FILM DIRECTORS from New Zealand

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary New Zealander Film Directors of all time. This list of famous New Zealander Film Directors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of New Zealander Film Directors.

1. Peter Jackson (b. 1961)

With an HPI of 64.18, Peter Jackson is the most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 85 different languages on wikipedia.

Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), both of which are adapted from the novels of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien. Other notable films include the critically lauded drama Heavenly Creatures (1994), the horror comedy The Frighteners (1996), the epic monster remake film King Kong (2005), the World War I documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and the documentary The Beatles: Get Back (2021). He is the fifth-highest-grossing film director of all-time, his films having made over $6.5 billion worldwide. Jackson began his career with the "splatstick" horror comedy Bad Taste (1987) and the black comedy Meet the Feebles (1989) before filming the zombie comedy Braindead (1992). He shared a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh for Heavenly Creatures, which brought him to mainstream prominence in the film industry. Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. His other awards include three BAFTAs, a Golden Globe, two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Saturn Awards among others. His production company is WingNut Films, and his most regular collaborators are co-writers and producers Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002. He was later knighted (as a Knight Companion of the order) by Sir Anand Satyanand, the Governor-General of New Zealand, at a ceremony in Wellington in April 2010. In December 2014, Jackson was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2. Martin Campbell (b. 1943)

With an HPI of 58.87, Martin Campbell is the 2nd most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Martin Campbell (born 24 October 1943) is a New Zealand film and television director, based in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his works in the action and thriller film genres, including the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006), The Mask of Zorro (1998) and its sequel The Legend of Zorro (2005), Vertical Limit (2000), and The Foreigner (2017). Earlier in his career, he directed the critically-acclaimed BBC drama serial Edge of Darkness (1985), which earned him a British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. He later directed the 2010 theatrical film adaptation of the serial.

3. Jane Campion (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 57.51, Jane Campion is the 3rd most famous New Zealander Film Director.  Her biography has been translated into 50 different languages.

Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she has received two Academy Awards (including Best Director for the latter), two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to film. Campion is a groundbreaking female director, as of 2022 the only woman to be nominated twice for Academy Award for Best Director (winning once), and the first female filmmaker to receive the Palme d'Or (for The Piano, which also won her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay). She made history at the 94th Academy Awards when she won Best Director for The Power of the Dog (2021), as the oldest female director to win and the first woman to win Academy Awards for both directing and screenwriting in her different films. She broke the same barrier at the 78th Venice International Film Festival when she won the Silver Lion award. She is the third woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for Feature Film. Campion is also known for directing the films An Angel at My Table (1990), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Holy Smoke! (1998), and Bright Star (2009). She also co-created the television series Top of the Lake (2013) and received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

4. Andrew Niccol (b. 1964)

With an HPI of 51.98, Andrew Niccol is the 4th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Andrew Niccol (born 10 June 1964) is a New Zealand screenwriter, producer, and director. He wrote and directed Gattaca (1997), Simone (2002), Lord of War (2005), In Time (2011), The Host (2013), and Good Kill (2014). He wrote and co-produced The Truman Show, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won him the BAFTA Award in the same category. His high-concept science fiction films tend to explore social, cultural and political issues; artificial realities, simulations and the male gaze are frequent themes in his work. His film Good Kill was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

5. Fran Walsh (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 47.54, Fran Walsh is the 5th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  Her biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh (born 10 January 1959) is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer. The partner of filmmaker Peter Jackson, Walsh has contributed to all of their films since 1989: as co-writer since Meet the Feebles, and as producer since The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. She has won three Academy Awards for the final film of the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

6. Rupert Julian (1879 - 1943)

With an HPI of 47.50, Rupert Julian is the 6th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Rupert Julian (born Thomas Percival Hayes; 25 January 1879 – 27 December 1943) was a New Zealand cinema actor, director, writer and producer. During his career, Julian directed 60 films and acted in over 90 films. He is best remembered for directing Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). He also directed The Cat Creeps (1930), a sound remake of The Cat and the Canary (1927), which is now considered a lost film, with only two minutes of footage remaining in the 1932 Universal comedy short film Boo!.

7. Lee Tamahori (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 46.53, Lee Tamahori is the 7th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Warren Lee Tamahori (; born 17 June 1950) is a New Zealand film director. His feature directorial debut, Once Were Warriors (1994), was a widespread critical and commercial success, and is considered one of the greatest New Zealand films ever made. Subsequently, he has directed a variety of works both in his native country and in Hollywood, including the survival drama The Edge (1997), the Alex Cross thriller Along Came a Spider (2001), the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002), the political biopic The Devil's Double (2011), and the period drama Mahana (2016). Tamahori won the New Zealand Film Award for Best Director for Once Were Warriors, with a second nomination for Mahana.

8. Andrew Adamson (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 45.43, Andrew Adamson is the 8th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Andrew Ralph Adamson (born 1 December 1966) is a New Zealand film director, producer, screenwriter and animator. He is best known for directing the DreamWorks animated films Shrek (2001) and its sequel Shrek 2 (2004), both based on the book of the same name by William Steig. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Shrek 2. He also directed and co-wrote the live-action film adaptations of C. S. Lewis's novels, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and its sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).

9. Geoff Murphy (1938 - 2018)

With an HPI of 44.43, Geoff Murphy is the 9th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Geoffrey Peter Murphy (12 October 1938 – 3 December 2018) was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, director, and screenwriter best known for his work during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the second half of the 1970s. His second feature Goodbye Pork Pie (1981) was the first New Zealand film to win major commercial success on its soil. Murphy directed several Hollywood features during the 1990s, before returning to New Zealand as second-unit director on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Murphy was also a scriptwriter, special effects technician, schoolteacher and trumpet player at different times. He was married to Merata Mita, a film director, actor, writer.

10. Niki Caro (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 42.32, Niki Caro is the 10th most famous New Zealander Film Director.  Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Nikola Jean Caro (born 20 September 1966) is a New Zealand film, television, and music video director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She directed the 2020 live action version of Disney's Mulan, making her the second female and the second New Zealand director hired by Disney to direct a film budgeted at over $100 million. Caro's works ranged from music videos, commercials, television dramas, and films, etc.