5 Minute Guides

The writer-director who defined New York in a very different way to Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen's output ranges from the classic (Annie Hall, Manhattan) to the criminal (er, Whatever Works), but with a fixed routine of one film a year, he's never been id

With such films as All About My Mother, Talk To Her and The Skin I Live In, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has graduated from flamboyant renegade to Oscar-winning king of the European arthouse. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

Oscar-winning director of such works as Last Tango in Paris and The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci has been making films for half a century.

Everything you need to know about British filmmaker Danny Boyle, the director of five Film4 productions, including Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours

Oscar-winning director of such films as The Piano and Bright Star, New Zealand-born Jane Campion remains one of the most significant voices in female cinema. Film4.com rounds up what you need to know.

With such films as Faces and A Woman Under The Influence, John Cassavetes brought a new strain of realism to American film, profoundly influencing independent cinema as we know it today. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

With such films as Lost In Translation and Marie Antoinette, Oscar-winning writer-director Sofia Coppola has established an identity no less distinct than that of her famous dad. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

In such films as Crash and A History Of Violence, David Cronenberg rips open the fragile flesh of 'civilised' society to reveal the primal forces lurking below the surface. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

Even if you haven't seen films like Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan The Terrible, you've seen the vast influence Russian director Sergei Eisenstein had on the very form of filmmaking. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

His filmography ranges from high-wire feats of arthouse genius (Fitzcarraldo) to loony B-movie pastiche (Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans) to wondrous documentaries (Cave Of Forgotten Dreams), but Werner Herzog's eccentricity remains constant thro

The British-born Alfred Hitchcock directed over 50 films, including Psycho, Vertigo and Rear Window. Here's our primer.

Howard Hughes, the 'flying billionaire', lived a life even larger than the movies he produced. Film4.com looks at the turbulent filmmaking career of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic producers.

Director of the Decalogue series and, most famously, the Three Colours trilogy, the late Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieslowski was widely hailed as a modern master even before his premature death. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

Few directors can boast as diverse a collection of great films as Kubrick: there's little binding Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon and The Shining but his own austere mastery. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

He is most famous for his visionary science-fiction film Metropolis, but many credit Austrian-born director Fritz Lang with the invention of Hollywood film noir. Film.4.com lays out what you need to know.

With such blistering films as Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever, Spike Lee changed the way Hollywood interpreted contemporary race relations. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

With such films as Secrets And Lies, Vera Drake and Another Year, Mike Leigh has employed a singular process to unpick the fabric of British society.

Director of such cult classics as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr., David Lynch is as singular and uncompromising an artist as exists in American cinema. Here's what you need to know.

Your cut out and keep guide to Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning artist and writer-director of the critically-acclaimed Hunger and Shame

Decades before Quentin Tarantino hit the scene, Sam Peckinpah was already stoking the debate about violence on screen with such brutal classics as The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

Arguably the foremost American filmmaker of his generation, Martin Scorsese is such seamy New York lowlife studies as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, but his filmography covers everything from costume drama to Hollywood biopic to backstage musical to childre

Director of such films as The Leopard and Death In Venice, Luchino Visconti broke out of the Italian neo-realist school to paint on a far more lavish canvas. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

With such films as Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love and 2046, Wong Kar-Wai has created some of the most intoxicating imagery in contemporary cinema. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.

A powerful actor and the director of such convention-defying classics as Touch Of Evil and Citizen Kane  for many, still the greatest film ever made  Orson Welles was perhaps Hollywood's finest multi-hyphenate. Film4.com lays out what you need to know.