Widely acclaimed as the 'Master of Suspense,' Alfred Hitchcock claims the top spot with good reason. Over a career spanning five decades, he directed more than 50 feature films. Interestingly, while his film Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Hitchcock himself never won the Oscar for Best Director, making him perhaps the most famous snub in cinema history. However, his technical influence transcends mere awards: he pioneered the narrative device known as the 'MacGuffin' and revolutionized editing paradigms with the iconic shower scene in Psycho. Compared to his contemporaries, Hitchcock’s mastery of psychological terror and audience manipulation remains the most cited case study in film school curricula, with a precision of visual language that makes many modern blockbuster spectacles look rudimentary by comparison.