42. Andrea Arnold (1961 - )
The first of three ladies to represent on the list, Andrea Arnold has had a recent surge in her career that is boosting her filmmaking ratings pretty nicely. Starting off her career with an Oscar win for her short movie Wasp, a story based in Arnold's hometown of Dryden about a struggling single mother, the filmmaker recently rose to success with her film Fish Tank which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009 and won the Jury Prize. Her films focus on the growth and development of people, relentlessly showing what's in the kit that paints their psychological make up. In her own words, she is
"obsessed with why people turn out the way they do" and so even when tackling a literary juggernaut in Wuthering Heights, she makes bold decisions in attempting to focus on the inner conflicts of her protagonists.
Must see: Fish Tank (2009)
41. Zoltan Korda (1895 - 1961)
Younger brother to Alexander, whom we shall see a little later on, Hungarian-born Zoltan was in the calvary in Hungary before moving to London and working with his brother on films. Though not as popular, and not making films nearly as good, Zoltan had a certain flair for the theatrics which was translated onto the screen in exhilarating fashion. His films would do well to be presented and used as guides in history lessons that concern the British Empire, as they focused on the relationships between the indigenous people that fell under British rule. Perhaps he will be most known for his string of films with pop-culture sensation Sabu, an Indian actor who became very popular after appearing as the protagonist in Korda's Elephant Boy and Jungle Book. Such a popular cinematic staple in fact, that Criterion released an Eclipse series affectionately called Sabu!
Must See: The Four Feathers (1939)
40. Neil Jordan (1950 - )
Neil Jordan almost didn't make the list because of a few striking blemishes in an overall nicely polished filmmaking career. So, trying to forget some recent pictures like The Brave One with an ass-kicking Jodie Foster or the Annette Benning unthrilling thriller In Dreams, we would be unwise to forget the movies Jordan did direct which are worthy of propelling his name into the list here. Namely, 1992's The Crying Game which got him a screenplay Oscar and made everyone perpetually afraid of Stephen Rea, but also The Good Thief highlighting one of Nick Nolte's career-best performances and adapting Graham Greene's The End of the Affair that was unfairly dismissed by the critics. His most recent film, Byzantium, sees him riding the ever-popular vampire wave and using it to tell a unique story about a mother and a daughter. The Brits should be glad to have Neil Jordan on their side.
Must See: The Crying Game (1992)