Like many, I love movies. Yet, I remember a gathering that I proclaimed this to a group of friends and another film buff and I got talking about movies and directors. I quickly became embarrassed – although I knew quite a bit about foreign films and their directors, I didn’t know who directed many of my favorite domestic films. Tail between legs, I committed to update my knowledge on domestic films and the directors that I didn’t know I loved. Here are the results – 10 of my favorite domestic directors:

As you see, I’ve tried to justify their selection with ~3 iconic movies (at least in my opinion) by each.

You’ll likely notice the omission of a few very popular and obvious American directors from the above 10. In my mind these include Spielberg (Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan, Color Purple, Schindler’s List, Lincoln, etc.), Scorsese (The Departed, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, etc.), and perhaps Jackson (all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films) or Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Gran Torino). Why? Well, (not a great reason, but most likely,) I admit to wanting to be a bit different, and the above directors are not putting pumping out huge blockbusters all the time and deserve more recognition.