(From left): Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford on the set of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”; Martin Scorsese, the Coen brothers.

This week, I was tasked with writing something more “mainstream” about film. I didn’t realise the Paddington movies were exactly esoteric, but hey, I just work here.

So I settled on directors, figuring I’d be able to round up a diverse but “mainstream” list fairly easily. Not so.

Diverse and mainstream is an oxymoron in this instance. This looks like a greatest directors list some 20-year-old in a film studies class (I should know, I was one) has churned out without ever seeing a film outside of the English language.

The directors I’ve settled upon are considered eminent talents for a reason. However, I think it’s also important to highlight that they are considered as such by society at large because society still values American-centric, white male-directed films about certain themes and subjects more worthy of praise than films by women, directors of BIPOC descent or films in a language other than English.

There’s a reason a film like “Mank” (David Fincher’s newest) is considered a frontrunner for awards, sight unseen, whilst a film like Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah” is considered a hedge-your-bets, could-be-totally-ignored awards pick by punters (if it releases due to COVID-19 delays).

Never before have I assembled a list and frowned at the results with such profound dissatisfaction.

I consider myself to have seen many films outside of my comfort zone and to have made at least some effort to watch films that are diverse in origin, subject and production. But I still ended up with a list of all white directors, all male directors, all American directors past a certain age. I am part of the problem.

These films and directors are still worthy of praise, they’re still some of the best directors of all time, and this is not to detract from that. However, it is important to acknowledge that we must do better. That I must do better.

Until recently, I had never bothered to delve too deeply or actively made an effort to investigate a lot of foreign cinema, nor had I bothered to actively seek out female or BIPOC voices as directors.

Although I have made an effort to try to change that within the last few years, this effort has clearly come up short. Things are changing and efforts for diversity within the industry are being spearheaded. But we also must put in an effort and be more mindful with what we consume.

Diverse voices are not able to be heard if we don’t talk with our feet and put our money where our mouths are. After realising how narrow my consumption of media has been, I will be making an effort to diversify my watchlist.

All that said, these directors are still worthy of your time and I would still consider them essential viewing.

I must also point out that I have not necessarily seen every film by every director on this list. A lot of them, sure. But not all of them. Don’t be a completist elitist, that’s gross. Let people enjoy things without having to prove to you how much they like them by the sheer quantity of films seen.

So without further ado, my favourite directors of all-time…

Martin Scorsese (won one Oscar – Best Director for “The Departed”)
Whenever anyone asks me who my favourite director is, my mind always goes immediately to the 2012 Oscars and the “Scorsese drinking game”. I don’t know why my immediate association to Scorsese’s name is this, but I think it might be my brain trying to tell me that my favourite director is Martin Scorsese. People tend to generalise his output as “just some mob films” as if he hadn’t also directed “Kundun”, “The Age Of Innocence”, “The Last Temptation Of Christ”, “Silence” and “Hugo”, among others. Scorsese does not just direct mob films. If you had to pick any recurring theme throughout all his films, surely the most obvious would be Catholic guilt? But maybe that’s just how it seems to me as someone who also comes from a similar background. Scorsese is a master of his art. The long tracking shot in “Goodfellas” of the Copacabana was a pivotal moment for me in my film degree. Sure, I’d seen it, but had I appreciated the sheer complexity of what it represented? Not at that time. It was only once I realised how hard it was to achieve that, that I realised Scorsese had a lot more to him as a director than I had thought as a naïve teenager sitting in a large, dank lecture theatre. One could wax lyrical all day about Scorsese (indeed any of these directors, and some have). Instead, please enjoy my hot take that actually, I really don’t like “Raging Bull” and it’s really because the LaMotta brothers are categorically awful. Mostly Jake, but really both of them. Scorsese’s direction is actually really great, but I just cannot stand the characters. At all.
Favourites: “Goodfellas” (1990), “The Age Of Innocence” (1993), “Shutter Island” (2010), “The Irishman” (2019)
Least favourite: “Raging Bull” (1980), “Hugo” (2011)

Steven Spielberg (Won three Oscars – Best Director for “Schindler’s List”, Best Picture for “Schindler’s List”, Best Director for “Saving Private Ryan”)
Steven Spielberg is a director who will always remain close to my heart. He created some of the most indelible images of my childhood with E.T. in the bike basket in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, Indiana Jones running away from the boulder in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, Robin Williams as Peter Pan in “Hook”, and of course, what seven-year-old me couldn’t forget if she tried, the man getting eaten by the T-Rex on the toilet in “Jurassic Park”. I really thought that would be a much bigger problem for me in the future than it actually ended up being. Anyway, I digress. Spielberg has a filmography that occasionally diverges so drastically that one could be forgiven for thinking that different people directed “The Color Purple” and “Munich”. Some of his critics accuse him of being sentimental in his films. To which I say, what’s wrong with a bit of sentimentality? Not everything has to be gritty and real or shot with handheld camera (no offence to Paul Greengrass). Do I wish he was still making “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara” instead of a “West Side Story” remake? Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’ll probably end up going to see the latter, anyway.
Favourites: “Schindler’s List” (1993), “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), “Jurassic Park” (1993), “Minority Report” (2002)
Least favourite: “Always” (1989), “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008), “The BFG” (2016)

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The Coen brothers (Won four Oscars – Best Original Screenplay for “Fargo”, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture for “No Country For Old Men”)
When it came around to thinking about a distinctive directorial trademark for Coen brothers films, I sat here unable to come up with one. Not because they don’t have one, but because I think their main trademark is probably their ability to jump from genre to genre with extreme ease. In fact, I don’t think anyone else does it with such deftness. The fact that the same people directed “Intolerable Cruelty”, “Blood Simple” and “A Serious Man” is a feat. Because if I had no idea going in, I wouldn’t have realised it. From their repeated collaborations with Carter Burwell (whose scores for “Blood Simple” and “Miller’s Crossing” absolutely slap) and director of photography Roger Deakins, to actors such as George Clooney, Josh Brolin and Frances McDormand, all of which I’d consider trademarks of their style, I still think their ability to play with genre is number one. “Miller’s Crossing” is the best example of this. I went in expecting a straight forward mob film, and came out with a distillation of every trope ever used in gangster films. Balances on a thin line between drama, thriller and comedy. It’s exquisite to watch. My love for the Coen brothers is such that my mum has been reluctant to scatter the ashes of our first dog Max lest I ruin the moment by accidentally recreating that scene from “The Big Lebowski”. I’ve got no hot takes on the Coen Brothers. Except that I hated “True Grit”, sorry.
Favourites: “Miller’s Crossing” (1990), “No Country for Old Men” (2007), “The Big Lebowski” (1998), “Blood Simple” (1984)
Least Favourite: “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (2018), “Burn After Reading” (2008), “The Ladykillers” (2004), “True Grit” (2010)

Paul Thomas Anderson (Nominated for eight Oscars)
I am relatively new to the PTA fan club. And when I say relatively new, I mean I’d seen all his films but wasn’t blown away initially. Then we went into lockdown and I watched them all again and now I’d consider myself a convert. To put it mildly. He’s up there for me, and I’m sure the more films he makes, including the one unofficially titled Soggy Bottom, it will just get better. There’s something about his highly-flawed characters, his exploration of forgiveness, long takes and love of the San Fernando Valley that was really just perfect for me at the beginning of this lockdown. Not to be dramatic, but it changed me as a person, an actor and as a film lover. Okay, that was very dramatic. But I feel PTA calls for it. PTA, Scorsese and Spielberg are probably the only filmmakers who could ever get me to successfully sit through a three-hour film (with the exception of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy). And the thing is, it never feels like the film has nearly run three hours with PTA. I could sit there all day watching his fascinating character studies. I still think about that kid from “Magnolia” all the time. In fact, I just generally think about “Magnolia” all the time. The more I think about PTA, the more I wonder if he’s the next Scorsese, but that could just be down to his love for referencing the Book of Exodus. The fact that PTA has never won an Oscar is criminal. Yeah sure, he’s been nominated eight times, but you think they’d at least have awarded him Best Director for “There Will Be Blood”.
Favourites: “Magnolia” (1999), “There Will Be Blood” (2007), “Boogie Nights” (1997)
Least favourite: “Inherent Vice” (2014), “Phantom Thread” (2017)

David Fincher (Nominated for two Oscars)
David Fincher has delivered at least one of the greatest films of all-time. And that is not hyperbole on my part. “The Social Network” is one of the greatest films of all-time. In fact I’d probably consider most of his other movies some of the greatest of all-time, minus an “Alien 3” here and a “The Game” there. Fincher is one of those directors I had automatically assumed must have won an Oscar until I started following the Oscars more religiously about 13 years ago. The fact that he didn’t for either “The Social Network” or “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” confounds me. Famous for his perfectionist tendencies, and gruelling method of takes and retakes, sometimes up to 200 times, when looking at his best films you’ve got to ask if it was worth it. For me the answer is usually yes. Would doing 200 takes for one scene mentally kill me as an actor? Maybe. Would I do it for David Fincher? Absolutely.
Favourites: “Fight Club” (1999), “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008), “The Social Network” (2010), “Gone Girl” (2014)
Least favourite: “Alien 3” (1992), “The Game” (1997), “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011)