lord/Chris Miller

55. Ari Aster

56. Kelly Reichardt

57. Zach Cregger

58. Sean Baker

59. Damien Chazelle

60. Jordan Peele

61. Yorgos Lanthimos

62. Robert Eggers

63. Josh Safdie

64. Ryan Coogler

65. Greta Gerwig

66. Christopher Nolan

67. Martin Scorcese

68. Paul Thomas Anderson

69. Denis Villnueve

At number FIVE??

Curious to know what other people think about this. I’m Gen-Z, i grew up watching Stranger Things, i’m for sure in the Mille Bobby Brown-enjoyer demographic and I still feel like she’s not even close to being one of the biggest young movie stars in the world. She exclusively acts in movies that don’t exist: i understand on paper “Electric State” and “Enola Holmes” are big hits, but I’ve never heard anyone talk about them in everyday conversation and they’re Netflix movies, which are literally designed to be watched passively while doom-scrolling. The last movie she was in that got a theatrical release was FIVE years ago, and it was Godzilla vs Kong, and she has a supporting role in an ensemble that is basically just there to explain why big gorilla needs to hit big lizard.

She seems to have a big following on social media, but does that really translate to movie stardom?? Not to mention, I think she’s genuinely terrible in Stranger Things 5. Clearly she’s working with a subpar script that sounds like it was written by Chat-GPT, but she’s not elevate the material at all. Every line reading has the same stiff, detached delivery. I think she was a great child actor but has really struggled to showcase her range in anything.

Basically, putting her over people like Austin Butler, Paul Mescal, Mikey Madison and Florence Pugh is crazy to me. Oscar nominated (or oscar winning) young actors who have starred in huge blockbusters and are set to lead huge movies in the next 2 years. Meanwhile, the thing MBB is best known for just ended and she’s gonna be stuck in netflix-world for the foreseeable future

This was kind of long, but I’m interested to know if anyone agrees with me. Is Millie Bobby Brown really one of the biggest young movie stars right now?