auteur

American  

[oh-tur, oh-tœr] / oʊˈtɜr, oʊˈtœr /

noun

• auteurs
  plural

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

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auteur British  

/ ɔːˈtɜː /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• auteurism
  noun
• auteurist
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• auteurs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of auteur

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

Explanation

If you're an auteur, you make movies that show off your personal style and vision, and you make those movies exactly the way you want: you won’t let any studio executives force you to change the ending. The word auteur came into English from the French word of the same name, meaning literally “author.” If you’re an auteur, you are truly the author of your own movie. Most movies have a lot of different people contributing to the final product, but an auteur insists on having the final say, and hates it when her vision is compromised. The word even has an uppity feel and sound to it. Pronounce it "oh-TUR."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

auteur auteurs

The second-place Silver Lion went to "Possible Love", a poignant relationship study by South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong, which was one of the most highly praised movies of the festival.

From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026

France's Culture Minister Catherine Pegard paid tribute to Altmayer as a "producer with a keen eye, capable of bringing together popular comedy and auteur ambition with the same accuracy".

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

They wanted “Animal House,” and he thought he was entering his auteur period.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

“That’s a blow for all of us who make auteur cinema,” Martel says with a laugh.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026

Relevant here, of course, is Foucault’s famous discussion of the author function: ‘Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur?’

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Mr. Kurosawa, among our most contemporary-minded auteurs, has never been one to venture so far into the past, but here he brings it to vivid and complicated life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Its director Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the greatest auteurs of contemporary US cinema, but has never won any of his 11 previous nominations for films including "There Will Be Blood" and "Boogie Nights."

From Barron's ● Mar. 15, 2026

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 ● Feb. 25, 2026

These are times so surreal that even one of cinema’s most nostalgia-obsessed auteurs felt compelled to return to the present, if only to offer some sympathy.

From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2025

The French ecclesiastical historian Louis Elias Dupin, born in 1657 and descended from a noble family in Normandy, was the author of the illustrious work La Bibliothèque Universelle des auteurs ecclésiastiques.

From Books Fatal to Their Authors by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield