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Alexander Payne

American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1961)

6.13body-of-work score · ranked #170 of 2631 directors · 7 films in our library

A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.

Born
February 10, 1961 · Omaha
Nationality
United States, Greece
Work
screenwriter, film director, film producer, writer
Reference
Wikipedia · Wikidata
Portrait of Alexander Payne
Paul Katzenberger · CC BY-SA 4.0

Films in our library, ranked

Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.

  1. 1
    SidewaysMust-See #303

    2004 · United States · comedy, romance, drama

    Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2004 · Sarris's annual top 10 2004 #2

    2.237 citations
  2. 2
    About Schmidt

    2002 · United States · comedy, drama

    Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #5 · Kehr's annual top 10 2002 #2 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies

    0.873 citations
  3. 3
    Election

    1999 · United States

    Kehr's annual top 10 1999 #4 · Sarris's annual top 10 1999 #5 · Empire 500 (2008) #389

    0.865 citations
  4. 4
    The Descendants

    2011 · United States · comedy, drama

    Oscar Best Picture nominee 2011 · Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #15 · Ebert's annual top 10 2011 #13

    0.833 citations
  5. 5
    Nebraska

    2013 · United States · comedy, drama

    Oscar Best Picture nominee 2013 · Film Comment year-end poll 2013 #18

    0.692 citations
  6. 6
    The Holdovers

    2023 · United States · comedy, drama

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2024 #6 · Letterboxd Top 250 #223

    0.552 citations
  7. 7
    Citizen Ruth

    1996 · United States · comedy, drama

    Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies

    0.111 citation

Complete filmography

All 10 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.