A new study has revealed Richard Linklater to apparently be the greatest director of the last 25 years, closely followed by Mike Leigh and Jafar Panahi.

Quartz analysed data from Metacritic, the film reviews aggregation website, using the website’s scores out of 100 to judge who the top directors are.

The publication looked at every director who has released over six films in the last 25 years (sorry, Damien Chazelle), and worked out the average score for their top six films.

Linklater claimed the top spot with an average 88.5 score for his top six films, which included the perfect scoring Boyhood, Before Midnight, Before Sunset, 2016 hit Everybody Wants Some!!, The School of Rock and Waking Life. Notable omissions include Dazed and Confused and Before Sunrise.

Films to get excited about in 2017 Show all 13 1 /13 Films to get excited about in 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director: Rian Johnson Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong'o Plot: No details yet, but it will continue directly on from Rey coming face-to-face with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. Release Date: 15 December 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Thor: Ragnarok Director: Taika Waititi Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo Plot: Story details are minimal as of now, but Thor's third return to screen has already been teased to feature a loose adaptation of the famous 'Planet Hulk' storyline. Release Date: 27 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 You Were Never Really Here Director: Lynne Ramsay Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola Plot: A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Annihilation Director: Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A biologist's husband disappears. She thus puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Wonderstruck (image from Far From Heaven) Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves Plot: The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Mother (image of Darren Aronofsky) Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, and Ed Harris Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (image from The Lobster) Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone Plot: A surgeon forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Blade Runner 2049 Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto Plot: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years. Release Date: 6 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Lady Bird (image of director Greta Gerwig) Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Lucas Hedges Plot: The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (image of director Steven Spielberg and star Mark Rylance) Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Mark Rylance, Oscar Isaac Plot: The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara recounts the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858 who, having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents' struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that pits the Papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties Director: John Cameron Mitchell Cast: Elle Fanning, Ruth Wilson, and Nicole Kidman Plot: An alien touring the galaxy breaks away from her group and meets two young inhabitants of the most dangerous place in the universe: the London suburb of Croydon. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Dark Tower Director: Nikolaj Arcel Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor Plot: Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world. Release Date: 28 July 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Suburbicon Director: George Clooney Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Josh Brolin, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A crime mystery set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, where the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal. Release Date: 24 November

Other directors who appear in the top 100 list include The Coen Brothers (84.7), Steven Spielberg (82.3) and Martin Scorsese (81.7). Due to the nature of Metacritics, which includes primarily America critics, the list segues more towards American directors.

Startlingly, only six women feature on the list: Claire Denis, Susanne Bier, Liz Garbus, Anne Fontaine, Lone Scherfig, and Catherine Breillat. Further proof Hollywood is still a predominantly boys-only club. You can read the whole list, compiled by Quartz below.

1 Richard Linklater 88.5

2 Mike Leigh 85.7

3 Jafar Panahi 85.5

4 Jean-Pierre Dardenne 85.2

5 The Coen Brothers 84.7

6 Hirokazu Koreeda 83.2

7 Steven Spielberg 82.3

8 Martin Scorsese 81.7

9 Pedro Almodavar 81.5

10 Werner Herzog 81.5

11 Paul Thomas Anderson 80.8

12 Michael Haneke 80.5

13 Clint Eastwood 80.3

14 Steven Soderbergh 80.3

15 Olivier Assayas 80.0

16 Peter Jackson 80.0

17 David O. Russell 79.8

18 Spike Lee 79.2

19 Quentin Tarantino 78.8

20 Michael Winterbottom 78.5

21 Alex Gibney 78.3

22 Stephen Frears 78.3

23 Yimou Zhang 78.2

24 Jia Zhangke 78.2

25 Noah Baumbach 77.8

26 Ridley Scott 77.8

27 Christopher Nolan 77.7

28 Jonathan Demme 77.7

29 Wes Anderson 77.5

30 Guillermo del Toro 77.0

31 Ang Lee 76.8

32 Danny Boyle 76.8

33 David Fincher 76.5

34 David Cronenberg 76.2

35 Kevin Macdonald 76.2

36 Errol Morris 76.0

37 Kar-Wai Wong 75.5

38 Jim Jarmusch 75.3

39 Paul Greengrass 75.3

40 Robert Altman 74.7

41 Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu 74.5

42 Ron Howard 74.2

43 Andre Techine 74.0

44 Denis Villeneuve 74.0

45 Francois Ozon 73.8

46 Ken Loach 73.8

47 Woody Allen 73.3

48 Fatih Akin 73.2

49 Catherine Breillat 72.8

50 Claire Denis 72.5

51 Roger Michell 72.5

52 Bruno Dumont 72.3

53 Nicolas Winding Refn 72.0

54 Tim Burton 72.0

55 Claude Chabrol 71.8

56 David Gordon Green 71.8

57 Michel Gondry 71.8

58 Roman Polanski 71.8

59 Chan-wook Park 71.7

60 Ki-duk Kim 71.5

61 Kirby Dick 71.5

62 Michael Apted 71.0

63 Robert Zemeckis 70.7

64 Michael Mann 70.5

65 Terrence Malick 70.0

66 Darren Aronofsky 69.8

67 David Mamet 69.8

68 Susanne Bier 69.8

69 Kiyoshi Kurosawa 69.7

70 Liz Garbus 69.7

71 Todd Solondz 69.7

72 Jon Favreau 69.5

73 Sam Raimi 69.3

74 Neil Jordan 69.0

75 John Madden 68.7

76 Johnnie To 68.7

77 Lars von Trier 68.7

78 Bryan Singer 68.5

79 David Yates 68.5

80 James Mangold 68.5

81 Michael Almereyda 68.3

82 Shane Meadows 68.3

83 Jean-Pierre Jeunet 68.2

84 Raymond De Felitta 67.8

85 Ben Wheatley 67.7

86 Doug Liman 67.7

87 Walter Salles 67.7

88 Ulrich Seidl 67.5

89 Carl Franklin 67.3

90 David Mackenzie 67.3

91 Alastair Fothergill 66.8

92 Anne Fontaine 66.7

93 Lone Scherfig 66.5

94 Sam Mendes 66.3

95 Bill Condon 66.2

96 Jason Reitman 66.0

97 Mike Newell 65.8

98 Patrice Leconte 65.8

99 Curtis Hanson 65.7