The Twenty Greatest Working Film Directors: Their Masterworks

Last week, we looked at the top twenty greatest working film directors based on their average metacritic scores of their best three films of the past decade. Today, we are adding in some great directors who did not make the previous list because of too few films or for some other reason. So welcome Guillermo del Toro, Danny Boyle, Alexander Payne, Michel Gondry, and others. Here is the new list of the best working film directors in order based on their single best-reviewed film of the past ten years:

1. Guillermo del Toro – Pan’s Labyrinth (98)

2. Alexander Payne – Sideways (94)

3. Peter Jackson – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (94)

4. Brad Bird – Ratatouille (94)

5. Andrew Stanton – WALL*E (93)

6. Ang Lee – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (93)

7. Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood (92)

8. Coen Brothers – No Country for Old Men (91)

9. Paul Greengrass – United 93 (90)

10. Clint Eastwood – Letters from Iwo Jima (89)

11. Michel Gondry – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (89)

12. Alfonso Cuaron – Y Tu Mama Tambien (88)

13. Spike Lee –When the Levees Broke (88)

14. Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire (86)

15. Martin Scorsese – The Departed (86)

16. Pedro Almodovar – Talk to Her (86)

17. Steven Soderbergh – Traffic (86)

18. Tim Burton – Sweeney Todd (83)

19. Quentin Tarantino – Kill Bill Vol. 2 (83)

20. Spike Jonze – Adaptation (83)