in no particular order:

• Stanley Kubrick
• Terrence Malick
• Christopher Nolan
• David Fincher
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Martin Scorsese
• Michael Haneke
• Lynne Ramsay
• Steve R. McQueen
• Ridley Scott
• Elia Kazan
• Nicolas Winding Refn
• Michel Gondry
• The Coen Brothers
• Ingmar Bergman