The US film-maker took surrealism mainstream with Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and more. He was also a champion of meditation and excelled at delivering a well-timed gag

​With her latest film, Typist Artist Pirate King,​ on Netflix, it’s a good time to survey the back-catalogue of one of the UK’s most thrilling film-makers, from a jaw-droppingly personal documentary to a misunderstood neo-noir

From vampire noir to Bin Laden, Point Break to Detroit, the first woman to win an Oscar for best director has never pulled her punches

From The Brood to Crash and new film The Shrouds, the Canadian body horror pioneer has outraged the censors and inspired countless directors

As his dazzling debut, Shallow Grave, gets a 30th anniversary rerelease, here’s to an extraordinary career that ranges from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire and that unforgettable London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony

From gritty banlieue drama Girlhood to period piece Portrait of a Lady on Fire and animation My Life As a Courgette, the French director’s films never fail to connect eloquently with us

As A Nightmare on Elm Street turns 40, here’s to the softly spoken American creator of some of cinema’s most memorable scares, from razor-clawed serial killer Freddy Krueger to the sequel-spawning Scream

From his feature debut, Hunger, to his new documentary, Occupied City, the Oscar-winning director and Turner prize winner’s work has been a long, lively conversation between art and film

From Distant Voices, Still Lives to Benediction, the lyrical work of the late director was suffused with the ‘ecstasy’ of cinema – and his fraught Liverpool childhood