Cuarón and Hitchcock and Scorsese, Oh My! The Greatest Directors Of All-Time

16. Sidney Lumet

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He wasn’t the first to shoot in New York, but more than any director before Woody Allen, Lumet brought an aggressive Noo Yawk sensibility to film. Possibly the most underrated of all the Hollywood directors, Lumet’s array of works constitutes a definite milestone in American cinema history. Lumet was never fancy. He never needed to be, as a master of blocking, economic camera movements and framing that empowered the emotion of a scene.

A few gems from his enviable collection of works include such timeless masterpieces as 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network. His directing career stretched well over 50 years, from theater and live television to embracing digital video with his final film, 2007’s outstanding Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Across that time, Lumet was nominated for five Oscars including four for directing, but astonishingly, never won.