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Curated playlist

Best Director BAFTA Award winners

  • Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
  • Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
  • Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
  • Stanley KubrickAfter copycat crimes and death threats, Stanley Kubrick pulled A Clockwork Orange from release in the United Kingdom.
  • Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan has no smartphone and no email address. He hand-delivers his scripts to the actors he wants.
  • Peter JacksonPeter Jackson saw King Kong at nine, and a few years later tried to remake it with stop-motion models he built himself.
  • Roman PolanskiRoman Polanski survived the Holocaust by pretending to be Catholic. As a boy in Poland, he memorized prayers to hide.
  • Paul Thomas AndersonPaul Thomas Anderson, the American filmmaker known by his initials PTA, earned a C+ on his very first film school assignment. The task at New York University was simple: write a single page of screenplay. Anderson handed in a page from…
  • Guillermo del ToroAt about eight, Guillermo del Toro filmed a serial killer potato with a Super 8 camera. It sought world domination.
  • David FincherDirector David Fincher demanded 99 takes from Rooney Mara for a single scene in The Social Network.
  • Francis Ford CoppolaMarlon Brando won the Godfather role only after a screen test and a reduced fee.
  • Kenneth BranaghKenneth Branagh won an Oscar for a film about the Belfast he fled at age nine. He won Best Original Screenplay in 2022.
  • François TruffautIn 1958 François Truffaut was the only French critic not invited to Cannes. A year later, Cannes gave him Best Director.
  • Akira KurosawaRashomon won Venice's Golden Lion in 1951 after its own studio entered it reluctantly.
  • Ben AffleckBen Affleck directed Argo, and for it he collected the Golden Globe, the Directors Guild Award and the BAFTA for Best Director without ever being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. No director had done that before him. The…

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