Ranking
Directors guests reach for
Counted as visits, not films. Taking the Bergman box set endorses Bergman once, the same as taking one Bergman film. Counting the 39 films inside that set would rank Criterion's packaging rather than anyone's taste.
What the boxes do to the ranking
The same directors under the three counts this site keeps apart, all of them in visits so a box set of thirty-nine cannot outweigh a taste. Every line can only climb, because a visit that took a film on its own also reached it. The question the chart answers is who climbs, and from how far down.
Top 30 by visits reached · directors with at least 3 films in the collection
Table view
| Director | Took a film of theirs on its own | Took them at all, sets credited | Walked out with one, boxes opened | Rank, first lens | Rank, last lens | Reach via a set |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federico Fellini | 43 | 56 | 56 | 1 | 1 | 23% |
| John Cassavetes | 27 | 55 | 55 | 14 | 2 | 51% |
| Ingmar Bergman | 27 | 48 | 48 | 14 | 3 | 44% |
| Akira Kurosawa | 41 | 46 | 46 | 2 | 4 | 11% |
| David Lynch | 38 | 38 | 38 | 3 | 5 | 0% |
| Martin Scorsese | 38 | 38 | 38 | 3 | 5 | 0% |
| Spike Lee | 32 | 32 | 32 | 5 | 7 | 0% |
| Michael Powell | 31 | 31 | 31 | 6 | 8 | 0% |
| Jim Jarmusch | 30 | 30 | 30 | 7 | 9 | 0% |
| Pier Paolo Pasolini | 13 | 30 | 30 | 54 | 9 | 57% |
| Emeric Pressburger | 29 | 29 | 29 | 8 | 11 | 0% |
| Jean-Luc Godard | 29 | 29 | 29 | 8 | 11 | 0% |
| Yasujiro Ozu | 23 | 29 | 29 | 20 | 11 | 21% |
| Andrei Tarkovsky | 28 | 28 | 28 | 10 | 14 | 0% |
| Michelangelo Antonioni | 28 | 28 | 28 | 10 | 14 | 0% |
| Mike Leigh | 28 | 28 | 28 | 10 | 14 | 0% |
| Stanley Kubrick | 28 | 28 | 28 | 10 | 14 | 0% |
| Robert Altman | 25 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 18 | 0% |
| Robert Bresson | 25 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 18 | 0% |
| Wes Anderson | 20 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 18 | 20% |
| Wim Wenders | 22 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 18 | 12% |
| Agnès Varda | 1 | 24 | 24 | 137 | 22 | 96% |
| François Truffaut | 24 | 24 | 24 | 18 | 22 | 0% |
| Hal Ashby | 24 | 24 | 24 | 18 | 22 | 0% |
| Krzysztof Kieślowski | 17 | 23 | 23 | 34 | 25 | 26% |
| Abbas Kiarostami | 15 | 22 | 22 | 44 | 26 | 32% |
| David Cronenberg | 22 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 26 | 0% |
| Charles Chaplin | 21 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 28 | 0% |
| Luis Buñuel | 14 | 21 | 21 | 47 | 28 | 33% |
| Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 18 | 21 | 21 | 31 | 28 | 14% |
The third column does not move a single one of these 30 lines, and that is the most reassuring thing on the chart. Crediting a box set only to the directors who made at least 33% of it costs nothing at the top of the ranking: everyone here was already reached by exactly the visits that chose them. The rule only ever decides cases like Charles Kiselyak, who made one making-of inside the Cassavetes set and would otherwise outrank Godard on it. All three count visits, never films, so a box set of thirty-nine cannot outweigh a taste. The middle lens credits a box set only to the directors who made at least a third of it, which is why a director can be reached by many visits and chosen by none.
Furthest climb between the first count and the last
These are the directors the collection reaches for almost entirely through box sets. Agnès Varda has been taken as a single film once and walked out of the room 24 times. Jacques Tati and Eric Rohmer have never been chosen as a single film at all, which is what a films-only count would report as never being chosen.
| Director | Took a film on its own | Walked out with one | Rank, first count | Rank, last count | Places climbed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agnès Varda | 1 | 24 | 137 | 22 | 115 |
| Jacques Tati | 0 | 18 | 149 | 41 | 108 |
| Eric Rohmer | 0 | 12 | 149 | 67 | 82 |
| Lo Wei | 0 | 12 | 149 | 67 | 82 |
| Roberto Rossellini | 0 | 12 | 149 | 67 | 82 |
| Melvin Van Peebles | 0 | 11 | 149 | 76 | 73 |
| Jackie Chan | 0 | 9 | 149 | 84 | 65 |
| Ishiro Honda | 0 | 8 | 149 | 91 | 58 |
| Jun Fukuda | 0 | 8 | 149 | 91 | 58 |
| Chantal Akerman | 1 | 9 | 137 | 84 | 53 |
Every director
| Director | Visits | Visits | Films reached | In collection | Reach | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Federico Fellini | 56 | 14 | 14 | 100% | |
| 2 | John Cassavetes | 55 | 7 | 7 | 100% | |
| 3 | Ingmar Bergman | 48 | 41 | 41 | 100% | |
| 4 | Akira Kurosawa | 46 | 17 | 27 | 63% | |
| 5 | Martin Scorsese | 38 | 8 | 11 | 73% | |
| 6 | David Lynch | 38 | 7 | 8 | 88% | |
| 7 | Spike Lee | 32 | 3 | 4 | 75% | |
| 8 | Michael Powell | 31 | 9 | 11 | 82% | |
| 9 | Pier Paolo Pasolini | 30 | 13 | 13 | 100% | |
| 10 | Jim Jarmusch | 30 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 11 | Jean-Luc Godard | 29 | 14 | 15 | 93% | |
| 12 | Yasujiro Ozu | 29 | 11 | 21 | 52% | |
| 13 | Emeric Pressburger | 29 | 7 | 8 | 88% | |
| 14 | Stanley Kubrick | 28 | 6 | 12 | 50% | |
| 15 | Andrei Tarkovsky | 28 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 16 | Michelangelo Antonioni | 28 | 5 | 7 | 71% | |
| 17 | Mike Leigh | 28 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 18 | Wes Anderson | 25 | 10 | 10 | 100% | |
| 19 | Wim Wenders | 25 | 10 | 12 | 83% | |
| 20 | Robert Altman | 25 | 6 | 7 | 86% | |
| 21 | Robert Bresson | 25 | 5 | 7 | 71% | |
| 22 | Agnès Varda | 24 | 22 | 22 | 100% | |
| 23 | François Truffaut | 24 | 4 | 9 | 44% | |
| 24 | Hal Ashby | 24 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 25 | Krzysztof Kieślowski | 23 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 26 | Abbas Kiarostami | 22 | 8 | 26 | 31% | |
| 27 | David Cronenberg | 22 | 5 | 8 | 63% | |
| 28 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 21 | 9 | 16 | 56% | |
| 29 | Charles Chaplin | 21 | 8 | 9 | 89% | |
| 30 | Luis Buñuel | 21 | 8 | 10 | 80% | |
| 31 | Richard Linklater | 21 | 6 | 7 | 86% | |
| 32 | Louis Malle | 20 | 14 | 17 | 82% | |
| 33 | David Lean | 20 | 8 | 8 | 100% | |
| 34 | Gus Van Sant | 20 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 35 | Joel Coen | 20 | 4 | 5 | 80% | |
| 36 | Alfred Hitchcock | 19 | 6 | 8 | 75% | |
| 37 | Howard Hawks | 19 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 38 | Vittorio De Sica | 19 | 4 | 6 | 67% | |
| 39 | Alfonso Cuarón | 19 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 40 | Jacques Tati | 18 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 41 | Michael Haneke | 18 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 42 | Terry Gilliam | 18 | 5 | 6 | 83% | |
| 43 | Alex Cox | 18 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 44 | Roman Polanski | 17 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 45 | Terrence Malick | 17 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 46 | Albert Brooks | 17 | 3 | 4 | 75% | |
| 47 | Albert Maysles | 17 | 3 | 4 | 75% | |
| 48 | David Maysles | 17 | 3 | 4 | 75% | |
| 49 | Edward Yang | 17 | 3 | 5 | 60% | |
| 50 | D. A. Pennebaker | 16 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 51 | Orson Welles | 16 | 6 | 8 | 75% | |
| 52 | Sidney Lumet | 16 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 53 | Billy Wilder | 16 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 54 | Ernst Lubitsch | 15 | 8 | 9 | 89% | |
| 55 | Samuel Fuller | 15 | 8 | 8 | 100% | |
| 56 | Wong Kar Wai | 15 | 7 | 7 | 100% | |
| 57 | John Waters | 15 | 4 | 6 | 67% | |
| 58 | Satyajit Ray | 14 | 8 | 12 | 67% | |
| 59 | Jean-Pierre Melville | 14 | 5 | 9 | 56% | |
| 60 | Nicolas Roeg | 14 | 5 | 6 | 83% | |
| 61 | Jane Campion | 14 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 62 | John Schlesinger | 14 | 2 | 3 | 67% | |
| 63 | Henri-Georges Clouzot | 13 | 4 | 5 | 80% | |
| 64 | Miloš Forman | 13 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 65 | Claire Denis | 13 | 2 | 3 | 67% | |
| 66 | Eric Rohmer | 12 | 10 | 10 | 100% | |
| 67 | Roberto Rossellini | 12 | 9 | 12 | 75% | |
| 68 | Jean Renoir | 12 | 6 | 12 | 50% | |
| 69 | Bob Rafelson | 12 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 70 | John Ford | 12 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 71 | Pedro Almodóvar | 12 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 72 | Stephen Frears | 12 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 73 | Steven Soderbergh | 12 | 3 | 7 | 43% | |
| 74 | Carl Th. Dreyer | 11 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 75 | Melvin Van Peebles | 11 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 76 | Les Blank | 11 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 77 | Luchino Visconti | 11 | 3 | 5 | 60% | |
| 78 | Peter Bogdanovich | 11 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 79 | Aki Kaurismäki | 10 | 9 | 9 | 100% | |
| 80 | Ousmane Sembène | 10 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 81 | Bong Joon Ho | 10 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 82 | Jonathan Demme | 10 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 83 | Chantal Akerman | 9 | 9 | 9 | 100% | |
| 84 | Guillermo del Toro | 9 | 5 | 7 | 71% | |
| 85 | Lars von Trier | 9 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 86 | Jackie Chan | 9 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 87 | Chris Hegedus | 9 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 88 | Ermanno Olmi | 9 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 89 | Lo Wei | 9 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 90 | Preston Sturges | 9 | 2 | 4 | 50% | |
| 91 | Ishiro Honda | 8 | 7 | 7 | 100% | |
| 92 | Jacques Demy | 8 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 93 | Jun Fukuda | 8 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 94 | Fritz Lang | 8 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 95 | Noah Baumbach | 8 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 96 | Godfrey Reggio | 8 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 97 | Mikhail Kalatozov | 8 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 98 | Terry Zwigoff | 8 | 2 | 3 | 67% | |
| 99 | Josef von Sternberg | 7 | 9 | 9 | 100% | |
| 100 | Masaki Kobayashi | 7 | 7 | 8 | 88% | |
| 101 | Kon Ichikawa | 7 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 102 | Jules Dassin | 7 | 4 | 5 | 80% | |
| 103 | Kenji Mizoguchi | 7 | 4 | 9 | 44% | |
| 104 | Brian De Palma | 7 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 105 | Carol Reed | 7 | 2 | 4 | 50% | |
| 106 | Leo McCarey | 7 | 2 | 3 | 67% | |
| 107 | Nicholas Ray | 7 | 2 | 3 | 67% | |
| 108 | Max Ophuls | 6 | 4 | 4 | 100% | |
| 109 | Douglas Sirk | 6 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 110 | Kaneto Shindo | 6 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 111 | Monte Hellman | 6 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 112 | Seijun Suzuki | 6 | 3 | 7 | 43% | |
| 113 | Whit Stillman | 6 | 3 | 3 | 100% | |
| 114 | Hiroshi Teshigahara | 6 | 2 | 4 | 50% | |
| 115 | Volker Schlöndorff | 6 | 2 | 5 | 40% | |
| 116 | Marlon Riggs | 5 | 7 | 7 | 100% | |
| 117 | Nagisa Oshima | 5 | 7 | 10 | 70% | |
| 118 | Steve McQueen | 5 | 6 | 6 | 100% | |
| 119 | Allan King | 5 | 5 | 5 | 100% | |
| 120 | Budd Boetticher | 5 | 5 | 5 | 100% |
Reach is the share of a director's Criterion shelf that someone has taken at least once. Directors with fewer than 2 visits are left out of this ranking, as are those with fewer than 3 films in the collection. All 707 credited directors have a page of their own, whether or not they are ranked here.