10 Most Successful Film Directors In History

If you ask any aspiring filmmaker which director they studied the most in film school, odds are you will hear the name, Akira Kurosawa. Over the course of his 57-year-career, Kurosawa explored filmmaking in ways nobody had ever attempted previously.

Kurosawa was able to break through the international film industry in Japan and become one of the principal influencers to each and every director who followed due to his ability to portray a story in an epic, yet detailed light. His work includes some of the most amazing stories ever put to film.

Movies like the Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Yojimbo told stories unique to Japan, but easily appreciated and beloved by people who had never set foot in the country. As a filmmaker, his unique style and ability to convey imagery on screen was, to put it simply, beautiful.

Kurosawa has been honored time and time again for his contributions to the history of cinema. He won the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990 and was posthumously named "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek Magazine and CNN. His contributions to cinema have been widely recognized as some of the most important and influential in history, which is why he takes the top spot on this list.