#5 – Sydney Lumet

4 Nominations: 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), The Verdict (1982)

His first Best Director nomination came 51 years ago. Most impressive is that the film he made this year, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, was one of the best of this year, and could have easily earned him a fifth nomination. During the span of his career his films weren’t consistently great, but when he’s good he’s really good.

#4 – Robert Altman

5 Nominations: MASH (1970), Nashville (1976), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Gosford Park (2001)

Robert Altman can direct an ensemble cast better than any director, past or present. More interested in character interaction than the intricacies of complicated plots, it is easy to see why Paul Thomas Anderson chose Altman as his mentor. I would have loved to hear his thoughts on Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. I think it’s not too far off to think he would have been proud.

#3 – David Lynch

3 Nominations: The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Mulholland Drive (2001)

David Lynch directs my kind of movies. His unorthodox style and approach to film narrative is both beautiful and frustrating. The mainstream hasn’t been his most targeted audience. Twin Peaks, no doubt suffered as a TV show due to this very idea. He is yet another great example of quality over quantity. On a personal note, although not his greatest film, Lost Highway is the reason I became a film critic.

#2 – Alfred Hitchcock

5 Nominations: Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), Psycho (1960)

There is a reason he is called the master of suspense. Hitchcock pioneered many, if not all successful techniques used today in the genre. Roger Ebert recently paraphrased Hitchcock’s explanation in a review:

“If people are seated at a table and a bomb explodes, that is surprise. If they are seated at a table, and you know there's a bomb under the table attached to a ticking clock, but they continue to play cards -- that's suspense.”

Hitchcock captured this better than any other director in history.

#1 – Stanley Kubrick

4 Nominations: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975)

Known for his perfectionist methodology, it should be no surprise that he only made 12 major films. But within those films he rarely repeated genres. Science fiction, period pieces, war dramas, or dark comedies, it didn’t matter. If you only plan on making a handful of films as long as they are all classics, who needs volume? If Hitchcock perfected one genre, Kubrick surpasses him because he perfected them all.