auteur

American

[oh-tur, oh-tœr] / oʊˈtɜr, oʊˈtœr /

noun

plural

auteurs

a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production give a film its personal and unique stamp.

auteur British

/ ɔːˈtɜː /

noun

a director whose creative influence on a film is so great as to be considered its author

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

auteurism noun
auteurist adjective

Etymology

Origin of auteur

1960–65; < French: literally, author, originator < Latin auctor. See author

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"Enough people among my colleagues voted and said: 'You did a good job as director,' and that means a lot," said the 52-year-old Danish-Norwegian auteur filmmaker.

From Barron's

European auteurs, such as Thomas Ostermeier and Ivo van Hove have had great success burning through the texts to reveal the visceral clashes of characters whose souls are on the line along with their ideologies.

From Los Angeles Times

This does not mean he isn’t still a reliable viewership magnet; he’s one of the few auteurs whose work commands conversation regardless of its quality.

From Salon

Yet despite the struggles of its parent company Warner Bros Discovery, the storied movie studio has enjoyed a banner year, bucking Tinseltown's obsession with sequels and backing original fare from auteur filmmakers.

From Barron's

Their cultural blinders were imposed on an entire nation, which is why it was so difficult for Latin music, auteur cinema and rap to force their way into the mainstream.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023