I guess the best/greatest of this era of filmmaking would be Paul Thomas Anderson, right? While I appreciate his work greatly, I can’t say I really enjoy his movies, which I guess by an Auteur’s standards isn’t of much significance.
My favorite, I think, has been David O. Russell over the last couple decades, but I can’t recall being over the moon by one of his works since I (Heart) Huckabees. Three Kings is among my Top 10 All Time.
Auteur defined by Wikipedia: here.
Oh, Jeez, can a Mod please fix the title? I don’t want to look like the boob that I am.
I wouldn’t make an argument for greatest, but the identifiable auteurs that I have most consistently enjoyed are probably the Coen brothers. There are only a couple of their films I don’t much care for.
The most auteurish auteur I can think of in the modern generation might be Wes Anderson, who certainly has a highly identifiable style. But he is very, very hit or miss for me. Some films of his I really like, some I’m rather indifferent to, some bore the snot out of me.
I guess I give Coen brothers the title for the late 20th century. Since then… well I’m not sure, have to think about this for a while.
What do you mean by “this era”? I have several director/writers to mention, but I don’t know whether you consider them to be of this era, although they are all still working. Define the period you mean.
I certainly can agree on the Coen brothers and maybe on Anderson but what about someone who might not seem quite as auteurish but has a much wider range and longevity and in my humble opinion has surpassed one of his idols- Fellini. I’m talking about Woody Allen who even with his creation a character may be compared with Chaplin in 50 or 100 yrs.
Martin McDonagh has only made two movies, but both are amazing and he is the driving force and creator for both.
In Bruges
Seven Psychopaths
If he continues on this path, he is one of the greats.
First to spring to mind is Quentin Tarantino. His authorial stamp is so clearly all over all of his movies.
Steven Soderburgh. He is the Mozart of working directors: he can step into any genre and create an example that crushes 99% of the directors who specialize in that genre.
Tarantino is more like Beethoven - over the top bombastic with layers of nuance if you take the time to look for it.
My FAVOURITE is Tarantino. Soderberg may be better though.
We finally got around to seeing “Captain Phillips” today and I continue to be amazed by the skill of Paul Greengrass, whose movies really are quite distinctive and unique.
Michael Bay! It’s quantifiable! 
No, really, I have a soft spot for Michael Mann, but I don’t have a dog in this fight.
They’re not necessarily my favorite movies, but David Lynch is probably the most successful at bringing something to his films that transcends a script, actors, and camera.
The Coens could probably hand their scripts to someone else and you’d get something of similar quality as they directed. That’s the same with Tarantino. Wes Anderson, you could probably hand his scripts to Edgar Wright and you’d get a better film than he makes.
I like Michael Mann, but he’s not particularly wide in his interests or styling.
I’d actually say that Robert Rodriguez is pretty identifiable, when you watch his films, and he has done a number of styles (e.g., Spy Kids vs. Sin City), but I’d never say that there’s deeper levels hiding underneath the hood, when you go to one of his flicks.
Soderberg is interesting. He’s good at many things and experiments constantly, but there’s little to identify any of his films as a Soderberg film other than his name in the title sequence, and so far none of them have been great. I would like to think that he’s training to do something amazing one day, but I suspect that he’s just an ADHD chameleon.
David Fincher started very strong, then started making any other film that any other person could have made. Gone Girl hinted at a possible return, but I guess we’ll see. Unfortunately, like Michael Mann, it seems like he might be and stay pretty narrow in his focus.
I think Ridley Scott’s brain has finally died, so I don’t think it’s worth counting him as being of “this era”.
Satoshi Kon was pretty good, and died recently enough that we could possibly consider him, but again I’d put most of his greatness to his scripts rather than his directing.
But that does bring us to Darren Aronofsky. I think his Black Swan is an even competitor with Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue, but The Fountain was drivel, The Wrestler good but a bit trite, and Noah was sort of stupid. I’d have to put him under the heading of “cinematographer w/ a taste for artsy-woo” rather than auteur.
I’m going to go with Terry Gilliam.
Does Tarantino count though? He actually was the author of the screenplays he shot. Same observation for Whedon.
Ridley Scott
I knew I was missing some people in my post. I’d put Gilliam in second after David Lynch. I think he also (often) accomplishes something greater than the screenplay. But he has more duds than Lynch.
Though, personally, I like Gilliam’s better films better than I like Lynch’s. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is my favorite film.
Quite a few of the people mentioned so far are among my favorites, including the Coen brothers and Terry Gilliam.
I think someone who definitely deserves to be in the conversation is John Sayles, although if we’re going to exclude film-makers who write their own screenplays, as suggested by silenus, then quite a few of Sayles’ movies would have to be left out. Same with the Coen brothers, for that matter.
Gilliam and the Coen brothers get my vote. I also like Robert Rodriguez.
But Gilliam is maybe not really “this era”. For that I’d be looking at filmmakers who have emerged in the last 10-20 years.
I agree with all of the above, especially Tarantin and the Coens, and will add Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese.
The best? To me that’s like asking which is the best country - how do you define ‘best’? Box Office, critics’ ratings, highest average rating on IMDB?
I often think about this actually. Today, for example, we still talk about Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Lang, Jules Verne, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, etc from a hundred years ago, others from 200, still others from 1000, and so on. In a hundred years, who will they talk about from today?
Right now, the easy answer is Christopher Nolan and James Cameron in film, Frank Miller in comics, Jk Rowling in novels…others, I don’t know. Music is a big one for me. 10 years ago, it would have been easy to choose Michael Jackson, but today, I’m not sure. For acting, I think Meryl Streep is probably the best actress/actor alive today, but she hasn’t really had a signature role.
However, those above are technically brilliant, with their achievements easily identified. It’s difficult to say who would be judged artistically brilliant in the future.